Discovering Clearwater's Hidden Treasures

FAIN: PY-234444-16

Clearwater Public Library System (Clearwater, FL 33755-4029)
Linda Rothstein (Project Director: June 2015 to April 2017)

As part of the city’s centennial celebration in 2016, the Clearwater Public Library in Florida would hold digitization events at its five branches to capture residents’ historical documents, photographs, and artifacts. Following the digitization events, each branch would host a lecture to reveal the items discovered, featuring local history experts discussing the history of Clearwater and the branch’s neighborhood. Digitized materials would be made available via the library’s Pinellas Memory Project website. As one of the earliest points of contact between the Old World and the New, Clearwater’s history includes unsuccessful Spanish missions, railroad development, the sponge industry, and beach tourism. Each of the five library branches represents a unique constituency, including: an area mainly frequented by tourists with a small number of permanent residents; a planned community; a Spanish-speaking enclave; and one of Florida's first suburban neighborhoods.

In celebration of its centennial anniversary and as an extension of its “Pinellas Memory” project, the Clearwater Public Library System proposes the digitization, description and display of historical documents, photographs, artifacts and oral histories by the residents of the city. In order to accomplish this goal, the library would hold a digitization event at all of its five branches, each of which represents a diverse section of the city. The library would subsequently stage a lecture at each branch to reveal to participants and the public what items were discovered during the digitization event and how they relate to the history of the city. After indexing and tagging, items digitized at each event would be made available to the public via the library’s Pinellas Memory Project website (http://pinellasmemory.org/).

Associated Products

Discovering Clearwater's Hidden Treasures (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)
Title: Discovering Clearwater's Hidden Treasures
Author: Clearwater Public Library System
Abstract: A collection of photographs, documents, objects and oral histories collected from current and past residents of Clearwater, Florida, in fulfillment of the Clearwater Public Library System's NEH Common Heritage grant award.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://cdm15989.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/collection/p15989coll9
Primary URL Description: Pinellas Memory
Access Model: Open access.

The Heritage Studio of Community Memory (Center)
Name: The Heritage Studio of Community Memory
Abstract: The NEH Common Heritage grant award helped provide start-up equipment and the time and training for the Clearwater Public Library System to determine the best tools and formats to offer to the public in the Heritage Studio of Community Memory. Patrons may now utilize the Heritage Studio to digitize their own items, or they may employ the “Memvelope” service to have a limited number of their items digitized by library staff. Patrons must supply their own digital media for conservation. The Heritage Studio offers stations where patrons can reserve time to digitize a number of formats, including popular home-video formats VHS and Betamax, as well as camcorder formats hi8, MiniDV, and compact VHS-C. Patrons may reserve the Photo Station to batch-scan photographs, or use a special transparency scanner to scan negatives and slides. The Audio Station offers a reel-to-reel audio tape player, as well as vinyl, audio cassette, and microcassette players, all with digitizing capability. Users can make use of three Projector Stations to convert 16 mm, 8 mm, and Super8 films. The Large Format Scanner will scan documents up to 33.5 inches wide and 23 inches tall in order to capture big books, rare newspapers, magazines, large advertising materials, and artwork. The Heritage Studio of Community Memory is located on the 4th floor of the Clearwater Main Library at 100 North Osceola Avenue in Clearwater, Florida, and is open during library hours and by appointment. The Heritage Studio is open to the public and no library card is needed in order to use the Studio. Library staff are available to get users started and to help solve any technical problems.
Director: Currently vacant
Year: 2017
Address: 100 N Osceola Ave Clearwater, FL 33755
Primary URL: https://myclearwaterlibrary.librarymarket.com/reserve-room/room?room_type%5B445%5D=445&op=Apply&form_build_id=form-VR6sfuMJ7zWPDeVwfGHwsfUKyClPy5UgX36Ut61TPhs&form_id=lc_reserve_by_time
Primary URL Description: This is the web page where patrons may get information about the Heritage Studio and what it offers. They can also make reservations to use the equipment from this page.
Secondary URL: https://www.myclearwaterlibrary.com/Services/Use-the-Memvelope-Service
Secondary URL Description: This is the web page where patrons may get information about the Memvelope service. They can also download the policies and forms required to have items digitized by library staff.

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