About the Collection
Nebraska Memories, a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related
historical and cultural heritage materials and make them freely
available to researchers of all ages via the Internet,
is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. Nebraska
Memories uses CONTENTdm software to house digital collections created by
Nebraska libraries, either alone or in partnership with other Nebraska
cultural heritage institutions such as museums and historical societies. The
Nebraska Memories project is funded in part by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services as well as state funding through the Nebraska Library
Commission.
The database currently contains approximately
3,500+ digitized items and continues to grow each month. Eleven Nebraska
institutions are currently participating in the project. The content helps to
document the rich history of Nebraska and its residents. At this time
searchers can find material from the 1890s to the 1970s in Nebraska Memories.
The digital collection of items in the Nebraska Memories database contains
photographs, documents, artifacts,
papers, manuscripts, maps and audio files. Genealogical resources
are not included.
The Nebraska Memories project began in 2004 when the Library
Commission purchased the software and participating libraries began training
on digitization and metadata. Since that time libraries have initiated their
own digitization projects, and as they are completed, the materials are loaded
into the Nebraska Memories database for the public to search and view.
Copyright
The Nebraska Memories website is owned by the
Nebraska Library Commission. Materials digitized for inclusion in the
database are from our participants' collections. Permission is required for
reproduction, redistribution, publication or other use of the images. Users of
the database can view copyright information for individual participants by
clicking on the URL shown in each item's Rights Statements field or by
clicking on the institution name shown in the Participating Institutions
section below.
Scanning
Participants digitize their materials in a variety of ways. Participants follow the Western States Digital
Imaging Best Practices version 1.0 when digitizing materials. The
majority of digitized images are sized to 600 pixels on the longest side unless they are
larger format items such as large-scale maps or posters. Books and sheet music are
currently the only items stored in .PDF in the Nebraska Memories database.
Metadata
CONTENTdm uses Dublin Core for metadata. Field names have been modified but
are mapped to Dublin Core elements. Participants in the project follow the Nebraska Memories Metadata
Guidelines which was built upon existing metadata guidelines used by the
Western Trails project. Controlled vocabulary is used in the Subject
and Creator fields. Participants use the Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic
Materials (TGM I and TGM II), Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), Library of
Congress Authority File, Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online, and Perkey's
Nebraska Place Names.
Participating Institutions
Information for Participants
Libraries and other institutions can find information about participation
on the Nebraska Library Commission's web site at
http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/nebraskamemories.
