It certainly was dark and stormy over the weekend up by my house which means I pretty much had to amuse myself indoors.  As usual, I went out to the barn to ride and train my horse Prince. Fortunately, we have an indoor arena where we do 90% of our work. Unfortunately, the lights weren’t working yesterday. Well, not a biggie, Prince and I have no problems working is a less-than-well-lit ring, it’s not like we have stuff in the way that we might run over, and there are big skylights. The carts are set up against the wall and we have bright orange cones cordoning off the “guest seating” so as long as we can see the walls and the vague shapes of carts and cones, we’re pretty good (we eat a lot of carrots, Prince and I).  However, about halfway through our ride, just after noon, the thunderstorms rolled in. There wasn’t much lightening, which is good, because that would mean I would have had to get off and give up for the day, but there was some nice booms and well, the skylights kept getting darker and darker. So, here I am, riding a horse around in the semi-dark (the lights from the barn area were helping) during a thunderstorm, and yes, the ceiling was dripping and little puddles were forming here and there. Prince, being the level-headed horse he is, only jumped once – at the first clap of thunder. He was a bit wound after that, but kept himself calm. A lot of that came from the fact that he trusts me to save him from the monsters but then I had to trust him too – a) not to be an idiot and b) to watch for the puddles so he didn’t slip much (his eyesight, is, after all better than mine).  We cut the ride short because of the conditions, but after I got off, it made me start thinking…(yes, we’re getting to the point)

I started thinking about my ancestors, all these people hanging out on my family tree. They didn’t have a safe sandy arena to be riding their horses around in during a rainstorm – they were out there IN the rain storm. Horse was getting them from point A to point B – not learning how to do side passes or pivots or the Spanish Walk. No lights from the barn helping to light the way, reins slippery and wet with the rain, and spooky horse-eating shadows everywhere. They couldn’t see much either and they didn’t have nice soft sand underfoot – they had bumpy ground and tree roots and big puddles the size of small lakes. They too had to trust their horse to get them to their destination safely and I’m sure they did it and didn’t even think that much about it.  And then I started thinking about all the stories like that I would have loved to hear handed down from the ages. I have some – like a great grandfather several branches back who died when his wagon tipped over on the way home back from town. I remember hearing that story (and, actually, reading the newspaper story) and wondering what the heck was going on that a wagon tipped over? And yesterday, I got some perspective on that story – I don’t remember if it was raining or anything, but gees, a tree root sticking up in the wrong place, getting slightly off the path, who knows – it all would have been so easy to tip a wagon – even a sturdy farm wagon – even with level-headed horses.

So, there are 2 things I wanted to leave you to think about today:

1. Do your best to start writing those stories down! I would have loved to hear about the relationships between them and their horses and I know there were some good ones – after all I come from a long line of horse lovers.  To me stories like that would be the best treasures – EVER. So, when you are writing in your journal or recording family stories for later generations – don’t skip the mundane! To me the mundane can be fascinating. Even ole’ Charlie Sigwalt’s weather notations in the Civil War Diaries from Arlington Heights on Digital Past are fascinating in their own way – and it gives us a fantastic link to the past. And don’t forget to jot down those recipies in there too…
2. Take a moment in your busy life and try to see if what you’re doing right now can shine a little perspective on your ancestors’ lives. It might just give you a clue that creates a chink in that old brick wall or at least a new appreciation for the lives that were led before you.

First, we’ll be moving to CONTENTdm version 5.0 which was just released late last Fall. NSLS staff and a handful of beta testers have been doing all they can to find the bugs and get them fixed.  With the new version comes a completely rewritten – from the ground up – Project Client (previously known as Acquisition Station), faceted searching, the WorldCat search engine, full UNICODE compliance, better handling of pdfs, and other new features.

Second, the site will look completely and I mean, completely, different. We’re in the final stages of firming up the new design with the web designer.

Third, functionality will be vastly improved and highly interactive. NSLS staff have been busy building a slew of very cool applications for our users. Among these are:

• tagging
• commenting
• ability to append a photo to an existing Digital Past record (like if you have an updated photo of a building or something)
• geo-tagging (tagging with longitude and latitude with Google Maps)
• new browses: by decade, location (see above), institution, collection, etc.
• a Flickr tie-in
• a new section called Features which will highlight new and cool things appearing on the site, plus include news of the site.

And, in case anyone is keeping count out there, as of today we have 135,865 images in Digital Past that belong to 40+ institutions. We also have several new institutions that have joined but are waiting for “the Big Switch” to start adding items to the database. So, stay tuned! Timetable soon!!

• Camp Hood TX – soldiers in a Jeep
• Cincinnati OH – machine gun by Brunhoff
• a photo of a guy getting his haircut at Fort Sheridan

Where is the love for my very favorite card? I trust my horse, Prince, but not THAT far, and ok, he’s not a jumper anyway.  Or the love for those hilarious comical cards by Ray Walters that my Great Aunt Ethel (who we’ve mentioned here before) used to collect? When she passed away we had multiples upon multiples of these things – wish I knew where they’d all got to, but alas I don’t. I have a few and for that I should be thankful! Great memories – all of ‘em! If they spur some great memories for you – perhaps you’ll leave a comment and share the love!

We’ve only just started with a few images but after the “Big Switch” coming up for Digital Past, I hope to work with some more of our participants to add some of their goodies to the collection! Currently we have samples from Fort Sheridan, World War II, Detroit Publishing Cards (scenics), Funny Cards (see above), and the Century of Progress.

Also if you have your own Flickr account and have cool photos you’d think would fit in well with Digital Past, we have a Digital Past photo group that you can add your photos to! So get those scanners churning and add some goodies to the group!

Photographs, letters, journals, toys and even hand-carved lobster claw pegs were among the items in the collection, she said. Much of it had been kept until recently in Seaside Hall, a local recreational hall built in 1905 for plays and dances, according to the town Web site, www.swansisland.org. The hall was sold last year, and since then many of the historical items had been moved into the library, according to Bailey.

Some artifacts, such as old photo albums and letters, had been moved into the library within the past few weeks, she said.

I don’t know about you, but that gets me a bit concerned. What’s your disaster plan for your library and, especially, your local history archives or even, what’s your disaster plan for your own personal treasure troves? Have you considered digitization? In this case, if they have anything digitized, they at least have most of the content so it’s not a complete and total loss. Maybe it’s time your institution joined Digital Past and made digitization a priority? Think about it and then give me a call and we’ll talk…

• Chicago Botanic Garden – Lenhardt Library
• Morton Arboretum – Sterling Morton Library
• Chicago Zoological Society – Brookfield Zoo
• William Rainey Harper College

We have also seen several institutions that have been around for quite a while renewing their efforts, which is fantastic! There are also several new institutions considering their own digitization projects with Digital Past.

We are also building up (not so slowly) to the 100,000 item mark in Digital Past! As of today, we’re just over 92, 300.

Last week Digital Past was featured in the ALA (American Library Association) e-newsletter as their Digital Library of the Week.

Stay tuned for more Digital Past excitement!