NSLS Blogs

Home » Blogs » Illuminated Heritage

RSS

Illuminated Heritage

April 25, 2006

Tuesday’s Treasure

I have to say, finding a treasure for you every week is an awful lot of fun for me. So much fun, it should be illegal! But in my wanderings through the paths of the past, I find things even I was not aware of…well, there are going to be a lot of those since we have nearly 43, 000 records in Digital Past right now. Anyway, I stumbled upon this photo of Jane Addams while she was attending Rockford Female Seminary – now Rockford College. Now that I think about it, I did know this but hey, nothing like shedding some light on it for you! This is from the Rockford College collection under the Rockford Public Library umbrella. For more info, you know what to do!

posted by Kay at 2:00 pm | Comments (0)

Digital Past Updates

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Digital Past update! A few things participants need to know:
- We are in the process of upgrading our license from 64,000 items to unlimited items as we now have over 43,000 items in Digital Past.
- This summer we will be updating our software from the version we are running (3.7) to the newest version (4.1). This is a major change and training will be offered after the upgrade is finished. I will keep you informed of changes and timetables and how they will affect you. If you are not already on the digitize listserv, please send me your e-mail address and I will add you. The listserv is our main form of communication to our participants and is very low volume.
- As you may have read in nsls.info last week, we’ve had phenomenal growth this year. We started the year with 23 participants and are now up to 29.

Keep up the good work everyone! We do have Digital Past demos coming up on May 2 and May 12 – check out our Professional Development Calendar to sign up for these free informative sessions!

posted by Kay at 10:55 am | Comments (0)

April 21, 2006

Creative Use of Blogs

Ok, so I’m a few days behind in my blog reading, but one of my favorites is the LibrarianInBlack. She has such insightful and interesting things to say that I just have to read her stuff! Anyway, in this entry she talks about some creative use of blogging for genealogy – a local history archive and an obituary index. Perhaps this is something you can consider doing in your library?

posted by Kay at 2:50 pm | Comments (0)

April 20, 2006

Holocaust Archives to Open

That’s right, Germany has agreed to open the 30 million documents held at the International Tracking Service regarding WWII victims. These have been closed to the public and historians due to privacy concerns, understandably as these documents can be very detailed and graphic in nature. On May 16th the 11 countries that oversee the archive will be meeting and during that meeting it will be decided on when and in what way the archives will open. For the full story…

posted by Kay at 9:21 am | Comments (0)

April 19, 2006

Calling All Family Bibles

This is interesting! A library in Georgia is asking residents to bring in their family Bibles so that the BMD information can be copied out of it. Perhaps that’s a way to work on your own archives as well?

posted by Kay at 11:19 am | Comments (0)

April 18, 2006

Tuesday’s Treasure

Believe it or not, we do have 3-D images in Digital Past. For today’s amusement, I found a rather unusual one in the Rolling Meadows Public Library’s collections. This is a beer can from their 25th anniversary in 1980. For the full effect, click here!

posted by Kay at 2:00 pm | Comments (0)

April 17, 2006

Ethnicity Trends in America

Matthew Frye Jacobson has written a thought-provoking article about The White Ethnic Revival available on George Mason University’s History News Network site. He discusses the trends in referring to our roots such as Irish-American or Italian-American and attempts to trace it back. Although you may or may not agree with everything he says, it’s interesting reading.

posted by Kay at 3:14 pm | Comments (0)

April 13, 2006

Digital Past Update!

Since I just sent out an update to the NSLS staff about Digital Past, I figured I’d post it here too!

Since January, Digital Past has expanded from 23 participants to 29! This is amazing growth for the project. We currently have over 43,200 items cataloged in the database. Our newest participants include:
Mitchell Museum of the American Indian (made possible by a grant from the Bay & Paul Foundations)
Graham Hospital School of Nursing (made possible by a grant from the National Library of Medicine)
Elgin Community College
Algonquin Area Public LIbrary District

We have several others that aren’t “officially” on yet, but once they are I will be sure to post here! We also have several others we hear are leaning towards joining! It’s a very busy and very exciting time for Digital Past! Don’t forget that we have the Digitization Center here and it is available – scanners, software, and audio/video conversion equipment!

We are planning to do the migration to version 4.1 this summer, so stay tuned for more information on that as well!!

posted by Kay at 3:34 pm | Comments (0)

April 12, 2006

Medieval English Genealogy

Ooh…this looks like an EXCELLENT resource for anyone capable of going back before 1600 in the English family tree. Medieval English Genealogy is a huge group of resources and information made available by an amateur genealogist. I haven’t had a lot of time to poke around, but I definitely bookmarked it for further exploration. I do have one itty bitty branch of the family back before 1600 and I plan on spending some time exploring the links provided on this site. Give it a try yourself and let me know what you think…

posted by Kay at 11:52 am | Comments (0)

April 11, 2006

Tuesday’s Treasure

For today, I thought I’d see if I could find something Easter-y as I try to find related items for holidays/events/seasons. So, in my rooting around, I found this nice photo of the 1937 Sunday School class on Easter Sunday at Fort Sheridan. Look at all those cute little faces and their dapper outfits, oh yea and the parents too. This is from the Lake County Discovery Museum’s Fort Sheridan collection. Click here for the big picture!

posted by Kay at 2:00 pm | Comments (0)

Next Page »