CCPL Completes Yearbook Project!
We live in a world where digital media has become a normal part of life and that can sometimes present an obstacle for those of us who still prefer the tried and true form of printed materials. In some cases digital and print can come together to save the day and that was the case at the Central City Public Library. With many of the library’s Central City High School yearbooks beginning to show signs of wear and tear Sara Lee and the staff knew they needed to do something to preserve a part of history in Central City.
“As the yearbooks age, physical books become susceptible to damage, wear, and loss,” says Lee. “Digitizing of the yearbooks ensures the preservation of history for future generations. The glimpses of school history in the yearbooks and the memories that the images invoke, are a great way of providing a snapshot of what the community was like at that time in history.”
The library then partnered with Central City High School to access the yearbooks missing from the collection and began to have the books converted to a digital format. After a lengthy process the books can be viewed from all over the world via the library’s website.
The yearbooks were not the only massive undertaking by the Central City Library as they have also been working to convert local newspapers and make those available on their website as well.
“Digitizing and uploading the newspapers and yearbooks online, makes it super convenient for people to be able to access the information from the convenience of their homes from anywhere in the world,” says Lee. “The digitized newspapers are keyword searchable. So, this makes it very convenient for people to do searches for genealogy research,historic research, etc.” Lee notes that the project was a lengthy one, but it is worth it to hear stories of people using the database for research and viewing numbers show that the project has been a success with a high traffic flow.
