October 15, 2007Public
Library Provides Wider Access to Collection’s Treasures
Wikis: Inland Riverboats Photo Collection & Lincoln Letters
Collection
The Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton
County’s collection includes more than 10 million items – audiobooks,
music CDs, DVDs, printed publications such as books, magazines, and
newspapers, and even digital items like e-books and e-videos. With all
of that material and a limited amount of space, historical treasures
like the Inland Riverboats Photograph Collection and letters penned by
President Abraham Lincoln himself might have been overshadowed by the
ever-changing and ever-growing collection. 
Thankfully, digital technology has provided a new
vehicle for Library customers to experience these treasures. A wiki
–short for the Hawaiian word “wiki wiki,” meaning fast – is a digital
technology that provides instant access and unlimited virtual space to
showcase these collection items.
More than just a gallery, these collaborative Web
sites allow visitors to share the stories behind these historical
treasures and even edit one another’s comments. Now family stories
passed down from generation-to-
generation about a particular photo or letter have a special place in
the Library’s collection and are available for everyone to access
anytime, anywhere.
About the Inland Riverboats Photograph Collection
 In
1956, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County merged its
own collection of river material with a donation from the Sons and
Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen, an organization devoted to the
preservation of river history, and from Captain Frederick Way, Jr., a
noted steamboat pilot and river historian. This merged collection, known
as the Inland Rivers Library, has become a major resource for books,
manuscripts, photographs, maps, and ephemera dealing with the commercial
use of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and their navigable tributaries.
Aside from books and pamphlets, photographs are one
of the most frequently requested items in the Inland Rivers Library.
There are about 24,000 photographs on file, and there are thousands of
additional photographs found in scrapbooks throughout the collection.
Depicted in these photographs are various
types of riverboats, including packets, towboats, ferries, excursion
boats, and government boats. There are also scenes of river towns,
floods, navigation facilities, and other topics.
Of the 24,000 photographs in the collection, 19,000
will be available via the Library’s Inland Riverboat Photo Collection
Wiki. To date, more than 4,000 of these images are already available
online.
Photos above left Island Queen and at right, Delta Queen
About the Lincoln Letters Collection
Across the country communities, organizations, and
individuals have already begun to plan parades, museum exhibitions,
performances, art installations, and much more to celebrate the 200th
anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln in 2009. A diverse alliance
of local institutions has come together to plan The Lincoln Legacy –
A Cincinnati Celebration of Freedom, the region’s commemoration and
celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s treasured legacy.
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton
County, a Lincoln Legacy partner, has digitized 12 letters penned by
Abraham Lincoln himself. The letters are from private
collections as well as from the Bertrand B. Kahn Lincolniana Collection
available in the Library’s Rare Books Department. The Lincoln Letters
wiki houses digital versions of all 12 letters.
|
|
|
