Going Digital: OWU, Delaware, and Methodist History Come Alive
OWU Library project named ‘Exemplary Program’
by State Library of Ohio
More than 3,150 digital images of historic photographs and documents are featured in a new collection that examines “Our Shared History: Delaware, Methodism, and Ohio Wesleyan University.”
Created by the Ohio Wesleyan Library, the new online archive was named an “Exemplary Program” by the State Library of Ohio in its Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) 2009 Program Report to the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
This collaborative project between Ohio Wesleyan and the Delaware County Historical Society involved a number of people in the Delaware community. Brent Carson, Sandy Wicker, and Maggie Webb of the Delaware County Historical Society worked closely with digital librarian and curator Emily Haddaway and Carol Holliger, archivist for the Archives of Ohio United Methodism (housed in Beeghly Library), to collect, identify, and write descriptions for each image or document. Most are from the 19th century.
Haddaway captured the images from fragile photos and documents with a $30,550 archival imaging scanner purchased with funds from a $47,000 one-year LSTA grant.
“Some of the materials we selected are very brittle, and being able to capture their content before it is lost and make it accessible to a larger audience is exciting,” Haddaway says.
Items scanned include manuscripts, photographs, letters, newspaper and periodical articles, postcards, published works and artifacts from three different collections: the Ohio Wesleyan University Historical Collection, the Archives of Ohio United Methodism, and the Delaware County Historical Society. Visitors to the online archive are able to conduct research using either simple keyword searches or more precise subject searches using Library of Congress subject headings assigned to each image.
“We are hoping that members of the OWU community will utilize this tool to answer basic research questions about OWU history,” Holliger says, “though by no means are researchers discouraged from visiting the Archives to view materials first hand. Answers to questions about the history of campus buildings, early faculty members, our early presidents, the Ohio Wesleyan Female College, and college events can all be found at this Web site. We do want to emphasize that most of the material deals with 19th century history. There is a timeline on the home page covering the period 1800-2009, a list of faculty members covering the period 1842-1901, and a chronological list of OWU presidents.”
In addition to collaborating with the Delaware County Historical Society, Ohio Wesleyan received assistance came from other community groups including the Delaware County Genealogical Society, Delaware City Schools, Delaware Gazette, and local churches and businesses.
The information is accessible online via the Ohio Wesleyan Digital Resource Commons (DRC), an initiative of OhioLINK’s Digital Resource Commons. This is a statewide platform for saving and sharing instructional, research, historical, and creative materials produced by the University System of Ohio and Ohio’s private colleges.
Though not part of the LSTA Grant, another special OWU collection available on this site is The Branch Rickey Collection, which contains digitally scanned historical photographs, university publications, and other materials featuring legendary baseball coach Branch Rickey, a 1904 Ohio Wesleyan graduate, and lifetime trustee.
Submitted by: Linda O'Hara, Ohio Wesleyan University |
