Reaching your local history patrons through the web

1. Reaching your local history patrons through the web OLA/WLA Conference April 18th, 2008 Vancouver, WA

2. Overview of Program • Kimble Northwest History Database – Ingrid Mifflin • Palouse Digital Project – Marilyn Von Seggern • Oregon Historic Photographs Collection – Doug Yancey • Technical considerations for digital collections – Alex Merrill • Questions and Answers

3. Issues We Will Cover • Planning • Funding • Implementation • Technical considerations • Maintenance • Future plans/developments • The Users & Publicity • Web Presence

4. Similar but Different Approaches • The three projects we will demonstrate are all digital projects but their implementation are very different and will show you different ways to approach digital projects and different issues to consider.

5. Reaching your local history patrons through the web Kimble Northwest History Database Ingrid Mifflin

6. Getting Started • A desire to learn a new innovative way to present historic documents to library users • Select the material • Develop the scanning and metadata standards to follow • Make the Production Prototype • Test • Set up Production • Find Funding

7. Original Paper Black Cardboard Boxes

8. Finding Funding • Work with Library’s Development Officer • Put together a Proposal to Donor • Meet with Donor and Give a Demonstration • Grant funding, local historical societies, LSTA, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

9. Production • Work with IT staff to configure software/hardware • Write a manual for staff/students/volunteers to use during the scanning and metadata input process • Hire and train staff/students/volunteers • Do quality control • Stay in close contact with IT staff to monitor server space, backups, software/hardware upgrades, problem solving, etc. • Design the web site

10. Original Paper Black Cardboard Boxes

11. Individual Newspaper Clipping with Guide Card • Date is at the top • Newspaper citation is at the bottom • Subject category is handwritten on the right side

12. Student workers digitizing and inputting metadata

13. The Online Version • Kimble Northwest History Database • 48,000 clippings in specific subjects • With added online access to resources relevant to the newspaper clippings • Links to documents referred to in the articles • Links to biographies of people mentioned

14. Reaching your local history patrons through the web Palouse Digital Project Marilyn Von SeggernWashington State University Libraries

15. The Palouse Bioregion The Palouse is a unique geographic region of wind blown loess hills in southeastern Washington and northern Idaho, bordered by the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the channeled scablands created by the Great Missoula Floods, and the Snake River. The topography was created by silt dunes blown in from the west and south during the last ice age.

16. The Palouse, known for… Bunchgrass prairie Paluus (Paloos) tribe Deep fertile soils producing grains and legumes: wheat, lentils, split peas, barley Appaloosa horses Giant Palouse earthworm

19. U.S. Agricultural Research Service

20. U.S. Agricultural Research Service Photo by Doug Wilson.

21. WSU Alumni Assn

22. U.S. Agricultural Research Service

23. Barley harvest U.S. Agricultural Research Service

24. Milwaukee Bridge from Steptoe Battlefield, Rosalia, 2003. Paul Henning photo; MASC, WSU Libraries

25. WSU Libraries

26. Library of Congress

27. Library of Congress

28. Library of Congress

29. Library of Congress

30. Library of Congress

31. Library of Congress

32. Peluse FallsU.S. Congressional Serial Set

33. “Palouse Falls, 1932” Image from WSU Archives

34. Palouse FallsPacific Northwest National Laboratory

35. Development of the Palouse Digital Project • 1950(?)-1979 Card file • 1980-1989 Computer-generated bibliography with author and subject indexes • 2003 Went digital • 2008 Scanned Palouse Bibliography

36. Prototype: Southern Oregon Digital Archives (SODA)

38. SODA Title browse list

39. Project Parameters • In-print resources—how many? • 930 articles, 102 research reports, 257 theses and dissertations • 760 articles in the public domain

40. Getting started • Use of CONTENTdm software • Local funding for first 15 items to begin building test database • Took classes and workshops on getting grants • Began discussions with Libraries’ Development Officer • Expanded database

41. Project Statement • Statement of purpose • Bioregion description • Project goals • Audience • Subjects and types of materials included

42. Statement of Purpose The Palouse Digital Project will make accessible to students, researchers, and the general public a variety of resources about the Palouse bioregion. Documents…and other resources that are in the public domain will be digitized and included…for browsing, viewing, and searching.

43. Project Goals • Provide access to resources in the public domain related to the Palouse bioregion of Washington and Idaho by creating a searchable digital collection of materials from the earliest publications to the present • Consolidate resources published over the course of a century and scattered over many collections and locations. The project will draw from the rich collections of Washington State University Libraries and seek to add relevant materials not already in the library • Make these resources freely and easily available on the Internet to students, researchers, and the public

44. Audience • Secondary and higher education students • Researchers in many fields of specialization • The general public

45. Subject inclusion Agricultural Economics Ethnology Agriculture Geography Anthropology Geology Archeology History Biology Hydrology Ecology Natural History Environmental History Zoology

46. Types of materials documents reports books studies & surveys maps oral histories photos video websites

47. Project Priorities • Phase I pre-1950 public domain documents • Phase II 1950-1970 • Phase III 1971-present