Voice of the Shuttle

Voice of the Shuttle (VoS) is arguably the most comprehensive humanities site on the web. It was begun in 1994 as a suite of static Web pages. VoS has since been rebuilt as a database that serves content dynamically on the Web.

Collection Principles
VoS was created by Alan Liu of the University of California, Santa Barbara, English Department with a team of graduate students, IT integrated database design and networking specialists and graphic designers. VoS is still evolving. In a plan for a later implementation phase, a system of user accounts with differing levels of access will be put in place. The goal is to have VoS function as an open platform serving the needs of both general and specific communities of users with contributions subject to editorial review by Alan Liu and VoS editorial assistants.

Characteristics and Metadata
The site is structured based on the way the Humanities at UC Santa Barbara are organized for research and teaching. Currently there are still some mis-orderings of categories and author names due to the migration to the dynamic Web database. Even with the legacy data issues, the site is easily navigable. To foster usability, VoS provides extensive help for the user to understand how to best utilize the site. The help page offers information on navigation, search strategies, how to contribute to VoS, and technical specifications regarding the site.

The user can search the entire database through a keyword field or the user can browse by category. Browsing by a category, such as cyberculture, opens a page with hierarchically organized links and subcategories. On the right hand side of the screen is a list of subcategories which, when clicked, will open its own VoS page. The links lead to a wide range of informational sources including but not limited to articles, videos, databases, blogs and other digital intiatives. In addition to webpages on humanities subjects, there are also VoS pages focused on resources such as journals, zines, reference materials, listservs and newsgroups. These resources incorporate professional and research related social networking sites and electronic publication into VoS.

Audience
VoS is quite a remarkable site. The resources it weaves together into one location are amazing. After the initial period of adjustment to familiarize myself with the organization of the site, I was especially impressed by the logical hierarchical progression that leads the user to narrow search parameters. VoS is a valuable source for fueling academic and non-academic interests and an excellent illustration of the strengths of dynamic web.