Digitizing Your Community's History - (Innovative Librarian's Guide) by Alex Hoffman (Paperback)

About the Book

Follow the blueprint in this book to launch a library DIY community history digitization program--one that provides the access and fosters engagement with patrons to sustain the program over time.
Internet technologies have enabled anyone to tell their story--and to find out their own unknown story. Libraries are seeing increased interest in community and family history and in genealogy, as well as heightened demand for access to personal and community history materials in digital format. The opportunity exists for libraries to benefit their communities by providing these in-demand, digitized historical materials optimized for researchers at the individual level.

Digitizing Your Community's History: The Innovative Librarian's Guide provides you with step-by-step directions for launching a DIY digitization program for personal and community historical materials. It covers the process of setting up a digitization program, training customers to use the equipment, best practices for storing digitized material, and tips for engaging the community in local history, such as ideas for exhibiting materials and programs for genealogy and family history. Just as importantly, the author addresses how to explain the benefits of programs like these to library stakeholders and supplies recommendations on sustaining library community history programs through access and engagement. The book also provides supplemental materials that include templates and programming ideas, lists of recommended software and apps, and recommended specifications for equipment and for file storage.

• Takes readers through establishing local history digitization projects at the community level from start to finish, providing guidance on how to set up, maintain, and sustain ongoing digitization projects
• Describes how to train library users for digitization--instructions that are also applicable for including volunteers in digitization projects
• Explains how creating a DIY history digitization project can provide a community benefit and serve as a form of outreach that also enriches a library's local history collection

Book Synopsis

Follow the blueprint in this book to launch a library DIY community history digitization program--one that provides the access and fosters engagement with patrons to sustain the program over time.

Internet technologies have enabled anyone to tell their story--and to find out their own unknown story. Libraries are seeing increased interest in community and family history and in genealogy, as well as heightened demand for access to personal and community history materials in digital format. The opportunity exists for libraries to benefit their communities by providing these in-demand, digitized historical materials optimized for researchers at the individual level.

Digitizing Your Community's History: The Innovative Librarian's Guide provides you with step-by-step directions for launching a DIY digitization program for personal and community historical materials. It covers the process of setting up a digitization program, training customers to use the equipment, best practices for storing digitized material, and tips for engaging the community in local history, such as ideas for exhibiting materials and programs for genealogy and family history. Just as importantly, the author addresses how to explain the benefits of programs like these to library stakeholders and supplies recommendations on sustaining library community history programs through access and engagement. The book also provides supplemental materials that include templates and programming ideas, lists of recommended software and apps, and recommended specifications for equipment and for file storage.

Review Quotes

"A valuable tool for deciding what, if anything, should be digitized in a reader's community, and providing a plethora of useful information on how to divide the process into manageable pieces, this book is a wise investment for libraries looking to preserve the past for future generations." --VOYA

About the Author

Alex Hoffman is the digital media supervisor at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library in suburban Chicago.