November 8, 2001
Opening a window on the past
The UW is partnering with the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), as well as with many of the smaller museums in King County, to create a digital archive of county history containing 12,000 images.
While the digital files will be housed on UW equipment, each museum will be able to display only those images that are part of its local collection, if it chooses – or it can give visitors access to the entire image file.
“We see this a potentially fabulous resource,” says Kody Janney, coordinator of the Digital Initiatives Program for UW Libraries. “It will be of value for anyone interested in county history, ranging from school-age children to adult researchers.”
The two-year project is funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Each of the three partners brings special elements to the project, and each will be responsible for providing a third of the images.
The UW, Janney says, will focus on its images of Seattle architecture and campus history. The Museum of History and Industry will concentrate on fairly recent images from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, to which it has secured rights. And the various small museums will bring their unique collections to the project.
The smaller museums, all affiliated with the Association of King County Historical Organizations, include the Black Diamond Historical Society, Black Heritage Society of Washington State, Eastside History Center, Northwest Railway Museum, Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, Renton Historical Museum, Shoreline Historical Society, White River Valley Museum, and Wing Luke Asian Museum. Some of these places may be hard for researchers to find and have restricted operating hours. Digitizing the images ensures wider access to their collections, and it also is an important step in the preservation process.
“We know that the White River Valley Museum has a unique collection of photographs of Asian Americans, especially those involved in agriculture,” Janney says. “The Eastside Heritage Center at Marymoor has special material related to the history of the Redmond area. Each museum has its own specialty. Because the settlement of Seattle and King County began in the 1850s, it has taken place during the age of photographs. The combined holdings will form a comprehensive history of the region.”
A project manager will work to minimize overlap among the online collections. Software developed at the UW allows each museum to display its own collections and also provide access across institutional collections. The software for the project, CONTENTdm, was developed by Greg Zick, professor of electrical engineering and director of the Center for Imaging Systems Optimization.
The UW will be hosting workshops for the participants on issues such as copyright and how to conduct historical research so that information about the photographs – what is known to librarians as metadata – is incorporated into the online collection. Each participant will come out of the project with at least one Web page and the ability to add to the collection as time and resources allow.
It’s a major step for the UW to build relationships with some smaller museums, Janney says. “MOHAI has played a crucial role in this, because the museum already has established some of those relationships. We’re developing a model of sustained cooperation among professional museums, academic libraries, and amateur historical societies and museums.”
