This will be a collaborative effort. By working with several different associations, this project becomes more feasible to achieve its goals by relying upon volunteers. Its success is dependent upon the willingness of the following groups to share primary documents as well as contribute to the website. The major partners will be the Indiana Historical Society, the Tippecanoe County Historical Association (TCHA), Purdue University, and the West Lafayette Public Library.
The Indiana Historical Society (IHS) offers Local History Services. Among the services is the Peer-to-Peer Assessment Program. By using this program I can make sure that the website stays consistent with its goals and continues to progress as a local historical society.
The TCHA and the West Lafayette Public Library are in possession of the documents I hope to digitize. If this site receives funding, these groups will have no reason to deny access to the documents. The goals of the TCHA and public library coincide with the goals of my site, that being to promote awareness of the local history. Both of these entities will be included on the website as active partners, so they do not need to be concerned about not receiving credit for holding the documents. I will also promote their respective websites on my site. This will be done by providing links to their sites on the home page. Although I want my site to centralize the sources currently available at the TCHA and public library, that will not come at the expense of discouraging patrons from physically going to these locations.
The grant will have three advisors:
Kathy Atwell: Tippecanoe County Historian
Nick Schenkel: West Lafayette Public Library Director
Ashley Greeley: AP U.S. History teacher at Harrison High School (largest high school in West Lafayette). Awarded Golden Apple teaching award in 2012.
Kathy Atwell and Nick Schenkel have excellent experience working with primary sources dealing with West Lafayette and Lafayette. Nick Schenkel created, and currently runs, the West Lafayette Memories Project that can be found on the Digital Resources page of the library’s website. Kathy Atwell is designated as the Tippecanoe County Historian by the Indiana Historical Society. She is the main point of contact for historical information about the area. Both of these people will provide expertise on the history of the cities. Ashley Greeley brings experience working in the local high schools and doing so at a very high level. Her understanding of the high school curriculum will be of great importance when considering how best to incorporate this site with the teaching of Indiana state history.
I am requesting $150,000 from Professor O’Malley to start up this website. Due to the heavy reliance upon volunteer labor and the use of Omeka as the site’s platform, the bulk of the money will be used to purchase digitization equipment and hardware. That will include scanners and optical character recognition (OCR) software, thus improving the ease of searching on the site. Work stations can be set up in the Frank Arganbright Genealogy Center, the West Lafayette Public Library, and in the local high schools when the curriculum incorporates working on the project. I can increase the likelihood of the high school students’ involvement by placing the digitization equipment in the high schools. Using preexisting locations will save money while also giving volunteers easier access to the necessary work stations.
Although I am requesting $150,000 from Professor O’Malley, it is with the understanding that the National Endowment for the Humanities will match that amount in a grant of $150,000 upon receipt of the first grant. This amount of money will not only be used to make the initial purchase of digital equipment, it will also be used in case of repairs and it will go towards a one-time payment of $2,000 to each location used as a permanent work station. This payment will be far less than the cost of renting or buying an independent building and given that this is a proposal for a virtual historical society there should not be a physical building anyways.
I have tried to appeal to the NEH by focusing on the educational benefits this website will provide. To ensure that this site can be effectively used in the high school curriculum I have listed Ashley Greeley as an advisor, and will continue to work with her fellow AP U.S. History teachers. It is my goal that by promoting this site as a model for future website endeavors, the NEH will see the advantages offered by funding an online historical society for West Lafayette and Lafayette. Once the best way to use this site in the classroom is determined, there will always be an audience for the site. If the NEH funds this site, then in the future if other historical societies approach them for similar funding they will know exactly how much it costs to create a site like this, which could save them money later on.
In order to evaluate the utility of the site I will monitor the number of views the site receives. This will be especially helpful in determining if more people are visiting the site as more and more documents are digitized. Responses to the oral history aspect will provide evidence of how many people are willingly interacting with the site. I will also be able to determine its utility simply by the number of volunteers working on it. Those who volunteer represent a physical representation of the intended audience. With more volunteers, it can be expected that more people are aware of the site.
Website Proposal 