Scalar

About Scalar

Scalar is a free, open source multimedia digital publishing platform. Scalar makes it easy “for authors to write long-form, born-digital scholarship online”. It is sponsored by The Alliance for Networking Visual Culture.

Scalar allows you to take advantage of the Internet to create a multimedia project including essays and book-length works.

Creating a Scalar Account

Go to https://scalar.usc.edu/works/ and register for a free account. Note: If you did not receive a registration key from your workshop facilitator, you will need to request a registration key by filling out the form.

Getting Started

Click on the Dashboard to start creating your book!
Click on My Account. Under My Books, add the title of your new book and select Create New Book. Your new book will appear under my Books.
Select the book you would like to edit from your drop-down menu. Under Book Properties, you can add or change basic information (e.g. title and author), style and publisher information.

Collaborate and Add Users

You can add users to your book project so you can collaborate. Collaborators need to have their own Scalar account. Once they are registered, add them by selecting Book Users, and selecting Add user and searching for their name.

Privacy

Please be aware that Scalar stores its data in the United States. If you are asking students to create books using Scalar, students should be made aware of this and given the option to make their work anonymous or to sign up without using personally identifying information. For more information on UBC privacy facts, read the Privacy Fact Sheet on Collecting Personal Information.

Remember, students at UBC own their intellectual property so they have the right to refuse openly licensing their work. It’s necessary to communicate the risks and value of working in the open and/or public with your students. Librarians can help you with that!

When you create a book in Scalar, it is automatically set to private. You can make your Scalar book public by selecting the Sharing tab in the Dashboard. Under Availability, and next to Make URL public? select the option from the drop down menu.

Accessibility

Accessibility is important. There are steps you can take to make sure you are making the exhibit as accessible as possible. For example, if you are uploading multimedia content such as videos or sound clips, make sure you have included a transcription. When uploading images to websites, you should include alt-text. Alt-text provides a description of an image that can be read by a screen reader.

Building a Book with Scalar

Scalar projects are composed of three main units: Media, Pages, and Paths.

Media can include videos, images, or documents. Each piece of media has its own URL. Media can be displayed by adding them to your pages.

Pages are where you build your content. You can add text, multimedia, and add annotations.

Paths connect the pages of your book. They allow you to create a network of connections within your book (i.e. your book does not need to follow a linear path).

Scalar automatically makes your project private. If you would like to create an accessible URL without a login (and thus crawlable by search engines), set Make URL public? to Yes. To make your book accessible in Scalar’s Index page, set Display in Scalar indexes? to Yes.

You can also allow others to duplicate your book. Under the Sharing tab, set Duplicability to Yes.

Exporting Your Scalar Project

The content of your book project can be backed up and exported as a RDF-JSON file under the Sharing tab.

Knight Lab

Northwestern University Knight Lab “develops prototypes, projects and services that help make information meaningful and promote quality journalism, storytelling and content on the internet” (Projects, Knight Lab). Knight Lab produces free, open source storytelling tools such as StoryMaps, Timeline, Juxtapose, etc.

StorymapJS

StoryMapJS is a visual tool that helps you tell a story using visuals and maps.

Getting Started with StorymapsJS

To get started, go to https://storymap.knightlab.com/#overview and select the large green button that says Make a StoryMap. You will be prompted to sign in using your Google account.

To create a new map, select the green New button, and then create a title for your StoryMap (don’t worry, you can edit it after).

How to Build a StoryMap

StoryMaps are created using Slides. You can add additional slides by using the pane on the left hand side of the screen.

On each slide, you can add a Title, Text, and Media.

TimelineJS

TimelineJS is an open-source tool that enables anyone to build visually rich, interactive timelines.

How to Build a Timeline

In order to make a timeline, you’ll need to create a spreadsheet using the template provided by KnightLab. Follow the directions on the Knight Lab website http://timeline.knightlab.com/.

Both the timelines and storymaps created in Knight Lab can be shared publicly either by using a URL or the embed code.

Finding Primary Sources

Many museums, galleries, archives, and libraries have made some or all of their collections open access. If you’re looking for openly licensed primary sources or sources in the public domain to use in your digital projects, here is a list to help get you started.

Make sure to check the individual license of the image that you want to use and include a citation or attribution for the image in your work.