Wiregrass Common Heritage Project

FAIN: PY-234360-16

Troy State University Main Campus (Troy, AL 36082-0001)
Martin Tyner Olliff (Project Director: June 2015 to March 2017)

Digitization of materials about the Wiregrass region, which spans southeast Alabama, southwest Georgia, and northwest Florida, and public programs including a workshop on African American genealogical sources in Alabama. The applicant would partner with the Dothan Landmarks Foundation and Houston-Love Memorial Library to host two community scanning days, post digitized items to the Alabama Mosaic repository, provide public programming intended to engage residents of this region, and commemorate the history of the region, named for the tough grass that fed cattle. While preserving the history of this under-documented region, the project would also provide community training in recording and capturing community archives.

The Wiregrass Archives (WA) of Troy University, working with the Dothan Landmarks Foundation and Houston-love Memorial Library, will host two community scanning days in Dothan, AL. Five scanning teams will digitize and capture Dublin Core metadata from community-supplied photographs and documents. Scanned copies will become property of the WA, which will post them to its website and social media sites, and submit them to the statewide digital database, Alabama Mosaic. WA will provide scanned copies to community donors via thumb drives. A metadata consultant and scanning supervisors will train and supervise scanning team members, and we will recruit local senior citizens to provide historical content information and context about scanned images and documents. WA will host training, two community workshops on preserving family archives and African American genealogical sources, and a project summary presentation. WA will build a traveling exhibit of appropriate scans.