Ohio Memory Phase Two Report

Primary sources tell the story of Ohio from a first-hand perspective and are invaluable aids for teaching and learning about history. Public libraries and other historical repositories hold historical treasures. The Ohio Memory Online Scrapbook (http://www.ohiomemory.org) is a searchable database that provides access to these historical treasures drawn from all counties of the state so that researchers around the state, and around the world, can use them. The first phase of the project, which focused exclusively on historical materials created before 1903, was launched in 2000. Phase Two began in October 2002 and was funded by the State Library of Ohio, which administers the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and a Bicentennial Legacy grant. During this phase, thousands of twentieth-century materials were added to the website. Phase Two concluded December 31, 2003.

Primary activities for 2003 included selecting, digitizing, and describing historical records and artifacts, a redesign of the website, and expanding outreach efforts by conducting workshops and creating promotional materials. Another important component of the project during this phase was the assessment of the state of digitization in Ohio. A survey was conducted and a symposium was held to discuss the results during this year.

Goal 1: Increase access to the numerous historical materials held in Ohio cultural heritage repositories (specifically 20^th century materials) by making them available online so that researchers around the state, and around the world, can use them.

Four workshops were held at the beginning of the project to explain the project and encourage participation. One hundred and thirteen participants attended the workshops in Columbus, Springfield, Cleveland and Findlay. Workshop evaluations indicated a high level of satisfaction.

The project staff anticipated that a minimum of 1,000 new items would be accepted, digitized and made available. In fact, 1,401 submissions were received from institutions in 60 counties and 1,265 were accepted. During this phase 2,315 new records were added to the website (one submission can result in multiple records). Collections were evaluated based on established criteria and materials created after 1903 were given priority. Selection criteria included historical significance, scanning potential, complementary value and copyright/ ownership issues. Once materials were accepted, Ohio Memory staff worked with staff at participating institutions to digitize materials at the Ohio Historical Center or their own institution in accordance with digitization standards. The project team then described materials following metadata descriptive standards and made the collections available online.

Website usage grew during this period as more materials were added. There were a total of 102,159 unique visitors, 274,530 visitor sessions and over 6,616,573 hits to the website. In addition, more than 3,500 personal scrapbooks have been created by users, reflecting widespread utilization of this interactive feature.

Goal 2: Increase the number of cultural heritage repositories (archives, historical societies, libraries, and museums) involved.

The number of participating institutions grew from 260 to 323. Many libraries were unable to submit materials during the first phase of the project because they did not have any primary source materials created before 1903, but 22 additional public libraries were able to participate in this grant-funded phase.

Goal 3: Assessing the state of digitization in Ohio.

To assess the state of digitization efforts, staff conducted a survey of cultural heritage repositories. Eight hundred repositories in Ohio received the survey, including: all Ohio public libraries, local historical societies and museums (as identified by the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums), members of the Society of Ohio Archivists, Academic Library Association of Ohio, and the Ohio Museums Association. Institutions that participated in Ohio Memory but did not fall into any of the above categories also received the survey.

The survey was designed to determine the extent to which digitization and web access to collections is currently an institutional activity, the degree to which these efforts involved collaborative relationships with other agencies, barriers to these efforts, and needs institutions have in their digitization efforts. It was distributed in paper format and made available online. Results were tabulated and discussed at a symposium held at the Ohio Historical Center on August 28, 2003. Results were also made available online at http://www.ohiomemory.org/survey/SurveyResults.ppt. The top three responses to the following questions were:

The results indicate significant interest in digitization in general and specifically in supporting cooperative digitization projects (chiefly Ohio Memory). They also indicate a strong need for training in the components of digitization projects such as metadata and copyright.

• Government Documents Roundtable of Ohio
• KentState University, College of Arts and Sciences Symposium “Life on the Ohio Frontier, 1790-1840”
• Kent State University, School of Library and Information Science, Online Systems Course
• Ohio Education Library Media Association (OELMA)
• Ohio Library Council (OLC) Dayton, Zanesville, Toledo, Kent and Cleveland chapters
• OCLC
• SchoolNET
• Society of Ohio Archivists (SOA)

Staff created a poster highlighting collections from the website to encourage use of the website by teachers and school media specialists. Ohio Memory posters were overwhelming popular with others as well. Thus far, nearly 7,000 posters have been distributed to schools, libraries, museums, and historical societies.

In addition staff designed bookmarks to promote the new “Governor’s Challenge” Ohio history quiz (http://www.ohiomemory.org/challenge.html). Each of the 12 bookmarks includes an image from the website and one of the quiz questions. Users are encouraged to go online to find out the answers and view materials related to the topic. Another fun addition to the web site is the “What is it?” feature designed for audiences who are younger or less comfortable with technology.

Every month a scrapbook featuring new additions is made available. Periodically, staff also create scrapbooks on themes such as “History Day,” “Centennial of Flight,” “Women’s History Month,” “Hats,” and “the Wright Brothers”. In November 2003 Hope Taft, the first lady of Ohio, served as Ohio Memory’s first “Guest Editor.” She created a scrapbook of items related to her interests and added notes explaining her choices.

The redesign of the Ohio Memory Online Scrapbook went live in September 2003. In addition to numerous small changes, the revised site has grown to include two new sections: Exhibits and Educational Resources.

Participating institutions were pleased to be able to participate and learn more about digitization, metadata standards and web delivery of historical resources. In addition, librarians, educators and other users of the website have been extremely positive about the website. The next step in facilitating use of the scrapbook is creating educational tools such as WebQuests, lesson plans that will enable teachers and school media specialists to more easily integrate Ohio Memory into their teaching.

There have been numerous articles about Ohio Memory in various newspapers (listed below)