A region-wide series of public programs and a digitization event hosted by the Whittier Library and the Whitter Museum that would solicit cultural heritage materials from local citizens documenting the important history of postwar Whittier, California, and its rapid suburbanization. Employing established local networks and staff of the library and the museum, the project will support two public programs featuring a presentation of the library’s holdings and a lecture about the region’s history. A culminating event at the library would feature a slideshow and contextual interpretation of the public’s digitized artifacts, which would be on display permanently in the Whittier’s digital archives.

This project will encourage community members to contribute to the library’s digital collections photographs, documents, ephemera, and artifacts representing the post-war era in Whittier (1940s-1960s). Bilingual promotional materials and invitations to community leaders will be used to focus outreach on Whittier’s Latino community, which makes up 66% of incorporated Whittier, 77% of South Whittier, and 87% of West Whittier. Programs will highlight Whittier’s Latino population during a time of transition in Whittier history. A population explosion, the development of ranch and orchard land into suburban housing, and the extension of the 605 freeway into West Whittier are examples of major changes to be explored in public programming. This project will build on the California State Library grant-funded Shades of Whittier digitization project, as well as the recently-awarded ALA grant “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History,” to diversify Whittier's digital archives.

A one-day digitization event to be held at the Sonoma County Japanese American Citizens’ League for former internees of the Amache Japanese internment camp located near Granada, Colorado, and their descendants. Digitization would be organized by staff of Sonoma State University’s Anthropological Studies Center (ASC); items to be digitized would include photographs, documents, posters, and three-dimensional objects. Audiovisual materials would be digitized off-site at the ASC. Scanned images would reside in the Amache Museum’s digital image collection; many would also be available to the public on the Amache Preservation Society website. Public programming would be centered on the theme of art and creativity, and would consider the objects of beauty created by internees in such difficult circumstances. Programming would consist of an art exhibition of digitized images five months after the digitization day, and a presentation by co-directors of the digitization project on research at Amache before it.

The documents, photographs, artwork, and other mementos and artifacts created at Colorado’s WWII internment camp, Amache, are cherished by the Amache community—a multi-generational population linked by their ties to the incarceration of people of Japanese descent. These objects represent the resilience, creativity, and ingenuity of the internees and provide insights into their experiences. The Amache Digitization Project will preserve and share the experiences and heritage of the Amache community. The Project will digitally preserve these tangible objects of heritage so that descendants can distribute and cherish them for generations to come and the public can appreciate the lessons and insights they contain. Public programming will highlight the topic of art and creativity behind barbed wire by exhibiting particularly evocative items in a gallery as well as online. This will allow them to be recognized and valued as important pieces of art while celebrating the stories and legacies of the people who created them.

Collaboration between the Latah County Historical Society and the University of Idaho Library to conduct the digitization of materials related to the history of Moscow, Idaho (home to the University of Idaho), and public programming on digital history sources and community archives. The project would center on a digitization day and a public launch event including lectures on local history, as well as two exhibits that would be displayed at both partner institutions. A digital collection of scanned cultural materials would be preserved by the university and made publicly accessible.

The University of Idaho Library (UI Library) and Latah County Historical Society (LCHS) will host a day-long Common Heritage Event and additional public lectures on digital scholarship and community archives in Moscow, Idaho. The event will enable community members to work with the UI Library's experienced staff to digitize and create metadata for their cultural heritage materials. These materials will eventually become the Latah County Common Heritage Digital Collection, which will be made available online through the UI Library's website. Afterwards, we will host a digital collection launch party that will feature local experts on themes that emerged from the materials and the importance of community-generated archives. Two physical exhibits will also be created to feature materials from the collection. Together, these events will benefit future study of Idaho history by collecting historical materials that document underrepresented eras in both the UI Library and LCHS collections.

A one-day digitization event to preserve moving-image-related resources related to the history of Denton, Texas, which was a vibrant commercial and amateur film community in the early to mid-20th century. Free, online access to the digitized material would be available via the Portal to Texas History. Public programming at venues across the state would be developed in collaboration with the Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI). Through public screenings and discussion events, an exhibit on Texas media history, and the Web portal, the project would contextualize the historical materials and prompt audiences to consider the cultural importance of historical preservation, with a special emphasis on home movies and commercial films.

The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries seek $11,840 to provide access to the rich visual histories of Denton, Texas.  This project will support the digitization of community materials related to the motion picture history of Denton, TX including 40,000 feet of film, 300 hours or videotape, and 1,000 documents. The project will support access and education by providing unrestricted online access to digitized content and public programming that will situate Denton with Texas’s film history.  Denton has a long but unexplored history of commercial and amateur film production dating to 1913 when the city funded a film about their town, Denton: City of Education.  Unfortunately, this history has not been preserved or collected.  By focusing on materials related to our filmic past – home movies, amateur film, advertisements, posters, and photographs – we will illuminate the value of locally created records and redefine how small towns like Denton contributed to film history.

A digitization event, open to the general public, to gather personal collections relating to the history of Dearborn, Michigan, and a community oral history event. The project would provide for a one-day scanning event, complemented by information on preserving family documents and photographs, coordinated by experienced museum staff and community volunteers. That event will be followed by a community-focused community storytelling and spoken word event, which will highlight the cultural history and contributions of notable Dearborn residents. The Arab American National Museum (AANM), in conjunction with the Lebanese American Heritage Council and the Dearborn Historical Society, would coordinate and sponsor these events in Dearborn, which has the highest percentage of Arab Americans of any city in the United States.

The goal of this project is to tell an accurate story about the Arab American community’s continued impact on Dearborn, MI. Dearborn has the highest percentage of Arab Americans of any city in the country. The diverse Arab American community has been a part of Dearborn for nearly a century, creating positive impacts on the city’s economy and cultural landscape. Despite many media depictions, non-Arab residents in Dearborn live peacefully side by side with their Arab American neighbors. This project will help Arab Americans feel pride in their community and will demonstrate, to a local and national audience, the invaluable contributions of the diverse and vibrant Arab American community. To accomplish this, we will partner with two community institutions, the Lebanese American Heritage Club and the Dearborn Historical Society, to capture, preserve, and share images and stories about Dearborn from both Arab and non-Arab residents.

Events that would preserve and raise appreciation for community history in Oceana County, Michigan. The project would be undertaken via a collaboration between Grand Valley State University's Special Collections and Archives and the Kutsche Office of Local History, the Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society, and El Centro Hispano de Oceana. Building on extant community relationships, the Kutsche Office would gather historical materials and oral histories from Latino elders and youth through a one-day “history harvest” event. The project would also present a series of community dialogues, which would take place during Hispanic Heritage Month, about the history of immigration in Michigan.

This project aims to build community among residents of Oceana County, Michigan, by holding a "history harvest" to gather in migrant family histories from across the region. A collaboration among El Centro Hispano de Oceana, the Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society, and Grand Valley State University, this effort will: 1) Build connections between Latino elders and youth through an engaged planning process; 2) Bring together seasonal migrants and year-round residents to document and preserve their diverse experiences and family histories; 3) Preserve these histories so that they will be accessible to future generations; and 4) Use these materials as the basis for a community dialogue as part of Hispanic Heritage Month Celebrations 2016. Themes in this exploration will include migration, labor, religion, family, belonging, national and cultural identities, language, and citizenship. It will also help foster a shared sense of community across ethnic and class lines.

A day-long digitization event preserving historical documents held by community members and related to the town of Westborough, Massachusetts. The event would build on the recent discovery of a trove of documents dating to before the Revolution. Those documents and the story of their discovery and preservation would be featured in a showcase program for the public before the digitization day. The digitization event would be staffed by consultants from BiblioTemps, a service of the Massachusetts Library System; consultants would advise on copyright and digitization best practices. Following the digitization day would be the screening of a film of the event that would include a presentation by a local historian on the significance of the digitized items, as well as testimonials from members of the public about their materials. After the digitization event, the applicants would also create an online exhibit featuring the digitized items. The digitization day and subsequent programming would be timed to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the founding of Westborough in 2017.

A collection of historic documents recently discovered in Town Hall has given the Westborough Public Library the opportunity to reinvent its local history services and become an “Access Hub” to historic materials held by other institutions and individuals in town. To build these services, the Library will use a Common Heritage Grant to create programming using the theme “Your Town – Your History,” to show the links between the discovered documents and the history that residents are creating now. We'll ask residents to look through their homes for historic materials about Westborough and bring them to a daylong event where they can be digitized. The images will then be added to the Library’s new Digital Repository. At a follow-up program, an historian of New England life will discuss how the images collected on that day add to our understanding of Westborough’s history, and we'll debut a film and online exhibit created as part of the event.

Three community digitization events held at the Montgomery-Floyd Library, the Newman Library at Virginia Tech, and the Montgomery Museum in Christiansburg, soliciting privately held resources documenting the history and culture of Southwestern Virginia. The final event would coincide with the museum’s yearly Heritage Day celebration and feature a presentation to interpret selected objects contributed at the events. The digitization events would also provide community members with information on the basic care of their cultural objects. Archival preservation materials would be available to attendees to protect fragile ephemera, documents, and photos. This project would involve multiple community partners including staff and students from the University Libraries at Virginia Tech.

Exploring the intersections between material culture, family and community forms the basis of “The People, Places, and Things of Montgomery County, Virginia,” a cultural heritage project focusing on preserving local history. The utilization of objects in this project to spur memories will allow public opportunities of camaraderie and reflection, resulting in successful educational and collaborative community efforts. These free events will aid in adding valuable information to our historical knowledge base by examining historical and communal connections from within family heirlooms, photos and documents. An introductory lecture followed by two, day long events of digital documentation of personal objects will conclude with a session facilitated by a public historian providing commentary on selected items brought in by the public. Participants will be given a free digital copy of their object, and the opportunity to include those items on a public website dedicated to the project.

A project exploring the impact of demographic changes over the last 50 years in Queens and Brooklyn, New York, through digitization events, community history programs, and marquee events organized by the Queens Borough Public Library and the Brooklyn Public Library. The project would focus on six distinct neighborhoods, including Astoria, Corona, and Flushing in Queens and Bushwick, Carnarsie, and Sunset Park in Brooklyn and would ask residents, both old and new, to share personal histories, pictures, memorabilia, and artifacts. These stories and objects would be digitized in neighborhood events and made accessible both on site, at the Archives at Queen’s Library or at Brooklyn Public Library, and on local Web portals. Follow-up history programs in each of the participating neighborhoods would further explore and contextualize the archived stories and digitized materials. Two marquee events would conclude the project; researchers, scholars, and community members would present and discuss the collaborative work resulting from previous events. Through these varied programs, participants would gain a deeper, multilayered understanding of the history of their neighborhood and its residents.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 had a profound impact on the demographic map of the US. Breaking from the immigration policies of the past, the law gave a nearly equal shot to newcomers from every part of the world and is still palpable today, especially in Queens and Brooklyn neighborhoods where it has resulted in the integration of immigrant communities that we see today. Queens Borough Public Library (AKA Queens Library) in collaboration with Brooklyn Public Library will select 6 neighborhoods that have witnessed significant demographic changes in the past 50 years. Through 12 digitization events, 6 community history programs, and 2 marquee events, intergenerational residents will be invited to digitally deposit their personal stories and artifacts and develop a deeper perspective of the history and people of their neighborhood that will further understanding and help create an inclusive, accepting environment beneficial to established residents and newcomers alike.

A collaborative project between the Montclair Historical Society and the Nubian Heritage Quilters Guild to recognize the contributions of African American quilters and to educate members of local quilting guilds, as well as the community in and around Montclair, New Jersey, on the importance of documenting and preserving quilts and quilting traditions. The project comprises three interrelated parts: an exhibition of quilts and interpretations of their historical context; demonstrations of quilting and instructions on quilt preservation; and a digitization event during which the quilts will be photographed. The digital images would be made available on the New Jersey Digital Highway. Primarily highlighting the work of community quilters, the multiple events would integrate exhibition with preservation training and information exchange regarding quilting techniques and traditions.

This joint project of the Montclair Historical Society and the Nubian Heritage Quilters consists of 3 components that work in concert to recognize the contributions of African American quilters, keep the tradition alive through demonstrations and workshops, educate people on preserving their works, and create a digital database of African American quilts. The project includes 1) an exhibition of traditional quilts paired with modern African American interpretations enabling a side-by-side exploration of the historical context for modern quilts; 2) demonstrations and workshops on quilting and quilt techniques that foster the spread of knowledge about African American material culture and quilting in the community; and 3) a digitization event where members of the community will share the provenance of their quilts, have them digitally photographed for their own use as well as for public availability on the New Jersey Digital Highway, and receive materials to protect and preserve them.

The digitization of community photographs, letters, employment records, artworks, and artifacts pertaining to the African American experience in Kansas City, Missouri, during the early 20th century. The applicant would collaborate with the Kansas City Public Library, which would make the sources accessible via its Kansas City Digital Encyclopedia Project. The Library would also ensure that digital items could be found through the WorldCat bibliographic network as well as the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). In cooperation with the American Jazz Museum of Kansas City, the applicant would also offer public lectures by area scholars and musicians about the history of Kansas City in the Jazz Age and Great Depression and would sponsor screenings of films held by the Jazz Museum, including the documentary “Women in Jazz.”

The Black Archives of Mid-America is an institution that showcases Kansas City’s rich socio-cultural history through the preservation of valuable documents, photographs and objects. Through a strategic alliance with the award-winning Kansas City Public Library, it has increased its ability to present insightful scholarly and artistic programming to the Midwest region of the United States and beyond. This exciting partnership calls for the Black Archives of Mid-America to support the Kansas City Public Library in the “Kansas City Digital Encyclopedia Project.” The next planned series will highlight the period of 1918-1941, with a specialized focus on the Jazz Age and the Great Depression, and will be supported through community digitization events and associated programming. This project exposes community members to important historical information and allows participants to protect the integrity of artifacts through digitization, while further developing a sense of belonging.

A day-long community event hosted by the Center for Deaf Documentary Studies in collaboration with the Gallaudet University Archives to further the documentation of the American Deaf community’s cultural heritage. Through digitization, the project would gather historical materials, including personal photographs, family letters, documents, artifacts, and 3D objects. The event would feature four workshops—free, bilingually (ASL/English) accessible, and open to the public—on topics including: Cultural Heritage Material in Research and Public History presented by a staff member of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Artifacts and Cultural Heritage by a museum specialist from the Gallaudet University Museum, Individual Collections as Community Heritage by faculty from the Center for Deaf Documentary Studies, and Recovery Stories by a faculty member from the Department of English who would provide a brief study of how individuals’ text stories are put into context for the public.

Gallaudet University’s Common Heritage project Capturing Deaf Heritage combines community outreach and programming with capture and preservation of primary source material. This day-long event hosted by the Center for Deaf Documentary Studies (CDDS) in collaboration with the Gallaudet University Archives will increase appreciation for and stewardship of the American Deaf community’s cultural heritage. Capturing Deaf Heritage day will use best practices and Archival expertise to reach individuals who often do not recognize that personal images and collections have value to the wider community and to researchers of U.S. history. The digitization and workshop day is slated to coincide with Gallaudet University’s Homecoming weekend in October 2016 for maximum community participation. In addition to Gallaudet faculty, staff and students, Homecoming typically draws 2,000 deaf people to campus from many states. This application requests $12,000 for digitization equipment and supplies.

“History Harvests” documenting three Central Florida communities: the town of Cocoa Beach in the 1960s and 1970s; Orlando’s LGBT community; and the African American community of Parramore. Cocoa Beach’s photos, maps, postcards, menus, and documents would illuminate Florida’s Space Coast and Cape Canaveral. All digitized materials would be made available with permission in the University of Central Florida’s RICHES (Regional Initiative for Collecting the History, Experiences, and Stories) Mosaic Interface and via local presentations at Cocoa Beach Public Library, Parliament House, and Jones High School. Documenting these three Florida communities would add texture to the public’s understanding of the diversity within the state.

The Regional Initiative for Collecting the History, Experiences, and Stories (RICHES™) of Central Florida proposes funding for History Harvests in three diverse communities in the Central Florida area: the space-age community of Cocoa Beach in the 1960s and 1970s, the Orlando LGBT community at the Gay destination site of Parliament House, and the African-American community of Parramore. The materials collected through the three History Harvests will be made available to larger communities in four ways: RICHES Mosaic Interface™, the project database https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu ; local presentations at Cocoa Beach Public Library, Parliament House, and Jones High School; a workshop on RICHES and History Harvests at a meeting of a national historical organization (NCPH, OAH, or SHA); and a journal article.

A digitization event designed to document community history in Davidson, North Carolina, particularly that related to the African American community which is underrepresented in local area archives. During the digitization event, screenings of the documentary short film Always Part of the Fabric, illustrating the role African Americans played at Davidson College from its inception, would be offered, followed by community discussion with Davidson faculty. In addition, walking tours of community neighborhoods, an interactive online map, and presentations at programs sponsored by the Davidson Historical Society and Davidson Parks & Recreations would explore local African American history.

The small college town of Davidson, North Carolina, grew around Davidson College, which was established in 1837 as an all-male, all-white institution. The town was, from its inception, racially mixed, and has had a long history of civic cooperation juxtaposed with divisions between social groups. The publication of a recent town history has raised awareness that the history of the African-American community is underrepresented in organized artifact collections and narratives.  In collaboration with town government and civic organizations the Davidson College Archives will leverage existing expertise in public history projects to implement History Homecoming Day, an event to capture data about Davidson’s African-American Community through the digitization of cultural artifacts, the capture of oral history narratives, and educational presentations regarding this history as part of a planned Davidson Neighborhoods program.

The digitization of visual materials and print media relating the history of Lake Tahoe, as well as lectures by a local historian and a photographer that would place the visual documentation of this region, long known for its natural beauty and leisure opportunities, in a broader historical context. The North Lake Tahoe Historical Society would join with the University of Nevada at Reno to gather and preserve historic visual materials, with an emphasis on pre-1970s resources, which are held in personal collections. The project would fill gaps in the local archival record, a particularly pressing need in a region that has been often devastated by forest fires, which has resulted in the destruction of cultural heritage collections and their dispersal through institutions across the country.

The North Lake Tahoe Digitization Day will invite community members to bring in historical visual materials for expert-supervised digitization and instruction in basic preservation strategies. NLTHS staff and UNR Photography faculty will organize 4-5 presentations for the day, including talks by professional photographers on their reprographic work; by the NLTHS executive director; by the Photograph Archivist; and by a local historian, highlighting contexts in which historical photographs can be used (emphasizing the importance of Community donations and how the community can themselves use archival materials). In additiona, the NLTHS will host docent-led tours of its museum, and will offer a Photo ID station for participants to identify locations or persons in images from the archives. Images acquired during the course of the day will be included in the NLTHS's Past Perfect system, providing public access to anyone interested in researching North Lake Tahoe's rich cultural history.

A one-day digitization event targeted at preserving the cultural heritage materials related to military experiences - at war and on the home front - of members of Maine’s Franco-American population, the state’s largest ethnic group. The grant would also support a speaker series addressing the history of Franco-American military service. The theme of military service would allow the applicant to help the public explore questions of identity and loyalty, which attended Maine’s Franco-American population from its early days. Digitized materials would be stored as part of the Franco-American collection at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College. Materials that could be digitized include photographs, documents, film, and audio (the latter two would be sent off-site for digitization).

The University of Southern Maine is seeking a grant of $10,477 to support programming on Franco-Americans and military service. A one-day event will provide the opportunity for veterans and their families to bring in materials related to military service and to share stories of that experience. A lecture series by scholars will address the history of Maine Franco-Americans in the Armed Forces, the significance of military service for Franco-American identity, and the impact of service on veterans and their families.

The creation of a collection of family records, photographs, and oral histories specifically related to the Hispanic community of Kingsville, Texas. The seat of rural Kleberg County, Kingsville is home to 25,000 residents, 80 percent of whom are Hispanic. Building on Texas A&M Kingsville’s successful Mi Familia – Mi Comunidad initiative, this project would help community members better understand the value of preserving family history. Hosted at the John E. Conner Museum in partnership with South Texas Archive, Texas A&M staff archivists and students would assist participants during the day-long collection event. Public programming would be held during Hispanic Heritage Month and would include a scholar-led discussion and musical performances by mariachis. Collected resources would be made available online and an exhibition would be developed for display at the Conner museum throughout spring 2017. The exhibition launch event would feature a historian who would discuss contributions by Hispanic and Latino residents in the broader context of South Texas history.

The goal of the project is to create a digital collection of the Hispanic Community’s materials.  The history of this community is not currently preserved or adequately exhibited.  Public programming will encourage Hispanic-American families in the Kingsville community to preserve their own stories, family histories, and items of family interest.  Individuals who participate will have a better understanding of the significance of their own family heritage and take an enhanced interest in researching, documenting, and preserving it for future generations.

A project by the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), in the heart of historic Chinatown, New York City, to document Chinese American history by providing members of the public opportunities to learn how to store, preserve, and share family objects and stories. This project would offer a day-long event for attendees to digitize personal items and to participate in presentations and workshops on Chinese American history and on ways to research and preserve their family heritage. Digital images and object stories would be accessible on MOCA’s Mapping Our Heritage Project, an online repository hosted by the museum. Following the digitization event, MOCA would offer a series of four workshops focused on training youth and their families in techniques for researching family histories and conducting oral history interviews. MOCA would also combine digitization opportunities at their regularly scheduled public programs, which spotlight first-person stories by authors, filmmakers, historians, and community members, who present behind-the-scenes perspectives into how they have researched their own family histories. Overall, the aim of the project is to highlight the untold stories and the living histories of Chinese immigrant communities in New York City.

The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) seeks a grant to support Our Family Treasures - a public program and education initiative aimed at preserving, digitizing and showcasing family and community history and culture through a day-long Our Family Treasures preservation and digital archiving program; an introductory workshop series for youth; and public programs at the Museum and Queens Public Library. Working on the premise that American history and experience is shaped by the material culture and memories of those who interact intimately with them over time, Our Family Treasures spotlights the untold stories and living histories of immigrant communities in New York City and their heirlooms. This project is part of a larger, ongoing museum effort to more fully capture the richness of the City’s growing immigrant population with multifaceted neighborhoods of working families, diverse cultural heritages, and industries, as well as the diversity of the Chinese diaspora across America.

Community digitization events and public programming organized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. The project would document musical heritage in and around Cleveland, which was the birthplace of significant musicians, notable radio stations, as well as a tour stop for many jazz, blues, and gospel musicians before the rise of rock and roll. The proposed events would simultaneously preserve documentation of local music history and bring them into the museum’s collection for online and on-site exhibitions through contributions to the Northeast Ohio Popular Music Archives. The proposed activities, including four digitization days and a one-day event with a panel discussion of local musical history, would draw from personal collections to provide a window on popular music in a major American city.

The proposed project invites the public to bring two-dimensional objects related to local music history to four scanning events where Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Library and Archives staff will digitize the items, provide a digital copy to the owner, and accession digital copies of appropriate items into the Northeast Ohio Popular Music Archives (NEOPMA). NEOPMA ensures that the musical history of a community that is home to dozens of internationally-known artists in multiple genres and that is widely regarded as the home of rock and roll, is not lost in the international focus of Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Rock Hall will use the items collected on the scanning days in a public event that discusses Northeast Ohio’s musical history, provides information about preserving personal collections, and discusses what items are appropriate and needed for ongoing collecting for the NEOPMA.

Two days of digitizing community contributions, including personal and official correspondence, photographs, diaries, recipe books, beloved objects, scrapbooks, and other materials to illuminate the life and history of the Latino communities of the South Carolina Low Country. The Citadel would partner with several local organizations for this project: the Special Collections department at the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library (a local affiliate of the South Carolina Digital Library and the Digital Public Library of America), the Charleston County Public Library, El Círculo Hispanoamericano de Charleston, the Hispanic Business Association, and radio El Sol AM 980. The project would recruit bilingual volunteers from the Citadel, the College of Charleston, and Charleston Southern University to help staff the events and translate for the creation of metadata to describe the items brought in for digitization. This project would build on an existing oral history program at the Citadel focused on the Latino community. Of particular interest to the project organizers is the history of the development of Latino-led institutions, such as businesses, civic groups, and churches in the area. During Hispanic American Heritage month of 2017 (Sept. 15 to Oct. 15), the project directors would return to Charleston public libraries to hold community forums to present some of the items brought in during the digitization days.

The Citadel Oral History Program is offering a series of public programs and digitization events for the Latino community. Harvest days will take place in the spring of 2017 at Charleston County libraries (Johns Island and North Charleston). The materials collected will be processed and evaluated during the summer and deposited with the College of Charleston's Special Collections. During Hispanic Heritage month of 2017, we will return to the libraries to hold community forums to present the results of the project. Citadel professors Aguirre and Taylor will draw from the materials that we gathered to facilitate discussions on immigration, identity, exclusion and belonging, community building and civil rights. The forums will attract students, workers, scholars, and activists. The materials will be shared with the public through the Low Country Digital Library. We will continue to promote "Aqui Estamos" and encourage teachers to use the collection in the classroom.

A one-day digitization event for the public and complementary oral history workshops for youth and families. The project, focused on the Burmese-American community in Washington, would allow the community to gather, record, document and share its history. Despite the significant and growing population of Burmese Americans in Washington over the last three decades, this would be the first concerted effort for the community to record, document and share its history. The proposed events seek to bring to light the little-known histories and, by doing so, bridge generations and ethnic differences within the Burmese community to foster communication with and connect the broader public to the stories of this growing immigrant group.

The Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (The Wing) will present “Stories across Generations: Burmese Americans in Western Washington.” The project will bring to light untold and little-known histories of the Burmese American community through two oral history workshops for youth and their families, leading up to a one-day digitization event. This project will provide the opportunity for the region’s Burmese American community to gather, record, document and share its history. Through family stories and cultural heritage materials that span the journey from home country to refugee camp to resettlements to newly adopted home in the U.S., the project will help to foster communication and healing within the Burmese community as well as connect the broader public to the stories of this more recent and growing refugee group.

The development of community historical archives through digitization days and community forums, which will document the agricultural and timber heritage of southern Oregon. Through the digitization of family photographs and other publicly held artifacts, the project would document the dramatic change of Oregon’s landscape over the past century, including the transition away from a timber economy to industrial agriculture and urban development. The project would increase awareness of southern Oregon’s occupational folklore heritage, improve access to important cultural documents, and support partnerships between the Josephine County Historical Society, local public library systems, and the Southern Oregon University. The collected images, artifacts, and stories of heritage farm families and loggers would enrich local and regional collections, provide content for research, enhance pride of place, and showcase the state’s rich heritage. The project would be organized by a consortium of local organizations, led by the Southern Oregon University’s Hannon Library, county 4-H programs of the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center, Jackson County Library Services, and Josephine County Historical Society.

Southern Oregon's landscape has changed dramatically over the last hundred years. Historic family farms have yielded to housing developments, pear trees have been pulled out to plant vineyards, and timber is nearly played out. The Legacy Labor project is designed to document a way of life that may be lost to memory because of cultural, political, and economic pressures. Legacy Labor organizes humanities-based community forums about the region's agricultural and timber heritage, digitizes family photos and artifacts, and develops rich historical archives for public use. The project is designed to increase awareness of heritage agriculture and timber work life and to enhance the importance of preserving and sharing community values. Legacy Labor: Making a Living on the Land in Southern Oregon focuses on the work life heritage of two contiguous, largely rural counties in Southern Oregon: Jackson and Josephine counties.

Three day-long digitization events to document and preserve historical sources relating to the African American experience in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia. The digitization events would each be held at different venues, including the East Athens Resource Center, the historic First A.M.E. Church, and the Athens-Clarke County Library, and the materials would be accessible online. With this project, the applicant aims to address the paucity of historical materials chronicling the lives of black Athenians in the region’s cultural institutions. The events would not only build out the collections that tell the stories of local residents, but also facilitate the community stewardship of the materials that document these stories, including photographs, scrapbooks, funeral pamphlets, church bulletins, and other objects, mementos, and artifacts. In order to provide deeper understanding of yhe experiences of African Americans in the region, public programs would also take place. Author Michael Thurmond would discuss his book A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History, and tours would be offered of the African American section of the Oconee Hill Cemetery, the First A.M.E. Church, and the Morton Theater in downtown Athens. Also planned are a course on researching ancestry taught by the President of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society and presentations on how to preserve, access, and use digitized items.

Spared Sherman's wrath but not the havoc of Great Cities, Athens' Black residents and their historic neighborhoods have fought for their existence.  With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the applicant wishes to aid in the digitization of privately held historical sources relating to the African American experience in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, at a series of three day-long digitization day events. These scan days will take place at the East Athens Resource Center; the historic First A.M.E. Church; and the Athens-Clarke County Library, where patrons will be able to convert special A/V formats using our conversion equipment.  Digitized material would be made available to the public with donor permission via our partnership with the Digital Library of Georgia and the Digital Public Library of America. The project would also include a public lecture series and tours of Black historic sites led by partner groups.

A digitization event, community conversations, workshops, and an exhibition to preserve and provide access to photographs and historical documents that chronicle the town of Danville during the 1920s through the 1970s, a time during which its historic Second Street was the “heartbeat of the African American community” in segregated Boyle County, Kentucky. The applicant would digitize family photographs and documents during the Soul of Second Street Festival and in subsequent months would offer a series of community conversations led by representatives from partner organizations: the Danville/Boyle County African American Historical Society; the Boyle County Public Library; and the Heart of Danville Main Street Program. A day-long workshop on how to care for paper, photographs, textiles, and other objects would also be provided at the Public Library, and the project would culminate in a multi-site, interactive exhibition of the collected materials during Black History Month in 2018.

From the 1920s to the 1970s, Danville, KY's Second Street district served as a vibrant hub for the surrounding African American community to socialize, shop and worship. Providing a communal space for those living in segregated Kentucky, the area fostered entrepreneurial success and social cohesion. Unfortunately, urban renewal efforts in the 1970s destroyed many of the buildings that provided the structure for this community. Recently, local organizations have begun to research and reclaim the stories of Second Street and Centre College faculty and students have begun to incorporate this work into internships and classes. Through the digitization of photographs during the Soul of Second Street Festival; the development of a public digital archive; public discussion on the importance of preserving local history; and a multi-site exhibition of the collected photographs, a Common Heritage grant would support efforts to better understand, record and share this vital piece of history.

Three digitization and preservation events, held at the Field Museum, on heritage collections care and the preservation of language, cultural practices, and family traditions for the Filipina/o community in and around Chicago. The applicant, in partnership with the Chicagoland Filipina/o community, would digitize heritage items such as photographs, clothing, documents, as well as stories documenting Filipina/o diasporic history in the Chicago area from the mid to the late 20th century. Each event would feature local and national experts to discuss themes centering on the Filipina/o American experience. The final event would present a preview of the project’s contributions to the Digital Heritage Portal and feature a roundtable discussion by historians and anthropologists to further discuss the connections between identity, conservation, and memory.

In the next phase of Field Museum of Natural History's Digital CoCuration Initiative, the Chicagoland Filipina/o community is invited to preserve and share heritage items via the Museum's Digital Heritage Portal (online research collection). This co-preservation project is a part of our ongoing association with Chicago Filipina/o Americans who wish to preserve homeland culture as well as promote intergenerational dialogue and local history in the diaspora. Since 2015, members of the local Filipina/o community have joined us in cocurating our Philippine Heritage Collection of over 10,000 items from the early 20th century. In this next phase of cocuration, Chicagoland Filipinas/os will have the opportunity to share their heritage by bringing homeland objects for digital camera rendering, documents for scanning, and stories and performances for recording.  Three events are scheduled for these activities during March, July, and November 2017.