Information on these forms, which contain the participating veterans’ recollections about their service to their country, are being added to the Illinois Digital Archives. Videos for these interviews and others can be found on the Illinois Veterans’ History Project’s YouTube channel.

Users can find the date and location a business was founded, as well as the nature of the original business and the nature of the business today.

View the collection in the Illinois Digital Archives.

The Illinois Digital Archives is a great resource for historic images, government docs, newspapers and much much more!

The Illinois Digital Archives is a repository for the digital collections of libraries, museums, historical societies and other cultural institutions in Illinois.

What are the best practices and planning for a digitization project? How can your staff gain the skills needed to launch or maintain a digital project and what are the implications of launching a long term digital preservation system in your organization? Get the answers to these questions and more below.

Contents: Resources | Courses and Learning | Community | What could I do with…? | What’s New RSS Feed

“What’s New” RSS Feed

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[http://webjunctionworks.org/il/blog/index.php/category/new-wj-il/feed/

Resources

Best Practices and Planning for Digitization Projects

• The success of a project is generally in proportion to the time spent in planning the project. To help you avoid some of the pitfalls here are some recommendations and resources for planning a digital imaging project.
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Competencies for Preservation

• Preservation covers a wide range of activities: repairing the physical damage to well-used materials; transforming physical materials into digital format; or preserving the historic record or other notable resource collections. Use this list to help your staff achieve competency.
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Book Repair Videos

• Students at UNC have created three short videos: a pam folder procedure, tip-in procedure, and four-flap enclosures.  It’s much easier to learn from what you see and hear than to read and follow diagrams and wonder if you’re doing it right
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Glossary of Scanning and Digital Imaging Terms

• Alyce Scott  from the Illinois State Library helps explain some of the most common and confusing terms used in digitization projects.
• Path: [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Bite-Size Digital History Webinar

• Learn to use Microsoft PhotoStory 3 to create digital history documentaries in this recorded webinar.
• [Library Services » Technical Services » Digitization & Preservation]

Digital Illinois

• Visit this WJIL page under the Featured Statewide Initiatives to find out more about digitization projects in Illinois including a “Descriptive Survey of Illinios Digital Collections.”
• [Illinois Center » Featured Statewide Initiatives » Digital Illinois]

Courses and Learning

Capturing History: Digitization Projects

• Computers have been around for a generation, now, and a lot of matierial is available through digital media. However, there is still a lot of valuable information left to be digitized. This tutorial covers the basics of scanning and will improve your understanding of the issues involved with digitization projects, including copyright issues, equipment, terms, funding. So, before breaking out the scanners, spend a couple of hours reviewing what you need to know in order to make your digitization project a success

All courses listed above are free to eligible and registered users of WJIL.

Community

Digitization and Preservation Symposium, August 25, 1:00 – 3:00 pm CT

Join colleagues for a two-hour symposium that will feature four presentations on current trends and practical approaches to library digitization and preservation projects. Guest panelists will address:

• Designing a digital preservation system using a framework that includes all stakeholders, from library administrators to archivists to IT workers to vendors.
• The difference between access and preservation tools, and why we need to consider both.
• Harvesting social networking websites for preservation.
• The organizational “long-view” of preservation resources, technology, costs and policies.

What Could I do with…Digitization Learning Opportunities”?

Have you always wanted your library to get involved in digitization but were unsure of how to begin or what you need to know?  Use the WJIL learning opportunities listed above to jump start your digitization experience. Enroll in the free WJIL course Capturing History: Digitization Projects and learn a bit about the basics of scanning then register and plan to attend the Digitization and Preservation Synposium to find out more about the long view of the technology, costs and policies associated with a digitization and preservation program.

WebJunction is hosting a two-hour symposium that will feature four presentations on current trends and practical approaches to library digitization and preservation projects. Guest panelists will address:

• Designing a digital preservation system using a framework that includes all stakeholders, from library administrators to archivists to IT workers to vendors.
• The difference between access and preservation tools, and why we need to consider both.
• Harvesting social networking websites for preservation.
• The organizational “long-view” of preservation resources, technology, costs and policies.

Panelists include:

• Sarai Lastra, Vice Chancellor of Information Resources/Director of Virtual Library at Universidad del Turabo, Puerto Rico.
• Sarah McHugh, Statewide Projects Librarian, Montana State Library, including Montana Memory Project.
• Amy Rudersdorf, Director of the Digital Information Management Program, State Library of North Carolina and lecturer at San Jose State University, School of Library & Information Science.
• Taylor Surface, Senior Product Manager, Digital Collection Services, OCLC

Click on the following link to sign up for the event:

Digitization and Preservation Symposium

Prepare and Respond: Partnering with Local Emergency Management, Tuesday August 3, 1:00 – 2:00 pm CT

Libraries are looking for ways to be better prepared for disaster response and recovery. Join guest presenter Lauren Mandel, research coordinator at the Information Use Management & Policy Institute at Florida State University’s College of Communication and Information, as she introduces a new key service role, Get to Know Your Emergency Operations Center (EOC), to the existing Hurricane Preparedness & Response for Florida Public Libraries Project. The Florida-based project helps libraries throughout the U.S. serve their communities through partnerships with fellow responders (e.g., emergency management, local government and other agencies) and become a safe haven, recovery center, information hub and evacuee resource. Come learn how this project can inform your library’s disaster preparedness plan and how your library can play an important role in community preparedness and recovery by working with your EOC.

Helping Job Seekers: Using Electronic Tools, Wednesday August 11, 1:00 – 3:30 pm CT

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) invests in resources and services to support national and local workforce development needs. ETA staff will join us for a 90-minute webinar to provide an overview of the public workforce system and present the electronic tools most helpful to library staff who assist unemployed workers. Attendees will learn how to direct patrons to the right tools for their needs and to find local Workforce System partners. The presentation will also include an online tour of the O*NET System, CareerOneStop.org and America’s Service Locator and including Occupational Crosswalks, job search/resume preparation and State Job Banks and Labor Market Information.

Digitization and Preservation Symposium, Wednesday August 25, 1:00 – 3:00 pm CT

WebJunction is hosting a two-hour symposium that will feature four presentations on current trends and practical approaches to library digitization and preservation projects.

Our guest panelists will address:

• Designing a digital preservation system using a framework that includes all stakeholders, from library administrators to archivists to IT workers to vendors.
• The difference between access and preservation tools, and why we need to consider both.
•  Harvesting social networking websites for preservation.
• The organizational “long-view” of preservation resources, technology, costs and policies.

Panelists include:

• Sarai Lastra, Vice Chancellor of Information Resources/Director of Virtual Library at Universidad del Turabo, Puerto Rico.
• Sarah McHugh, Statewide Projects Librarian, Montana State Library, including Montana Memory Project.
• Amy Rudersdorf, Director of the Digital Information Management Program, State Library of North Carolina and lecturer at San Jose State University, School of Library & Information Science.
• Taylor Surface, Senior Product Manager, Digital Collection Services, OCLC.

For more information on all WJ webinars visit L2.

At this point we are still migrating IDA collections and integrating them with the Digital Past collections in CONTENTdm version 5.3.1. We know that there are several collections that have problems. We will be working with the collection owners to resolve those problems over the next few months.

November 13, 1909 began like most days in the St. Paul Mine as approximately 481 men and boys climbed into the wooden cage that carried them down into the mine. The electrical system which lighted the tunnels was out of order, as it had been the past few weeks, so they were lit by kerosene torches that hung from the walls. There were about 40 mules working in the mine that day and after the workers finished lunch, around 12:30, the mine manager order six bundles of hay to be sent down to the mule stables. The car containing the hay was sent down to the second level and from there it was pushed toward the stables by Robert Deans and 15-year-old Matt Francesco. As they gave the car a final push toward the stables it rolled to a stop near the downward shaft. What they did not see, as they walked back to the main cage, was that the hay stacked high in the car was directly under one of the kerosene torches and soon caught on fire.

So began one of the worst coal mining disasters in U. S. history. In the end 259 men and boys perished, in spite of heroic rescue attempts. Only 20 men were rescued. They had walled themselves off (to avoid the “black damp” , the mixture of unbreathable gases that form when oxygen is removed from an enclosed atmosphere) 500 feet underground. They spent eight harrowing days in complete darkness with only a pool of water that trickled from a coal seam to drink.

On November 14-15, 2009 the Village of Cherry will commemorate the 100th anniversary of this tragic event. On their website about the disaster, The Illinois Labor History Society has provided information about the commemoration:

This November 14-15, the Village of Cherry will commemorate the disaster and the miners.  A full weekend of ceremonies is planned, free and open to the public.
On both days, there will be walking and trolley tours of the town, mine site and cemetery.  Videos on labor topics are scheduled, along with displays and genealogical workshops.  On Saturday, November 14, a new monument will be dedicated at Cherry’s Village Hall.  Chicago Fire Fighters’ Local 2’s color guard will lead the procession to the dedication.  In 1909, Chicago fire fighters came to Cherry to help extinguish the blaze.  Preceding the dedication, labor musician Bucky Halker will sing coal mining and labor songs.

Confirmed speakers for the dedication include Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan, United Mine Workers Vice-President Steve Earl, Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson, State Senator Gary Dahl and State Representative Frank Mautino.  Confirmation is still pending on other speakers.

On Sunday, November 15, the tours and displays will continue. At 11:45 a.m., people will gather at the Cherry Grade School.  For many years it was traditional for Cherry children to march to the cemetery on the disaster’s anniversary.  After a march to the cemetery, there will be speeches from Italian representatives.  Many of the immigrant miners who died were recent arrivals to the U.S. from Italy.   Speakers include Italian Consul General Alessandro Motta, Charles Bernardini, immediate past-president of the Italian-American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest – Chicago; and Silvia Bartolini, President of Emilia-Romagna Citizens Abroad.

Cherry is on Route 89, about five miles north of I-80, in Bureau County.  The small village has kept alive the story of the workers who never came home.

For More Information about The Cherry Mine Disaster:

Eight Days in a Burning Mine

The narrative of Thomas White, who was trapped in the mine with nineteen others, as told to The World Magazine in 1911.

(Source: U. S. Department of Labor, Mine Safety & Health Administration)

Report on the Cherry Mine Disaster

In 1910 the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics compiled a complete report on the Cherry Mine Disaster. It includes the story of the disaster; information about the miners who were killed (including their country of origin, families and children); the public response to the disaster; details of the settlement with the St. Paul Coal  Company.

(Source: Illinois Digital Archives)

Tragedy in November: the Cherry Mine Disaster

Article in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, v.72, no.1

(Source: Illinois Digital Archives)

Stout, Steve. Black Damp: the story of the Cherry mining disaster. Utica, Ill. : Utica House Pub. Co., 1979

Pauley, Jeffrey W. The Cherry Mine disaster and its impact on state and federal legislation. Thesis (M.A.)–Illinois State University, 1995

Tintori, Karen. Trapped: the 1909 Cherry Mine Disaster. New York : Atria Books, 2003

Image Source: Flickr.com