The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project at the Society of Ohio Archivists Annual Conference

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Hello! I want to welcome our blog visitors from the Society of Ohio Archivists’ Annual Conference! Today, the University of Cincinnati Libraries’ Special Collections division is presenting during the 10:00am concurrent session:

We Look at Giants: The University of Cincinnati Archival Grant Projects
This session will look at two federal grant projects of University of Cincinnati special collections division, examining their implementation and the efforts at building diverse research audiences throughout the grant periods rather than at the conclusion of the projects. Important to the success of the grants is the concerted effort to develop outreach methods that effectively generate public support as the work progresses, and to clearly convey the national or international importance of the individuals whose papers were the subject of the grants. In this way, the sustainability of the projects and the preservation of the heritage they represent is strengthened for future research and pedagogical assignments from secondary through collegiate levels, as well as by professional scholars and journalists.

For the session, my colleague Laura Laugle and I are presenting on our processing blogs for the Theodore M. Berry and Albert B. Sabin projects. For the purposes of our presentation, a processing blog allows us to share with our potential audience the work that goes on behind the scenes when preparing a collection for use.

Theodore Berry with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Theodore M. Berry Project

Here are Laura’s links for her presentation on the Theodore M. Berry Project blog:

The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project

During my segment of the session, I will be referring to some blog posts and how they helped me with my outreach endeavors at the Winkler Center. So you can have them at your fingertips quickly, here are the links:

Dr. Albert Sabin posing with a baby

Connecting to Other Archives/Archivists

Connecting to Potential Project Stakeholders

(In this case, I would define “stakeholder” simply as someone who has or may have interest in a project.)

Tools to Help with Blogging

One of the main tools I use for ideas for blog posts about Dr. Sabin is Google Alerts. If you are afraid you will run out of things to write about when starting a blog, this tool will help you by emailing you whenever your topic of interest shows up! Here is a sample blog post that was written because of information from Google Alerts: The Albert B. Sabin Digitization Project: An Influential Man.

If you are interested in learning more about blogging and other web 2.0 tools, check out 23 Things for Archivists.

Finally, if you would like to learn more about the Sabin project, feel free to follow the Winkler Center on Facebook or check out the Sabin Digitization Grant blog.

For the Berry Project: In 2010, the University of Cincinnati Libraries received a $61,287 grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archives and Records Administration to fully process the Theodore M. Berry Collection in the Archives & Rare Books Library. All information and opinions published on the Berry project website and in the blog entries are those of the individuals involved in the grant project and do not reflect those of the National Archives and Records Administration. We gratefully acknowledge the support of NARA.

For the Sabin project: In 2010, the University of Cincinnati Libraries received a $314,258 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to digitize the correspondence and photographs of Dr. Albert B. Sabin. This digitization project has been designated a NEH “We the People” project, an initiative to encourage and strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture through the support of projects that explore significant events and themes in our nation’s history and culture and that advance knowledge of the principles that define America. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.