<h1 id="week-1-sept-3-2025"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#week-1-sept-3-2025"></a>Week 1. Sept. 3, 2025</h1>
<h3 id="building-our-workshop"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#building-our-workshop"></a>Building Our Workshop</h3>
<img src="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/resource.mixa.site/cdh2025/Crafting%20Digital%20History/3.%20Tutorials/02%20assets/ObsidianImages/Vault%20Setup/Nodes%20and%20Edges.png" priority="1">
Welcome to the course! This first week is all about building our digital workshop and community space. We will not be engaging with any historical content or theory at this time. Instead, our entire focus is on ensuring your tools are set up correctly and that you understand the "why" behind our methods.
Please follow the steps below in sequence. This first week is designed to familiarize you with the tools we will use, so you can feel confident and prepared for the weeks to come.
<h2 id="key-learning-goals"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#key-learning-goals"></a>Key Learning Goals</h2>
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
<ol>
<li>Navigate the course's primary communication platform (Discord).</li>
<li>Describe the course structure after watching the welcome video and reviewing the syllabus.</li>
<li>Successfully install all required software and the course vault.</li>
<li>Create and edit a new note in the vault.</li>
</ol>
<hr>
<h2 id="checklist-for-week-1"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#checklist-for-week-1"></a>Checklist for Week 1</h2>
<ol>
<li>
Watch the Welcome Video (13 mins): 
Start here! In this short video, I welcome you to the course, walk you through our syllabus and Discord server, and visually demonstrate how to download and set up our course vault. The video is embedded at the top of our course website.
</li>
<li>
Join our Course Discord Server: This is our primary home for all course-related communication.
<ul>
<li>2.1 Use the invitation link found on the course website and in your welcome email.</li>
<li>2.2 Once you're in, please post a brief message about yourself and why you are taking this course, and what you hope to learn in the <code>#introductions</code> channel.</li>
<li>2.3 Take a look at the other channels, especially <code>#announcements</code> and <code>#tech-help</code>. If you run into any issues this week, the <code>#tech-help</code> channel is the best place to ask for help from me and your peers.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Review the Syllabus: After watching the video, please read through all the course material carefully. Pay close attention to the assignment due dates and the course's rhythm of work and consolidation.
</li>
<li>
Software Installation:
<ul>
<li>4.1 Review Tutorials: Go to the tutorials page on the course website and review the <a href="/Crafting%20Digital%20History/3.%20Tutorials/01%20%20memex%20help/01%20Setting%20Up%20Your%20Vault" title="01 Setting Up Your Vault">01 Setting Up Your Vault</a> note before proceeding to the next step.</li>
<li>4.2 Install Obsidian.md: Go to the official <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=E&#x26;q=https%3A%2F%2Fobsidian.md%2F">Obsidian.md website</a>, download the correct version for your operating system, and install it: <a href="/Crafting%20Digital%20History/3.%20Tutorials/01%20%20memex%20help/01%20Setting%20Up%20Your%20Vault" title="01 Setting Up Your Vault">01 Setting Up Your Vault</a></li>
<li>4.3 Navigation: Familiarize yourself with the basic functions of Obsidian. See <a href="/Crafting%20Digital%20History/3.%20Tutorials/01%20%20memex%20help/02%20Create%20Your%20First%20Note" title="02 Create Your First Note">02 Create Your First Note</a></li>
<li>4.4 Install Hypothes.is: Web Service + Obsidian Plugin
<ul>
<li>Hypothes.is provides the ability to annotate websites and export those annotations into your Obsidian vault and I will use it to provide feedback on your memex/open-access notebooks. I have provided a detailed tutorial <a href="/Crafting%20Digital%20History/3.%20Tutorials/01%20%20memex%20help/06%20Hypothesis" title="06 Hypothesis">06 Hypothesis</a> on the course website for setting up your account, the browser extension.</li>
<li>You can begin using it now if you wish, but it is not necessary. Once you have installed Hypothes.is, please annotate something on this page. Ask a question or make a comment in our Hypothes.is group. (A link to join the group will be sent to your Carleton email.) We will start exploring its functionality for annotation in week six. For now, we want you to have an account so you can see my annotations of your Mixa memex/open-access notebook.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Read the "Welcome" Note:
<ul>
<li>5.1 Inside your new Obsidian vault, find the folder <code>00_Introduction</code> in the file explorer on the left sidebar.</li>
<li>5.2 Click on the note titled <code>1. Welcome</code>. This note explains the core principle of Obsidian: why we are using local, plain-text files (Markdown) to build a durable, future-proof body of personal knowledge that isn't locked into any single proprietary company.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Your First Note (Ungraded Reflection):
<ul>
<li>6.1 In the file explorer, click on the <code>01 Weekly Journal</code>.</li>
<li>6.2 Create a new note (click the "New Note" icon or press Ctrl/Cmd + N). Title it with the date you wrote the entry, e.g., <code>2025-09-03</code>.</li>
<li>6.3 In this note (approx. 150 words), write a brief introduction. What did you find most interesting or perhaps most daunting about the "START HERE" note? What are you hoping to get out of this course? What are your goals? Have you studied ancient or medieval history/archaeology before?</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<hr>

Welcome

1. Course Description

2. Learning Outcomes

3. Course Schedule

4. Evaluation

5. Course Communications

6. Common Regulations

6. Contact the Professor

how the course tech is built; how the course came to be

7. Colophon

8. Reuse

Orientation and Digital Setup

Week 1

Personal Knowledge Management and Linked Thinking

Week 2

Thinking about the “Craft” of Digital History

Week 3

Crusading into the Digital Age of LLMs

Week 4

Consolidation & Check-In Week

Week 5

Digital Excavation

Week 6

Defining Data, 'Dark' Data, & Identifiers

Week 7

Fall Break

Week 8

Seeing the Past?

Week 9

Week 10

Authority and Positionality in Your Digital Research

Week 11

Publicly Crafting a Historical Argument

Week 12

Open-Access Notebook Workshop

Week 13

Exit Ticket

Week 14

1 Setting up your vault

2 Create your first note

3 Templater Plugiin

4 What Goes into a Note?

5 Properties

Hypothesis

The Simplest Online Memex Worfklow

How To Read An Academic Article

FAQ for Common Tech Issues

Where to Find help

Text Formatting

Introduction to your vault

index note

Atomic Note

Literature Note

Process Note

Weekly Journal

Topic Proposal

Weekly Work & Tasks

Consolidation Reflection

Open Access Notebook/Memex

Benchmarking Your Memex

Exit Ticket/Final Project

1 Welcome to Crafting Digital History Transcript

2 Obsidian User Interface (UI) Guide

3 Templater and Hotkeys Setup

4 How to use PDF++

5 Canvas Core Plugin Introductory Tutorial

6 Hypothes.is and Annotating the Web

7 Omnisearch Plugin for Obsidian

8 How to Use Process Notes for Digital Research Projects in Obsidian

9 Properties, Identifiers and Data Management with Obsidian Core Plugin Bases

1 Welcome to Crafting Digital History

2 Some Logistical Updates

3 Welcome to Week Two

4 What is Digital History?

5 Crusading into the Digital Age of LLMs

6 Week Four Exercise Example

7 Using Obsidian for Digital History Research and Note-Making

8 Reflection Feedback Update and Hypothes.is

9 Week Five Update

10 Consolidation Reflection Submission

11 Module Two Wrangling and Critiquing

12 Week 7 Update

13 Week 9 Welcome Back

1. Course Overview

Module 1 Contextualizing

Module 2 Wrangling & Critiquing

Module 3 Arguing & Communicating

2. Schedule

01  memex help

8. Course Files

3. Tutorials

4. Assessment

5. VideoTutorials

Crafting Digital History

News