Projects for Image Preservation & Sharing
> Projects for Community Historical Societies
Sharing Photos and Documents in Image Galleries on the
Internet
Basic Society Scenarios
Historical and Genealogical Societies desiring to establish or expand online image galleries can be categorized in one of three ways.
1. The society has a website and wants to incorporate an image gallery into its website.
2. The society has a website. However, for resource limitation reasons, it chooses to place images in a third party album or gallery and then provide a link to the gallery from the society website.
3. The society does not have a website and displays images in a third party gallery. The internet address of the third party image gallery is communicated to society members by email, newsletter, or other means.
Some Image Gallery Software Choices
Recognizing that many historical and genealogical societies are on a budget and have limited web site design resources, we will first consider some of the least expensive options for developing image galleries. One inexpensive choice that requires little technical knowledge is to establish an image gallery at a third party website. If the society has its own website, it can simply provide a link to the third party gallery. If the society does not have a website, it can simply communicate the link address to the gallery to the society membership.
Third Party Image Galleries - Many online services will store and display your images for free or a modest charge. These services allow you to upload image files directly from your computer, and the services will automatically resize, store, and display your images in professional appearing albums or galleries. Many also offer some ability to customize the appearance of the albums and galleries to create a desired color or text theme.
Shutterfly.comand SmugMug.com
are two of the best services
that have offerings for organizations such as historical
societies, and professional photographers. In addition
to providing image gallery space, both Shutterfly and SmugMug each offer
a fee based service which allows a professional photographer, or
an organization such as a historical society or youth sports team, to market
image prints and gift items as a fundraising activity. To explore
these image marketing and/or fundraising possibilities, explore
Shutterfly Pro Gallery
and
SmugMug Pro Account.
For examples of how historical societies have used these third party galleries, see the Greater Astoria (Long Island) Historical Society Smugmug page and the Gilroy (California) Historical Society Share Site at Shutterfly. Note that the Gilroy Historical Society website provides a link to the image album gallery at Shutterfly. This has allowed the Gilroy historical society to share many images without the need to develop an extensive image gallery within the society website.
Some variations on the theme of creating a third party gallery include:
► A simple description of the third party galleries and a link to them.
► A few resized images on a society website in a simple table with a majority of images in a third party gallery. This approach can take the burden of developing an extensive image gallery away from the society's webmaster, as other society members can select, caption, and upload images to the third party galleries.
► A "Share Site" such as Shutterfly's may include some society images and articles, and another link at the share site or website may lead to a Shutterfly or SmugMug Pro gallery which offers some of the images for sale as prints or gift items.
The variations are numerous, and using a combination of services and links may provide the easiest and best image gallery solutions.
