Local history posted on Web

 

By Angela Fichera

C & G Staff Writer

     Residents in Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township, or anyone with Internet access, can read up on some local history this September.

     “Bloomfield Blossoms,” the first book on the history of Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Hills, will be digitized and placed on a Web site called “The Making of Modern Michigan,” a project aimed at empowering libraries throughout the state.

     The Bloomfield Township Bicentennial Commission published the 159-page book in 1976.

     “The Making of Modern Michigan” is a project of ATLAS, the Action Team for Library Advancement Statewide, an initiative of the Library of Michigan.

     “This is a two-year project that began Oct. 1, 2002, and it will conclude this September,” said Ruth Ann Jones, assistant head of the digital and multimedia center at Michigan State University Libraries. “Around 51 libraries from all over the state have contributed to this collection; 41 of those libraries received incentive grants, and we contacted the other participants,” she said.

     The Bloomfield Township Library received a $1,500 grant last year, which helped train some librarians for the project.

     “We were a recipient of a mini LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) grant and with that a few of our librarians learned how to scan and digitize information a well as about copyright issues and metadata standards,” said Bloomfield Township Library Director Karen Kotulis-Carter. Metadata is the term used to describe records that are available electronically — like the card catalog, but for electronic pieces of information. “We’re really excited about the whole thing,” she added.

     Michigan State University serves as the administrative host for the project, in cooperation with the Library of Michigan, the Michigan Library Consortium, and six regional digitization centers.

     Once all of the information has been added to the Web site, Jones said there will be some sound material as well as at least one collection of video material.

     “There will be a variety of different photographs from across the state, information about local businesses, events in small towns and the history of the state’s Upper Peninsula mining industry,” said Jones. “There will also be some recorded oral histories from older residents throughout Michigan and some high school yearbooks from years ago,” she said.

     According to Jones, there are quite a few states or regions that have done similar projects.

     “Seven or eight years ago, Colorado started a project called the Colorado Digitization Program, and it has since grown from a single state project to including a number of contiguous Western states,” said Jones. “We modeled our project after theirs, and in the future that would be a wonderful direction for the Great Lake states,” she said.

     The main goal of the project is to create an online collection of Michigan history and to train small libraries in digitization said Jones.

     “For the past 10 years, digitization has only been for large libraries, but this project allows smaller libraries to learn about it and do it as well,” said Jones.

     Michigan State University has partnered with the Superiorland Library Cooperative, the Traverse Area District Library, the University of Detroit-Mercy Libraries/ Media Services, the University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service, Wayne State University Digital Library Services and Western Michigan University Libraries for this project.

     “We believe that having ‘Bloomfield Blossoms’ online will be of great benefit to children and adult learners of all ages who are interested in the unique history of our area,”

     Although all of the historical information will not be ready for viewing until September, those interested in finding out more about “The Making of Modern Michigan” can visit http://mmm.lib.msu.edu/.

     You can reach Angela Fichera at afichera@candgnews.com