Projects for Image Preservation and Sharing
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Societies
Index to Historical Society Photo and Document Preservation and Sharing Projects
Preserving and sharing photo and document images is a priority for all community historical societies. Below are brief descriptions of project ideas intended to help community historical societies to think about ways to organize their efforts, preserve their collections, and share the priceless images they hold.
The mission statements of community historical societies commonly include the terms collect, preserve, and share. Most expand on the share theme by describing objectives to educate and engage a broader community about how the community's past created a unique sense of place, in the belief that this perspective will help the community grow into its future. Therefore, the following projects offer some thoughts and suggestions that go beyond the photos and documents themselves.
Planning and Organizing Society Preservation and Sharing Projects
Setting preservation goals and establishing priorities is closely tied to clearly defining collection(s) objectives. If an object is not clearly a priority within your defined collection plan, it is likely not a priority for limited funding and volunteer resources.....
Establish a Preservation and Sharing Plan and Priorities
With limited resources in volunteer time and funding, it is important to plan and prioritize efforts carefully. This will ensure time, money, and collection preservation and sharing needs are matched most appropriately....
Share Historical Society Images Online
Develop Photo and Document Image Galleries on the Internet
There are many alternatives and combinations of alternatives available to expand online image sharing activities. A society need not have a website or volunteer web design expertise to get started. If someone in a society can scan images and place them in a folder on their computer, the society has the ability to create an online image gallery. Beyond that, additional sharing and fundraising options are numerous....
Build a Shutterfly Historical Society Share Site
Shutterfly offers a free and easy to customize "share site". In addition to sharing images, the template allows the posting of announcements, a calendar of events, tracking of projects, live feeds from major news organizations, the ability of visitors to leave comments, etc., etc........
Many web site hosting companies make it relatively easy and inexpensive to get started. Hosting companies help you obtain a domain name, they provide a broad selection of ready-made web site templates, and you can then customize and expand on these templates right at the host's website...
Share and Market Image Reproductions Online
Share favorite historical society images, provide members the opportunity to obtain image prints and gift items, and fundraise to support ongoing society preservation projects. It is possible for a historical society to do this on their own. In addition, LocalArchiver.com has developed an image gallery relationship directly with Shutterfly. This LocalArchiver relationship has evolved into a LocalArchiver pilot program to help community historical societies share public domain images as prints or gift items at reasonable markups. The program, with recommended image pricing, would allow a majority of estimated proceeds to go to the historical society to support society preservation and sharing activities. If you believe that your society might like to share and market image reproductions online, this article helps you understand the alternatives.....
Society Museum and Other Displays
Create Professional Wall Displays With Collection Images
A wall grouping of themed images in similar ready-made frames, custom framed images, or large canvas prints, can update a museum display dramatically. We offer some thoughts, suggestions, and vendor recommendations....
Historical Society Educational Projects
Develop Educational Programs for the Local Community
Partner with a local school to develop a lesson or unit on local history, or develop a shared lecture series with neighboring societies....
