Goals and Plans for the Digitization of the Kinsman Free Public Library Museum Collection

Through the coming weeks and months, we hope to be able to create a digital online database of all items, documents, and historic relics in our Local History room.  This process will be an exercise in the conservation and preservation of the donated pieces of local history.  We plan to preserve and protect the old documents in the collection, and to photograph the objects in order to put them into a digital database which will then be accessible from our website.  Not only will this make our Local History room Internet accessible, but it will also create an index for all the items in the Local History room, and create a permanent, photographic and digital file record that will outlast (theoretically) the actual physical items and documentation.

The steps we plan to take in this process are as follows:

• Taking Digital photos of all three-dimensional items, such as clothing, relics, artifacts and collections.
• Scanning old documents such as newspapers and maps.
• Scanning all old photographs and captions, making correction or adjustments to the Digital images (i.e. using software to clean up the DIGITAL copies of the older photos.)
• Creating an index of historical items and their locations in the Local History room.
• Working with the Kinsman Historical Society to better label, caption, and understand the relics, documents, and other artifacts.

The goals of this project are really quite simple.  We want to preserve the rich history of our area for future generations.  That is the single most important objective of this undertaking.  We plan to store our information in a format that is the most long lasting that current technology can produce.  While we realize that a digital format can never reproduce all the intricacies of the original items, we do hope that the electronic format will instill an interest in history to those who view it.  Even though we cannot reproduce the feel, smell, and atmosphere of these pieces of history in a digital format, we can and will preserve them in electronic form.  Through this process of preservation, future generations will be able to experience history.

Gabriel M. Cole

                                                                                              April 8, 2000

Local History

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