October 2009, #13
CONTENTS
News
of the Day
Featured Collections
Project News
WHO Resources Wiki
Events to Note
Featured Connections
News of the Day
WHO is ALA Digital Library of the Week
In September, Wisconsin Heritage Online was featured as the Digital Library of
the Week in the American Library Association's American Libraries Direct e-newsletter.
Click the link below and scroll down to see the article in the right-hand
column. The image of "Astronomy in Milwaukee" comes from the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee's digital collection Greetings from Milwaukee:
Selections from the Thomas and Jean Ross Bliffert Postcard Collection.
link.ixs1.net/s/ve?eli=q442672
WHO on Twitter
twitter.com/WiHeritage
Want instant updates on WHO news? If you use Twitter, you can follow @WiHeritage. Don't have an account? You don't need one to read our updates here witter.com/WiHeritage
Heritage Online General Information Session
If you were unable to attend any of the general information session about WHO that Emily did in September and October, the South Central Library System session was recorded. The recording is available at blip.tv/file/2668687
New Members Since May 2009
Two regional informational sessions and numerous emails and phone calls have resulted in ten new WHO members signed on since our last issue!
Blanchardville Historical Society
Buffalo County Historical Society, Alma
Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Museums,
Milwaukee
Fort Winnebago Surgeons' Quarters,
Portage
Hales Corners Historical Society
Portage Historical Society
Preservation Racine, Inc.
Richland County History Room, Richland
Center
Sauk County Historical Society, Baraboo
South Wood County Historical Society,
Wisconsin Rapids
Featured Collections
Milwaukee Waterways
This month, Milwaukee Public Library's Milwaukee
Waterways is one of four digital resources from the CONTENTdm Collection of Collections featured on
the OCLC website. content.mpl.org/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/MilwWaterwa
This collection of photographs illustrates the role Lake Michigan and Milwaukee's rivers have played in the history of Milwaukee. Images of the harbor and ships from around the world loading and unloading materials show the variety of materials that have passed through the Port over time. Other pictures illustrate the role the rivers played in the commercial development of the city. Aerial views of the harbor and rivers and lakefront show the changing uses of the water and land. The photographs are from three collections contributed by the Port of Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Public Library, and the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society.
Brown County War History Committee Records
This first digitization project from Green Bay's Neville Public Museum of Brown County is hosted by Wisconsin Heritage Online and the Wisconsin Historical Society at content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fnpmh The project, which is still in progress, is funded by a "Save Our History" grant from the History Channel. It is a joint venture of the Neville Public Museum, Preble High School, and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
The First World War had a transformative effect upon Green Bay as well as the state of Wisconsin as a whole. In the Green Bay area alone, more than 1700 soldiers went to Europe. After the war ended, the Brown County War History Committee interviewed local soldiers and their families about their wartime service and collected a wealth of personal, family, and military information, including hundreds of photographs and original letters. The goal of the Committee's project was to publish a book, but it was never completed. By historical quirk, this collection survived. It is now owned by the Neville Public Museum and is housed at the UW-Green Bay Area Research Center. Induction records, photographs, and letters home from nearly 600 soldiers are now online; hundreds more will be added in the coming months.
Project News
Preservation Racine, Inc.
This local history and historic preservation group is currently digitizing four decades of its member newsletter, which features a wealth of information on local buildings and people. Preservation Racine, under the supervision of local historian Sharon Baldukas, is working closely with University of Wisconsin-Parkside archivist Anna Stadick and an intern, UW-Parkside History student Michael DeGrace, to scan and catalog the newsletters.
South Wood County Historical Corporation
The staff of this local historical society in Wisconsin Rapids is bravely pioneering a prototype project that Wisconsin Heritage Online has long promoted. They have scanned a collection of images from Lawrence Oliver, a photographer working locally in the 1940s and 1950s, and are now cataloging them using PastPerfect Museum Software. They will then export their data and images and send them to Emily Pfotenhauer, WHO Outreach Specialist, who will import the materials into a CONTENTdm collection hosted by the Milwaukee Public Library.
We believe the PastPerfect-CONTENTdm transfer will prove a good model for other historical societies because current PastPerfect users (which includes many local historical societies in Wisconsin) can contribute digital materials for the world to find and use using existing content and familiar software—they don't have to learn another new computer program or a new cataloging system.
McMillan Memorial Library
Andy Barnett, Assistant Director at the McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids, began digitizing local history materials almost 10 years ago—the infancy of cultural heritage digitization. We are now working with him to move this material to a collection hosted by the Milwaukee Public Library using CONTENTdm, a digital content management system, which will make the collection easier to find and to search.
WHO Resources Wiki and Guidelines
Major changes to wiki structure and many document updates
Since starting with WHO in June, Emily Pfotenhauer, our new Outreach Specialist, has learned a great deal about our Content Providers' needs through talking, reading and editing. She found the Wisconsin Heritage Online wiki very helpful but also, like many web pages, in need of updating. If you are a long-time wiki user but haven't looked at it recently, you can now find lots of new information as well as a refreshing view of old information.
If you are not a current user of the wiki, Wisconsin Heritage Online membership is a requirement to access most of the pages. The membership fee is $50 for small institutions; $100 for large ones. The membership form is on a publicly-accessible wiki page at wiheritage.pbworks.com/FrontPage
Emily and Debbie have also undertaken a thorough review of the guidelines and other documents available to Wisconsin Heritage Online members. We have made major revisions and updates to the Metadata Guidelines, the Digital Imaging Guidelines, the Preservation Recommendations, and the Selection Policy and Collection Development Policy, all available through the WHO wiki. In addition to clarifying details, we made significant updates to conform to new developments in digitization practices. If you are currently using our earlier guidelines, be sure to download the new versions.
Events to Note
2nd Annual Upper Midwest CONTENTdm User Group Meeting
Please join us on October 29 & 30 for the 2nd Annual Upper Midwest CONTENTdm User Group Meeting!
Registration closes Friday, October 23 at 5pm
The 2nd Annual Upper Midwest CONTENTdm User Group Meeting will be held at the Pyle Center on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, October 29-30, 2009. For registration, agenda, hotel information and more, please go to www.wils.wisc.edu/events/MWcontdm_09.html
We hope to see you there!
Featured Connections
These "connections" are not to or of digital materials that fit Wisconsin Heritage Online's mission, but they may enhance your knowledge of historical materials available online.
Wisconsin Historical Records Repository Directory
wisrecordsgroup.wetpaint.com
- Discover the variety of cultural institutions in Wisconsin that hold historical records
- Share information about the historical records your organization collects
- Interact with others responsible for collecting and preserving historical records
- For more information, contact Jennifer Graham at jennifera.graham@wisconsinhistory.org
Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory
www.wisconsinhistory.org/ahi
This resource from the Wisconsin Historical Society's Historic Preservation division provides historical and architectural information on approximately 120,000 properties in Wisconsin. The AHI documents a wide range of historic properties, including the round barns, log houses, metal truss bridges, small town commercial buildings, and Queen Anne houses that create Wisconsin's distinct cultural landscape.
Wisconsin Digital Archives
dpi.wi.gov/rll/wddp-digitalarchive.html
Wisconsin statutes require Wisconsin state agencies to send copies of their publications to the Wisconsin Reference and Loan Library for distribution to libraries through the Wisconsin Document Depository Program. The Wisconsin Document Depository Program collects and distributes state publications to Wisconsin libraries. This program preserves and makes available a record of major state government programs and assures the availability of state publications for use by the public throughout Wisconsin now and in the future. Many of these publications are now born-digital, that is, published only on the Web.
The Wisconsin Digital Archives is a collaborative effort involving the Wisconsin Reference and Loan Library, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin State Law Library. For more information, contact Abby Swanton at Abbigail.Swanton@dpi.wi.gov
Principal writer and editor, Debbie Cardinal. Contributions from Emily Pfotenhauer.