Highsmith Award Acceptance Speech 2002
Assistant Director Andy Barnett
on behalf of McMillan Memorial Library
If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire library and more
to qualify for this award. McMillan's local history on-line program is an
example of a project that needed an entire community to be successful. Virtually
every person in the library was part of the program and community involvement
was essential.
- To begin with, no library wins an award for innovation, not once but twice
in row, unless the staff has excellent support from their director and
Library Board. Ron McCabe has created an environment that encourages the
staff to think expansively while putting community needs first.
- Don Litzer, our Head of Adult Services, won this award last year for his
McMillan Coffeehouse series. He was a critical player in this program,
cementing our relationships with local genealogists and serving as a
co-creator, error checker and sounding board.
- Virtually every member of the library staff was involved, helping to
proofread or retype documents.
- South Central Library System, who hosts our web site, watched in
fascinated horror as it grew to over 600 MB, consuming a great deal of their
new server.
We received generous cooperation from our community.
- The Mead-Witter Foundation gave us an important grant that helped us get
off the ground.
- The South Wood County Historical Corporation loaned us unique materials
from their collection.
- Local genealogists, especially Marlys Steckler, Joan Benner and Barbara
Johnson, created finding aides and lists and donated them to the library.
- The Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune helped publicize the program.
- Several copyright holders agreed to let us digitize and place their works
on the Internet. They include the University of Wisconsin Press and the
Badger State Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division Association.
McMillan's Local History On-Line program started almost by accident, but we
were able to take advantage of some unique opportunities to develop a sizeable
digital collection. Along the way we developed three guiding principles.
- Use other people's money. Relatively small LSTA or foundation grants can
allow you to outsource significant projects.
- Use other people's time. Local genealogists are a great resource. They
will create documents for you and get you leads on what is available.
- Keep things simple and low-key in-house. We used only standard office
hardware and software and made it clear that the program had a low priority.
But low priority is a lot better than no priority.
We think that digitizing local history is a small but important part of the
mission of the public library. To assist other libraries, we have prepared and
placed on the Internet several guides to "how we digitized our library
good." The on-line version of this speech will include links to those
documents. There is also a chapter in my forthcoming book, Libraries Community
and Technology (McFarland 2003), which deals with the subject.
Some Digitization Resources
Local History On-Line - http://www.mcmillanlibrary.org/local/local_history.html
The award-winning web site.
McMillan Memorial Library Programs - http://www.mcmillanlibrary.org/ref/internet_computer.html#digitize
Three on-line programs from McMillan and the University of Wisconsin - Stevens
Point.
Library Digitization Projects and Copyright by Mary Minow, J.D. - http://www.llrx.com/features/digitization.htm
This is the best available guide to copyright for librarians considering
digitization projects.
Handbook For Digital Projects: A Management Tool for Preservation and
Access - http://www.nedcc.org/digital/dighome.htm
Strategies for Building Digitized Collections by Abby Smith - http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub101/contents.html
Two good guides for libraries considering digitization.