Digital Objects and Tools

Libraries have increasingly digitized their holdings and made them available online. Coupled with the vast amounts of digital resources produced by mass media, access to digital media on the Internet is at unprecedented levels. However, users are still grappling with ways to use and integrate media into current practices. While bookmarking, downloading, and printing allows users to re-access digital objects, a central focus of MATRIX's research program focuses on ways for users to interact with online media, as well as integrate digital resources into their own publications.

MATRIX has recently released a beta version of Media Matrix (patent pending) - an online tool that allows users to find, segment, annotate and organize streaming media found on the Internet. Media Matrix is a server side application that works within web browsers, using the browser's bookmark feature. When users find a digital object at a digital library or while surfing the Internet, they simply click the Media Matrix bookmark and it searches through the page, finds the digital media, and loads it into an editor. The users can then isolate any portion of a whole video or audio clip and segment it, resize and crop images, save text, and add their own annotations to that media. This information is submitted through Media Matrix and stored on a personal portal page. This page retains individuals' annotations, provides direct links to the segmented portions of the streaming media that was segmented, and offers templates to create multimedia presentations. Using Media Matrix, teachers can collect and present media for the classroom, students can integrate media into their assignments, and scholars can perform the kinds of tasks performed in traditional libraries with analog objects (gather resources, take notes, publish findings). The usage patterns for the raw materials from the digital library are beginning to deepen the digital library metadata and will provide new corpora to research use, environments, training methods, and best practices.