Projects for Image Preservation and Sharing
> Projects for Community Historical
Societies
Historical Society Educational Programs for the Local Community
A common objective for community historical societies is to educate and engage the local community in the area's history. With the ability to digitally capture and more easily share collection images, there is an additional opportunity to be creative in developing and re-using educational programs.
Many historical societies host visiting hours to a museum or another public display of collection items. Others host fund raising events and lecture series.
Discovering and using technology available today to develop additional history image sharing and educational projects can be beneficial in many ways.
► Scanning images of photos and documents provide a much safer and portable way to share images of the past with the community. The originals of treasured images can be safely stored while a broader audience can enjoy the informational content of the duplicated images.
► With a well indexed catalogue of digital images, it becomes quite easy to identify images that are available for a themed presentation.
► It is likely that some society members have a special area of interest that can be leveraged in developing specific educational programs. This might be a prominent family history, history of a local industry, community celebrations over the years, past modes of transportation, or many others. With digital technology, images and talking points can easily become part of an expanding library of educational programs.
Start or Expand a Partnership With Local Schools
Local history and civic pride are closely related. Contact between local schools and community historical societies can help spark a stronger interest in community history, and perhaps encourage membership in a historical society at an earlier age. Beyond periodic class visits to a museum or public display of historical objects, there are other creative opportunities to get children and young adults interested and involved.
● Society members, with particular interests, may welcome a request to put together a 30 minute class presentation on a topic of community interest. Such a presentation / discussion can be supported by digital images from the society's collection.
● If the society would like some help with putting together the visuals for such a presentation, a graphic arts or computer science class might welcome the opportunity to help. They might also be helpful with the development of a logo or a brochure.
● If the society feels it is ready to develop a web presence, perhaps a computer studies class could provide some assistance with a website.
These and other possibilities are there to teach history and community pride at the same time, while perhaps providing teachers with some creative and meaningful ideas to motivate and challenge students.
Partnering With Neighboring Historical Societies
There is a good chance that community historical societies in a given area share some common themes in their collections and missions. Perhaps a certain industry was common to adjacent towns or a shared cultural heritage is evident. Perhaps a collaboration among neighboring societies could leverage community educational efforts around some common themes. Perhaps there exists some technological expertise or equipment costs that can be shared.
A jointly sponsored lecture series may mean that dates and topics are coordinated. Attendance at joint lectures is likely to be larger, each society will need to prepare for fewer presentations, and the particular interests, knowledge, and lecture skills spread across several societies can be leveraged. This effort is likely to boost regional interest in history, and perhaps spark additional interest in society memberships.
