:INFO
Town History Archive Website
Build a community history archive that digitizes and preserves local records, photos, and stories. Omeka is purpose-built for this and free to use with Omeka.net hosting.


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500 Items
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5 Years

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Collect the Materials
Partner with the local library, historical society, and senior center. Run a community scanning day where residents bring family photos. Accept donations of physical documents and photographs.

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Digitize Everything
Scan photos at 600 DPI minimum. Use a flatbed scanner for documents. Create a consistent file naming convention before you start. Back up to two locations immediately after scanning.

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Publish the Archive
Use Omeka or a WordPress site with image galleries. Add metadata to every item: date, location, people, event. Enable community comments so residents can add context to photos they recognize.

:CHECKLIST
Launch Checklist
[ ] Register a domain with the town name and history or archive
[ ] Set up Omeka.net or install Omeka S on shared hosting
[ ] Create item metadata schema before adding any items
[ ] Hold a community scanning day at the library
[ ] Add 50 items with full metadata before going public
[ ] Submit site to state historical society for linking
[ ] Write a press release for the local paper

:NOTE
Oral history recordings are as valuable as photographs. A simple USB microphone and Audacity can capture interviews with longtime residents. Store audio as lossless FLAC with MP3 copies for the web.


:LINK
https://omeka.org
Omeka Open Source Archiving Platform