[MassHistPres] Andover Preservation Website

[Smiledge, Lynn W]

Lee has suggested that I share the fact that the Andover website was a 100% volunteer effort; no consultants or hired staff were employed. The initial grant was used to purchase a computer and digital camera. Website design and management and creation of the building record database was contributed by an IT specialist at the library, who hosts the site. A committee of four developed the content. Volunteers, including seniors working through the local tax rebate program, performed data entry and photography.

We would be happy to share our war stories with other communities!

Lynn Smiledge

-----Original Message-----
From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu
[mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu]On Behalf Of Lee Wright
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 11:54 AM
To: MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Andover Preservation Website


Great job.  Very nicely done.

Who else would like to see this sort of capability for their own city or
town?

While probably not the primary goal of the project, Lynn and her colleagues
have created a great example of where all of this information should go--and
eventually will go: To the Web, for entry, updates, viewing, and
interacting.

The question we each face is the time and money we will spend, now or years
from now, doing something similar.  Will it be done in silos, with a
patchwork of systems created one-by-one, or powered by a single platform?
After all, there is not much difference in the cost between creating a
platform for one city or town versus a system to support the entire state
(or beyond), and the cost and ease of building this is much cheaper and
faster today than it was even a few years ago.

Such a platform would . . .

- Be used for entering and updating information, with a system of privileges
that governs what administrators and others are authorized to do
- Provide search capabilities using many different criteria 
- Incorporate mapping (using Google maps or something similar) and extensive
photo hosting
- Enable others to supplement information, add tags, and comments, and the
like

While some of these features may come in stages, they are all ones that
we've seen widely across the Web for some time now.  

Moreover, these efforts serve our fundamental mission, helping increasing
the interest in and understanding of our historic properties, and providing
easy access to the information our citizens have paid for.

Andover is a great example.  Kudos for them for going out and making it
happen today.


Lee Wright
....................................................

The Marlborough Historical Society Board of Trustees
The Marlborough Historical Commission

lee at historicmarlborough.org


-----Original Message-----
From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu
[mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of Smiledge, Lynn W
Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 10:45 AM
To: MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
Cc: Dean Baumeister (E-mail)
Subject: [MassHistPres] Andover Preservation Website

Please visit Andover's recently launched preservation website. It is the
result of a three-year collaboration of the Andover Historical Society,
Andover Preservation Commission, and Memorial Hall Library with start-up
funding from an Essex National Heritage Commission grant. The searchable
building function has been particularly popular. We would appreciate your
comments (although we ask you to forgive the data entry errors in the
building records database).

http://www.mhl.org/historicpreservation/

Lynn Smiledge, Historic Planner
Dept. of Economic & Community Development City of Methuen
41 Pleasant Street, Suite 217
Methuen, MA 01844
(p) 978.983.8564
(f) 978.983.8976
Mon. through Thurs. 8:00 - 4:30 pm



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