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39 And Counting: Digital Portals to Local Community History

Posted by: Bill LeFurgy

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Given the popularity of 71 Digital Portals to State History from last month–we got many comments with great additions to that list–I thought it would be useful to extend the conversation to the local level. Unlike for the earlier post, we did not have the services of an intern to do the research, so the starting list is shorter. But we were able to quickly pull together the list below of 39 county, municipal and other local institutions that provide online access to unique digital resources useful for studying the history and culture of their communities.

The starter list was assembled with some basic parameters. State-wide and regional portals are left out, although it would make sense to include them in a master list. The previous blog post, along with the details provided by the Library of Congress web page State Digital Resources: Memory Projects, Online Encyclopedias, Historical & Cultural Materials Collections, do a good job covering state-level portals. The list also aims to exclude local collections that are bundled within a state-wide portal. A number of states have a done fine work coordinating with local institutions to put collections online, including Ohio Memory, Washington Rural Heritage and The State of Wisconsin Collection from the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center (just to name some). Scores of local institutions are represented through such portals. A more comprehensive list could, perhaps, specifically mention each of those entities.

The list is heavy with public libraries. Certainly other kinds of institutions are providing this kind of service as well and ultimately should be included in a more comprehensive accounting. On the other hand, the list does attempts to be broad in terms of collection size and coverage, as well as the level of technological sophistication used to to present content. The list emphasizes access, although it is to be hoped that all the institutions named are relying on current best practices for digital preservation.

I know there are many more worthy sites out there. Please let us know what is missing from this starter list. We will compile suggestions into a more complete list and make it available. Think of it as a crowdsourcing project!

State

Institution

URL
AL Birmingham Public Library http://www.bplonline.org/locations/central/archives/
AR Fayetteville Public Library http://www.faylib.org/content/local-history
AZ Scottsdale Public Library http://www.scottsdalelibrary.org/historical
CA Corona Public Library http://coro.sdp.sirsi.net/client/coronaheritageonline
CA Escondido Public Library https://library.escondido.org/escondidohistory.aspx
CA Los Angeles Public Library http://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/photo-collection-overview
CA Pomona Public Library http://content.ci.pomona.ca.us/
CA Sacramento Public Library http://cdm15248.contentdm.oclc.org/
CA San Francisco Public Library http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=0200000301
CO Denver Public Library http://digital.denverlibrary.org/
DC DC Public Library http://dclibrary.org/research/collections
FL Hillsborough Country Public Library Cooperative http://www.hcplc.org/hcplc/research/burgert/
FL Manatee County Public Library http://cdm16681.contentdm.oclc.org/
FL Winter Park Public Library http://www.wppl.org/wphistory/DigitizedCollections.htm
IA Iowa City Public Library http://history.icpl.org/
IL Chicago Public Library http://www.chipublib.org/images/index.php
IL Herrin City Library https://www.facebook.com/HerrinHistoryRoomGatherings/photos_stream
IN Allen County Public Library http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/database/index/acpl_digital_library.html
IN Indianapolis Public Library http://digitallibrary.imcpl.org/cdm/
IN Jefferson Country Public Library http://www.mjcpl.org/historyrescue/
MA Boston Public Library http://www.bpl.org/collections/online/
MA North of Boston Library Exchange (NOBLE) http://heritage.noblenet.org/
MN Hennepin County Library http://hclib.tumblr.com/MinneapolisHistory
MO Kansas City Public Library http://www.kclibrary.org/kchistory
MO Springfield-Greene County Library District http://thelibrary.org/lochist/digicollections.cfm
NJ Plainfield Public Library http://www.plainfieldlibrary.info/Departments/LH/LH_main.html
NY Brooklyn Public Library http://www.bklynpubliclibrary.org/brooklyncollection/digital-collections
OH Dayton Metro Library http://content.daytonmetrolibrary.org/
OH Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County http://virtuallibrary.cincinnatilibrary.org/virtuallibrary/
OK Tulsa City-County Library http://guides.tulsalibrary.org/content.php?pid=137405&sid=1180104
PA University of Pittsburgh/Historic Pitssburgh http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/
TN Knox County Public Library http://cmdc.knoxlib.org/
TN Nashville Public Library http://nashville.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/nr
TX Houston Public Library http://digital.houstonlibrary.org/
VA Norfolk Public Library http://www.npl.lib.va.us/local-history-genealogy/smc-digital-collection
WA Everett Public Library http://www.epls.org/nw/digital.asp
WA Seattle Public Library http://www.spl.org/library-collection/articles-and-research/local-history
WI La Crosse Public Library http://archives.lacrosselibrary.org/
WI Milwaukee Public Library http://www.mpl.org/file/digital_index.htm

Comments (17)

  2. Susan Goldstein says:

    North of Boston Library Exchange should be under MA, not CA.

    • Bill LeFurgy says:

      Thanks for the correction.

    • Bill LeFurgy says:

      Thank you very much!

      –Bill

  12. Elizabeth Bradt says:

    The Tuscaloosa Area Virtual Museum is a volunteer digital project covering the West Alabama area including the cities of Tuscaloosa and Northport.
    http://tavm.omeka.net/

  13. Anne Marie Hamilton-Brehm says:

    Local history digital collections for Henderson, Nevada, provided by Henderson District Public Libraries, including World War II photographs, newspapers, magazines, early municipal records, and video oral histories, are available at http://digitalcollections.mypubliclibrary.com/

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