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Overview of the Project
[Note: The original "Land of the Sky Project" has recently (Spring 2002) been renamed "Western North Carolina Heritage" and includes additional partners and an expanded focus. ] Original partners:
New partners:
Beginnings The Land of the Sky digitization project was conceived in the Spring of 1998 and was funded by a NC LSTA grant in November of 2000 as one of three demonstration grants that supported the North Carolina cultural initiative, NC ECHO. It was a collaboration of four public institutions including two libraries, a museum and a cultural center. The three institutions were the Asheville Art Museum, Asheville-Buncombe Library System, the University of North Carolina at Asheville Special Collections, and the YMICC (Young Men's Institute Cultural Center) the cultural center for Asheville's African Americans. The project was funded by the Department of Cultural Resources, North Carolina State Library and the Library and Technology Services Act (LSTA) Statewide Leadership Project which received its funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The Land of the Sky grant cycle ended in May of 2000. The work begun in that early initiative did not, however, end. It continued with the addition of three new partners and with new grant funding in 2002. The new partners are Appalachian State, the Southern Highlands Craft Guild, the Appalachian Cultural Museum at Boone. Prior to the 2001 demonstration grant, UNCA, the Biltmore Estate, and Rowan County Public Library coordinated a two county-wide survey of cultural institutions (Buncombe and Rowan County). This two-county survey was the test survey for the proposed state inventory of cultural institutions. This state inventory is currently underway and is, reportedly, the most comprehensive survey of state cultural institutions ever attempted. The state survey process will continue through 2003 or until all state special collections are described and are provided direct consultation or digitization assistance. Information on the state survey can be found on the NC ECHO site. Scope As part of the NC ECHO network, each of the original four Buncombe County Land of the Sky institutions (AAM, ABLS, UNCA, and YMICC) shared a common goal to better serve the life-long learning needs of their various constituent communities, the state and the world. Their shared goals include the need to reach out to the underserved in the Western North Carolina region and to provide that community with cultural materials that may be used for a variety of educational purposes. The primary focus of the first phase of the collaborative project was to address the information needs of ethnic minorities in the mountains of Western North Carolina, beginning with the African American community. Following the digitization of key collections of the four partnering institutions, the project was planned to expand and to include other underserved minorities and to provide the region with a site rich in general history and culture. The scope has been expanded in the new partnership now known as Western North Carolina Heritage and that partnership will broaden the scope of the project and deepen the content of the site. To date (Dec. 2002) the site contains only the content of the original Land of the Sky partners. The content from the new partners is currently awaiting integration via a re-worked database uploading system. When that system is in place it is expected that the some 5,000 - 8,000 new records will be integrated into the "Collections" database. The records to be added include Cherokee records from Appalachian State and craft records from the Southern Highland Craft Guild related to Cherokee craft. UNCA has some 4,000 photographic records that will highlight the logging operations in the western part of the state, the architectural history of Asheville and the area, postcards, and regional craft industries. The LeCompte Postcard Collection, the Austin Brooks Collection, and the Asheville Area Photographic Collection are added as collections, but the individual images and data have not yet been loaded. While waiting for these uploads to occur, UNCA has added a variety of "value-added" pages that attempt to provide primary source material that will be useful for thematic access to the materials on early Western North Carolina history. A limited number of sources are considered "core" for the western region and where possible these sources have been partially tapped for early accounts of places, people, and events of the region. These "value-added" pages, it is believed, will be useful for the K-12 population and for those interested in both specific and common topics of the region and provide a format that is familiar to internet surfers. These value-added pages have been grouped under the heading of "Sense of Place." It is this sense of Western North Carolina that we hope to convey in both the object collections and in the Web pages. The New Partnership - Activity Today the new partners of the Western North Carolina Heritage project are building a digital repository of core information by and about the people of the mountains of North Carolina for NC ECHO. This new repository is called Western North Carolina Heritage http://wncheritage.org The materials in this digital repository are being selected for their quality, their interdisciplinary nature, and their broad-based appeal to educators and students. It is the goal of the new partners of the Western North Carolina Heritage project to rely on a community based editorial board that will assist the partners in the provision of relevant and quality resources. The first steps in the creation of this editorial board were taken in December of 2002. The full Editorial Board is expected to be in place in early 2003. The combined collections of the first Land of the Sky demonstration project and those of the Western North Carolina Heritage project are intended to serve as a reliable resource for K-12 instruction in Asheville, the region, and the state. It is expected that the combined collections will also serve researchers who seek a focused repository of information on the culture and history of the region. It was the intent of the first digitization project to raise community awareness of the significant contributions of Blacks and other ethnic minorities to Western North Carolina and the state. It is the intent of the second project to more broadly describe the region and its people. It is the intent of a sustainable project that the content will accurately and comprehensively reflect the region known as western North Carolina and will contribute to the state of North Carolina's cultural digitization initiative. Lessons Learned The Western North Carolina Heritage demonstration project also intends to explore the many facets of a collaborative educational endeavor in small to mid-sized communities such as Asheville, Boone and other others and is intent on gathering information on the collaborative process of creating a focused digital resource. The partners will assess their evaluative information so others in the region and the state may benefit. The lessons learned in the Land of the Sky project were shared with the state Access to Special Collections Work Group (ASCWG), an advisory group that has helped shape the state-wide digitization initiative. And, lessons learned are still being learned by the new partners and are also being shared with other institutions in the state that are engaged in similar efforts. It is hoped that all interested parties may benefit from the findings of these early collaborative efforts. The initial lessons-learned by the Western North Carolina Heritage project suggest that collaboration is the key to all endeavors and that the process of bringing together disparate institutions takes energy and time. The technology issues of bringing disparate local database management systems together and the subtle, critical and illusive language of METADATA have been difficult obstacles to surmount for all partners. What we have been slow to realize is that what each partner brings to the process of collaboration may not be readily evident, copious, or elegant, but that each contribution to the multitude of process in this project is important. "If it is not done, it is because you have not done it," is an important adage. Collaborations cannot wait for one partner to set the standard, manage the load, or establish the guidelines. Each partner shares in the decision-making for the good of the whole. Small is beautiful and each small contribution is a valuable piece of the whole. We have learned much from the various contributions of all partners, small and large. We expect that that learning will only increase as the project progresses. As partners we expect the Western North Carolina Heritage project to be a sustainable project. Summary In summary, the Western North Carolina Heritage project brings together librarians, archivists, museum professionals, and local history groups in a process of exploration of regional culture and new uses of information technology. It seeks to stimulate learning in under-served ethnic populations by using technology, by teaching technology, and by providing hardware and software for a diverse population to explore the information revolution. By providing access to underserved populations, the project will continue to work toward closing the digital divide. It will capitalize on current and on future technological infrastructures in the state, the region, and on the broader Internet and explores the disparate standards at work in local collections. And, through a consensual and analytical process the partners in this grant are working with the state of North Carolina and with other pilots throughout the country to arrive at agreed upon "best practices" that will turn information into knowledge and allow widespread dissemination of that knowledge. The small steps taken by the Land of the Sky partners were the first collaborative steps taken by small institutions in the state to contribute to the state-wide cultural network. The steps taken by the new partnership, the Western North Carolina Heritage project has expanded the journey. By supporting and evaluating comprehensive collaborative projects such as the Land of the Sky project, the state of North Carolina may make informed recommendations to similar partnering institutions regarding standards, technology, work-flow, copyright issues, funding, and a myriad of other issues . Careful assessment of these seminal projects will provide necessary information for building a state-wide collaborative digitization network. Invitation to Participate The early efforts of the Land of the Sky partners has been a sustainable program. It has reached out to other cultural organizations in the Western North Carolina region and will continue to grow. It intends to include or train other special collections professionals and to provide a training ground for students at UNCA, ASU, and the community at large. If other institutions wish to become involved with the Western North Carolina Heritage project as a full partner or as an interested participant, they are invited to contact hwykle@unca.edu or hayfj@appstate.edu to discuss participation. If there is interest in undertaking a digitization project or in distributing institutional information via the web directly through North Carolina ECHO, the state cultural network, the institution should contact Kim Cumber at the State Library of North Carolina (919) 733-2570 or email kcumber@library.dcr.state.nc.us for assistance in getting online. |