Jasper Public Library wants your old family pictures – updated
A grant awarded to the Jasper Public Library is making it easier for residents to not only learn more about their family history but also contribute to the state’s archives as well.
Through the funding of Indiana’s Library Services and Technology Act, the Jasper library’s genealogy program will be partnering with Indiana Memory, a statewide digital library, to bring the history of the county to life through the memories of its families. This will be the first database concentrating on Dubois County in the Indiana Memory program.
Erin Doyle, an assistant at the library since 2008, prepared the grant and is leading the way in bringing the project to life. Doyle said the catalyst for applying for the grant, totaling more than $4000, came from the intense interest in the library’s genealogy services both locally and nationally.
Doyle has assisted visitors from New York to Georgia and as far away as Hawaii. “We get people from all over the country visiting the Jasper library in order to view the collection of photos, reference books, and microfilm.” She stated.
Plans for the grant monies include a dedicated computer and scanner for the collection of photos as well as online access and a designated server. While the library itself will have a mobile computer that patrons can access, the library is also donating a touch-screen monitor to the Dubois County Museum so that visitors may access the collected data there as well.
Doyle hopes to eventually add data from the museum to the library’s collection and believes that the digitization capabilities of this project will also assist preservation for local churches and historical societies as well, plus a few other sources. “We’d love it if the high schools would let us scan their yearbooks,” she stated.
Another aspect of the project will bring a personalized element to Indiana history education for local fourth-grade students. Because of accessibility of the digital format, Doyle will be preparing teachers to use the website to access the database. Packets of information are “forthcoming,” she states, as the library wants to make sure the guide illustrates how to integrate the website into the state’s social studies standards.
“We’re hoping this will encourage school teachers to use this because it’s a primary source (of historic information),” Doyle explained.
Pending approval of the November referendum to fund the construction of the new library, Doyle stated that the genealogy department will continue to expand to include more microfilm readers, more computers, and additional genealogy resources.
“Maybe we would be able to collect actual photos at that point,” she said, noting that while people love to look for family photos at the library, they are understandably hesitant to give up their original copies. “And even if they did, where would we put them?”
Fortunately, plans for the grant monies provide an answer to those concerns. County residents can begin adding photos to the library’s collection, as well as to their own digital libraries, beginning in October. T
he library will be celebrating National Family History Month by inviting patrons to bring in their original family photos taken prior to the 1950s for inclusion in the database. In return, the first 250 contributors will take home digital copies of their scanned photos on new flash drives, which are also being funded by the grant.
The next photos to file days are Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
