This week’s resource is from New Hampshire, but I think it is one of the most innovative digital library sites out there. Casey Bisson and the folks at Plymouth State University are compiling an online photo archive of the the Brown Paper Company, the now defunct paper company in Berlin, NH.
What makes this site interesting? In addition to making archival scans from a collection of over 11,000 photos, they are being fed through a blog. As a result, members of the Berlin community, former Brown employees, etc. can comment on images, identify the people or places in them, and explain often arcane paper manufacturing processes. Moreover, interested researchers can tag photographs using their own terms for future use. In this way, collections are not just fed to researchers: they become interactive and a community of interested users can develop around them.
We are exploring ways to do the same with some of our collections here at UNH. In the meantime, explore and enjoy the good work of our colleagues at Plymouth.
As the library director at Plymouth State University and with my life-long professional interest in archives and the dissemination of primary materials, Beyond Brown Paper has been one of our many success stories in the library. This tremendously popular digital project has been possible using open source software called Scriblio, which was created by our library’s information architect, Casey Bisson; the ongoing outreach efforts of Alice Staples, Special Collections and Archives librarian, and Susan Jaroz, her Library Associate; and the dedicated technical processing of the photographs by Dr. Charles E. Brown. Kudoes to such a great staff!
David Berona
PSU Library Director
Comment by David Berona — November 15, 2007 @ 12:35 pm
The exciting aspect of the Beyond Brown Paper site for me, as someone who has worked in archives for 20 years, is to see the community whose story the archive tells in a silent and passive fashion giving some voice to that story and turning the archive into an active (or interactive) experience. To participate in sharing the history of a community and an industry that is disappearing with the world at large is one thing, but to share it WITH that community, benefiting from its input via blog software, is especially exciting.
Roland Goodbody
Manuscripts Curator
UNH Library Special Collections
Comment by Roland Goodbody — November 15, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
Comment by Idetrorce — December 15, 2007 @ 11:11 am