“First Time Digitizer” at NEA

Tips for Surviving Digitization - For the First Time Digitizer

 Here are the PowerPoints from my portion of the First Time Digitizer presentation at the spring meeting of New England Archivists at Salve Regina University in gorgeous Newport, Rhode Island. They are licensed for re-use through Creative Commons, so please feel free to share - you just can’t make any money off ‘em! Enjoy!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Biddeford in 1795

I’ve been cleaning and sorting out the map cases and have come across some neat stuff. One particularly cool item is a photostat of a survey of Biddeford which was done in 1795. The original map is located at the Massachusetts State Archives in Boston.

I love the Internet!

It is so amazing how the internet connects us in ways we never could have experienced even 10 years ago! We received the coolest email from the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center in Sandusky, Ohio about our site & they invited us to check out their own blog. I must say it is pretty sweet, with tons of great information accompanied by some great images. I’ve added it to the blogroll, so check it out!!! 

Pepperell Mill newsletters (1938-1948) getting indexed!

 

The “Pepperell Sheet” newsletter was put out by the Pepperell company for the benefit of the employees. It covered all the news and happenings at the Biddeford, Lewiston, and Fall River, Mass. plants. Who was getting married, having babies, winning the local beauty pageant, going to college…in addition to local history pieces. They are a treasure trove of information about the people and communities connected to the mill-a snapshot of life in the World War II era Biddeford.

Our intrepid adult catalogger is working as we speak to create a comprehensive index to these newsletters, so that serious researchers and the simply curious alike can really make use of this fabulous resource!  

Watch “Biddeford’s Past Lives” on-line

The Maine Experience segment on Biddeford is now available for viewing at their website:

http://www.mainepublicradio.org/maineexperience/segments.html

Enjoy!

OMG! A Grant Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities!!!!!

Holy Cow! I’m walking on air! Life is beautiful!

I applied for an NEH Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions this past May, and recieved word today that we got it!!! Glorious! The money we are receiving will be used to have a much-needed preservation survey done by the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) - hands down one of the top preservation organizations in the country. With a top-notch preservation survey and the recomendations made in it we will be ready to make a long-term plan for preservation of our materials…and to get further assistance for projects involving those collections. A preservation survey is a powerful tool, and we would not be able to have one of this magnitude without the help of the NEH!

*Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.   

Biddeford history featured on Maine Public T.V.

Maine Public Television’s Maine Experience show has created a great segment on Biddeford history called “Biddeford’s Past Lives”. It is chock full of images from the library’s collection, and if you can watch it on a big television they are pretty stunning! Charles Butler from the Historical Society did a great job as “tour guide” in the show. It may possibly air again this Thursday the 6th at 8 pm (Channel 10)…if not then you should be able to stream the segment at the shows webpage in the near future!

Elizabeth Stevens, rock star!

Factory girl, philanthropist–Liz (my name for her) was co-featured in an article in the Journal Tribune Weekend edition for November 24/25, 2007. Come check it out at the library!  

While gathering information for the JT folks, I began to think about Liz and the concieved improbability of her actions. Who was she? How did she end up in Biddeford, and why was she alone? Where was her family, or did she have any? Where did that huge portrait of her hanging in the library come from? I can’t imagine she would have had that hanging in her room at her boarding house…was it a likeness made after her death just for the purpose of hanging in ”her” reading room? 

It makes me wonder whether women like Liz were anomolies, or just the opposite? I am convinced that there were lots of independent women out there, quietly impacting the world in amazing ways. It is difficult for us to know, since so few women were regarded as important enough to include in the many local histories written during the turn of the 19th century. So where’s the proof? Little clues like diaries, family stories, and newspaper blurbs can help us piece together the contributions women made in their communities. I’m glad that the interest in women’s history (and of other historically ignored segments of society) continues to grow, and as it does we can continue working to present a more holistic view of our past.   

Up and running!

I’m thrilled to say that McArthur’s History & Genealogy web page is up and running! I’m placing a link to it in my blogroll…so check it out! 

Document Transcription and the Fire of ‘47

Yesterday was a busy day for hands-on history!

The “Introduction to Transcribing Handwritten Documents” workshop we co-hosted with Maine Historical Society and the Saco Museum was great! There was a good turnout, and all the participants were really eager and excited for the FREE offering. There will definitely be an evening session of this workshop offered here at the McArthur…look for it this spring!

Last night I was lucky enough to attend John Anagnostis’ talk on the Fire of ’47 here at the library, and it was amazing. The room was packed, and what was so great about it was that after his personal remarks he opened the floor and people were sharing their own stories about the event. Powerful stuff…I only wish we had been recording or videotaping the event!