UpFront with NGS: DPLA

Showing posts with label DPLA. Show all posts

04 January 2017

Meet the winners of GIF IT UP

Meet the winners of GIF IT UP

GIF IT UP is a fun event sponsored annually by the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and in 2016 in association with Europeana and Trove (Australia).

GIF IT UP is DPLA’s annual international gif-making competition. A GIF (or Graphics Interchange Format) is an image format that supports using multiple frames to create motion graphics in a continuous loop, allowing us to seemingly bring still images and other cultural heritage materials to life …

… GIF IT UP was created to promote appreciation of the public domain and creative engagement with digitized cultural heritage materials. The most important part is to have fun and to share cool stuff in awesome ways.

Check out these winners here and use the link at the bottom to check out all the entries on Tumblr and GIPHY. “As you browse the entries, you will see an amazing array of cultural heritage materials re-mixed and re-made into fun, creative and inspired animated gifs.”

This contest provides a fun way to explore cultural heritage materials dynamically.

Which one is your favorite?

Are there any iconic genealogically-inspired recognizable images that might be converted to GIFs?

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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29 September 2016

Want to have some fun with historic images? GIF IT UP might be for you! (starts 1 October)

Want to have some fun with historic images? GIF IT UP might be for you! (starts 1 October)

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is again holding it GIF IT UP competition starting 1 October.

Here is the scoop …

Calling all gif makers, creatives, history nuts, animators, and more! GIF IT UP — DPLA’s annual competition seeking innovative and endlessly looping uses of archival videos and images — returns on October 1.

The rules are simple:

1. Find your favorite piece of copyright-free material from DPLA, Europeana, Trove, or DigitalNZ

2. Create a sweet gif

3. Submit it for a chance to win some nifty prizes

To find out more about the 2016 competition, including available prizes and submission rules, visit https://dp.la/info/gif-it-up/.

… GIF IT UP is all about exploring DPLA and the other participating digital libraries for the perfect piece of open content. If you’re not sure what type of material you should be looking for when creating a gif, here are some helpful suggestions to get you started.

Seeking some inspiration? Check out the winners from 2015 and 2014.

Which GIF IT UP past winner is your favorite?

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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21 July 2016

DPLA and FamilySearch Partner to Expand Access to Digitized Historical Books Online

DPLA and FamilySearch Partner to Expand Access to Digitized Historical Books Online

Last month DPLA and FamilySearch announced the following …

BOSTON/SALT LAKE CITY— In concert with the American Library Association national conference in Orlando, Florida, this week, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and FamilySearch International, the largest genealogy organization in the world, have signed an agreement that will expand access to FamilySearch.org’s growing free digital historical book collection to DPLA’s broad audience of users including genealogists, researchers, family historians, students, and more.

Family history/genealogy continues to be a popular and growing hobby. And FamilySearch is a leader in the use of technology to digitally preserve the world’s historic records and books of genealogical relevance for easy search and access online. With this new partnership, DPLA will incorporate metadata from FamilySearch.org’s online digital book collection that will make more than 200,000 family history books discoverable through DPLA’s search portal later this year. From DPLA, users will be able to access the free, fully viewable digital books on FamilySearch.org.

The digitized historical book collection at FamilySearch.org includes genealogy and family history publications from the archives of some of the most important family history libraries in the world. The collection includes family histories, county and local histories, genealogy magazines and how-to books, gazetteers, and medieval histories and pedigrees. Tens of thousands of new publications are added yearly.

“We’re excited to see information about FamilySearch’s vast holdings more broadly circulated to those trained to collect, catalog, and distribute useful information. Joint initiatives like this with DPLA help us to further expand access to the rich historic records hidden in libraries and archives worldwide to more curious online patrons,” said David Rencher, FamilySearch’s Chief Genealogy Officer.

Dan Cohen, Executive Director of DPLA, sees the addition of FamilySearch’s digital book collection as part of DPLA’s ongoing mission to be an essential site for family history researchers: “At DPLA, we aspire to collect and share cultural heritage materials that represent individuals, families, and communities from all walks of life across the country, past and present. The FamilySearch collection and our continued engagement with genealogists and family researchers is critical to help bring the stories represented in these treasured resources to life in powerful and exciting ways.”

FamilySearch is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery and preservation of personal and family histories and stories, introducing individuals to their ancestors through the widespread access to records, and collaborating with others who share this vision. Within DPLA, FamilySearch’s book collection will be discoverable alongside over 13 million cultural heritage materials contributed by DPLA’s growing network of over 2,000 libraries, archives, and museums across the country, opening up all new possibilities for discovery for users and researchers worldwide.

Find more about FamilySearch or search its resources online at FamilySearch.org. Learn more about Digital Public Library of America at https://dp.la.

You can access the Family History Books collection of FamilySearch here. Some of my favorite places for digitized books are Internet Archive and HathiTrust.

What is your favorite portal for accessing digitized genealogy-related books?

Editor’s Note: Previous Upfront with NGS posts regarding Digital Books …

+ FREE Collection of Books Now Available on MyHeritage

+ Genealogy Book Links

+ FREE Resources for Online Digitized Genealogy & Family History Books

Editor’s Note: Previous Upfront with NGS posts on DPLA can be found here and on FamilySearch can be found here.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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07 July 2016

Libraries + Historypin Mapping the History of Rural America

Libraries + Historypin Mapping the History of Rural America

Context is so important to history and history is so important to genealogy. They are so inextricably intertwined!

That’s why it’s great to read about a new Knight’s Foundation News Challenge grant award winning project involving Historypin and libraries.

The project is called Our Story and “Its aim is to help rural libraries in New Mexico, North Carolina, and Louisiana establish programs that will share and preserve the history of their communities.”

As revealed in How Libraries Can Help Map the History of Rural America …

Part of the program will use Historypin’s platform, launched in 2011 as a way to essentially map the past: Organizations and individuals can share photos of what their neighborhoods or towns once looked like. The photos are then grouped into collections and “pinned” to Google Maps. Visitors, in turn, can search for photos by time, location, or subject. And users can also overlay photos onto Google Street View to see just how much a place has changed.

Images + Historical Context + Mapping is an extremely powerful combination as a means of preserving history.

Check out all the winners of the Knight News Challenge (How might libraries serve 21^st century information needs).

How have you used Historypin?

What would you like to see your library do to better serve its 21^st century users? Any specific genealogically-related requests?

Editor’s note: Related Upfront with NGS posts -- Explore amazing Olympics photos on a Historypin picture map (2012), National Archives Joins Historypin (2011)

When you #StartWithaSmile on #PrimeDay (12 July 2016), Amazon donates to National Genealogical Society. Shop for great deals at http://smile.amazon.com/gp/charity/homepage.html?orig=%2Fgp%2Fbrowse.html%3Fnode%3D11448061011&ein=52-0745713

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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21 October 2015

DPLA Fest 2016 will be held in Washington DC 14-15 April

Here’s a save the calendar message from the sponsors of this important event ...

Mark your calendars! We’re thrilled to announce that DPLAfest 2016—the third annual celebration of DPLA and its broad community—will take place on April 14-15, 2016 in Washington, DC. The hosts for DPLAfest 2016 include some of our nation’s most esteemed and important cultural institutions: The National Archives and Records Administration, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress.

“To have these three remarkable American institutions join forces to host DPLAfest is a dream come true,” said Dan Cohen, DPLA’s Executive Director. “We cannot wait to join them, along with so many others, to celebrate how together our country’s libraries, archives, and museums are making vast resources available to all.”

Taking place in the heart of Washington, DC, DPLAfest 2016 will bring together hundreds of people from DPLA’s large and growing community over two days for interactive workshops, hackathons and other collaborative activities, engaging discussions with community leaders and practitioners, fun events, and more. DPLAfest 2016 will appeal to anyone interested in libraries, technology, eBooks, education, creative reuse of cultural materials, law, open access, and genealogy/family research.

“We are pleased to welcome DPLA back to the National Archives,” said Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero. “We are proud to be a leading DPLA content provider and to co-host this exciting event with our colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress.”

“The Library of Congress is excited to join with the National Archives and the Smithsonian to host next spring’s DPLAfest. This promises to be an excellent event, and I am looking forward to it,” said David S. Mao, the Deputy Librarian of Congress.

“The Smithsonian is pleased to co-host the 2016 DPLAfest with the Library of Congress and the National Archives,” said David J. Skorton, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. “DPLA provides an essential platform for sharing our digital assets with the nation and the world.”

DPLAfest is an annual series of workshops, presentations, and discussions bringing together librarians, archivists, and museum professionals, developers and technologists, publishers and authors, teachers and students, and many others to celebrate DPLA and its community of creative professionals. The fest takes place in different locations each year and is open to the public. DPLAfest 2015 was co-hosted by the Indianapolis Public Library, Indiana State Library, Indiana Historical Society, and the IUPUI University Library. Those great institutions were proud to host well over 300 attendees from across the world for two-days of events.

Further information about DPLAfest 2016 — including ways to pitch workshop ideas, check out an early agenda, and learn more about the venues — will be made available in the coming months. Registration is tentatively scheduled to open in Winter 2015/16.

You can keep up to date about DPLAfest 2016 by subscribing to our news list, bookmarking the DPLAfest 2016 homepage, keeping tabs on our news and blog feed, or following us on Twitter and Facebook.

See you in Washington in April 2016!

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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28 August 2015

New Funding support for Digital Public Library of America facilitates a push to serve all 50 states by 2017!

It’s always nice to read about how Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) keeps growing! Digital Public Library of America makes push to serve all 50 states by 2017 with $3.4 million from the Sloan and Knight foundations.

This is a wonderful resource. It’s unlikely that you will find your ancestor listed and you will likely gain some historical context for the period of time during which they lived or the community they lived in!

Share your best find from DPLA.

Editor’s Note: More posts about DPLA.

+ Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Continues to Expand (2015)

+ Digital Public Library Launches TODAY (2013)

+ Digital Public Library of America -- 1st Plenary Meeting, 21 October, National Archives (DC) (2011)

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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25 February 2015

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Continues to Expand

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) continues to expand!

DPLA welcomes four new Service Hubs: Tennessee, Maryland, Maine, and the Caribbean. The notification goes into some detail about what entities are involved with these new hubs; often several different archives as part of a partnership/consortium.

There is a map at the bottom of this announcement showing Service Hubs, Service Hub partner states, Hubs in active development and 2015 applicants.

The collection currently includes over 8 million items from libraries, archives, and museums.

Want to learn more about this great resource, check out the Tutorials & Introductory Videos page. This gives you perspective on the project as well as some helpful information about how to best access the available collected and growing history of America.

As always, do not assume that you will only find information in repositories located in the same geographic location of your locale of interest. I searched on “Wake County” and came up with a list of materials from local institutions and also from institutions in Boston (MA), NYC, MD, VA, UT, SC and other locations! In the past, it would have been very hard to identify, never mind visit, these out-of-state repositories for information about Wake County (NC).

"Wake County" NC records are found in many repositories outside of NC -- I bet the same holds true for whatever locale you are researching!

Sometimes it almost feels like so many neat collections of records and so little time!

There will be another call for DPLA Hubs this June (2015). If your state is currently not represented, this could be an opportunity for them to join this vibrant growing online digital library.

Editor’s note: Previous Upfront with NGS posts about DPLA ...

+ (2013) Digital Public Library Launches TODAY

+ (2012) Making local history digital, searchable and accessible -- Seven pilot sites join national digital library project

+ (2011) Digital Public Library of America -- 1st Plenary Meeting, 21 October, National Archives (DC)

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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