Digital Initiatives Moving Ahead

The Northern New York Library Network’s two digitization initiatives have moved forward this winter:

The North Country Digital History Project, until recently a pilot project, was opened to participation by all libraries, archives, museums, and local history repositories in the region. There is no charge to participate in the project, which is located at history.nnyln.net. So far, the Network has acquired the server, loaded and configured the Contentdm software, distributed software to each participating organization, conducted the necessary training, worked with area librarians and archivists to establish regional standards for scanning and describing materials, set up a gateway web site, conducted site visits for problem-solving and additional training, acquired and made available equipment for digitizing 3-D images, and established a list-serv for shared awareness. The North Country Digital History Task Force, a group of museum/library/archives staff, has been critically important in planning and early implementation of this project.

There will be a working session for all current and potential participants on Tuesday, April 25 at 10:00 a.m. at the Network office in Potsdam. Organizations that would like to participate in the North Country Digital History Project should contact John Hammond (john@nnyln.org) at 315-265-1119.

The Watertown Herald newspaper, 1886-1918, is the latest title to be added to the Network's Northern New York Historical Newspapers website at news.nnyln.net. The site is proving immensely useful to local historians, genealogists, and researchers interested in the region’s unique history. For instance, Potsdam Bicentennial Committee members searched the Potsdam Herald Recorder looking for things to do for the bicentennial. They discovered an article about the laying of a time capsule in 1924, and subsequently retrieved the capsule after determining its location from the article.

The online collection currently consists of more than 280,000 pages from 18 newspapers: Adirondack Record-Elizabethtown Post, Akwesasne Indian Times, Canton Commercial Advertiser, Elizabethtown Post, Fort Covington Sun, Fulton Patriot, Lake Placid News, Lowville Journal & Republican, Malone Farmer, Malone Franklin Gazette, Plattsburgh Republican, Plattsburgh Sentinel, Potsdam Herald-Recorder, Potsdam St. Lawrence Herald, St. Regis Falls Adirondack News, Saranac Lake Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Ticonderoga Sentinel, and Watertown Herald.