[MassHistPres] Update on MHC’s Scanning Project

[Lee Wright]

(Copying the list in case others are interested in understanding how this data will be found or how they could use it in their site.  LW)


Thanks for the update.  Was glad to see that someone from this effort spoke up. 

The scans are great, but I'm just puzzled as to how people will find and use the information.  The URLs aren't search engine-friendly and there don't appear to be meta tags or descriptions in the page source code that give these a shot at showing up in Google results.  

In the example linked below, there is simply a link to the MACRIS database.  Are you planning on providing a viewer so that we can embed the scans in our sites (a la Scribd or any of the other content platforms that provide widgets)?  

At a minimum, can we get access to an FTP site (or use a dropbox account) where we can get all of the high-quality scans that were created and we can make them available through our sites? 

Our home-brew method of cheaply and quickly scanning our docs, with so-so OCR, still produces great Google results.  Logical search phrases, even without quotes, usually show us as the first, second, third, and sometimes fourth and fifth results in Google.  

Any plans to address this, or are they just going to reside in MACRIS, perhaps as the next phase of this effort?  Given all of the time and money that's been spent so far, it would be a shame if people weren't able to find the result.

Best--

Lee

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Lee Wright  |   Marlborough  |   469-233-7712




On Apr 4, 2012, at 1:36 PM, Peter STOTT wrote:

> As long-time readers of this Listserve will recall, since 2008 the
> Massachusetts Historical Commission has been scanning the roughly
> 160,000 Inventory records and 4200 National Register nominations for
> properties in Massachusetts.
> 
> Yesterday MHC completed the latest modifications to the MACRIS online
> database, with new icons and revised explanatory help pages. Three new
> icons should better display the availability of scanned Inventory and
> National Register nomination files.  A new icon indicates if the NR
> file refers to a Multiple Property Submission (MPS) document.
> 
> Additional modifications are planned for the near future, but this is
> an opportune moment to update users of the progress in MHC’s scanning
> project since it began in 2008.  As of completion of the current
> scanning contract at the beginning of May 2012, MHC will have scanned
> two thirds (66%) of the Inventory records in its files – representing
> all towns between Hadley and Yarmouth.  Every record is represented by
> a multi-page PDF file as well as a separate JPG image of the primary
> photograph attached to each inventory form.  Each PDF file is
> optically character recognized, making possible word searches across
> each document, and ultimately (although not yet) across the entire
> body of inventory records.
> 
> Prior to scanning, we have also worked with historical commissions to
> update street addresses, where towns may have assigned or revised
> house numbers since the original town inventories were undertaken. In
> some cases, we have also been able to bring local commissions’
> inventory files into sync with MHC’s copies.  While we are happy to
> supply historical commissions with CDs of the scanned files, we also
> encourage towns to link to MACRIS, from MHC’s own web page.   The West
> Tisbury Historical Commission recently made this link, and also posted
> on YouTube an informative video on using the MACRIS database (see
> http://www.westtisbury-ma.gov/Boards/loc-hist-comm.html).
> 
> As of the beginning of April, MHC has also scanned and made available
> on line roughly 2200 National Register nominations, including
> accompanying maps and photographs. This represents all nominations
> prepared since the year 2000 and many from earlier years.
> 
> 
> Peter Stott
> Preservation Planner
> Massachusetts Historical Commission
> pstott at sec.state.ma.us
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