Libraries have a vital role to play in helping their communities contribute to, use, and benefit from Maine Memory Network (MMN), from digitizing their own collections to encouraging others to participate and introducing patrons to Maine Memory.
Benefits of Participation
Participation in Maine Memory gives your library the opportunity to:
- Share online resources related to Maine history with patrons
- Collaborate and develop deeper partnerships with local schools and historical organizations
- Develop staff skills and library capacity
- Expand your ability to reach, serve, and nurture your community
- Become a catalyst in sharing your community's history with a vast and growing audience.
How to Participate
There are many ways to participate depending on your library's goals, the material and stories the community wants to share, and the interests of local partners.
- As Contributor: If a library has its own historical collections, the team-which could include staff, volunteers, students, and/or patrons-selects historical items, creates high resolution scans or digitial photographs, completes catalog records for each, and uploads the items to Maine Memory. Visit the How to Contribute: Collecting Organizations page for more info.
- As Facilitator: The library can initiate a project that mobilizes the community to share resources on MMN, or simply support and share resources with other local organizations as they contribute. Typically, projects include digitizing and sharing collections, creating an online exhibit, or building a website related to the community's history.
- As Resource for Patrons: Libraries play a vital role in helping patrons learn about, engage, and find resources related to local history. The resources on Maine Memory include 20,000+ primary documents, 200+ online exhibits, lesson plans, and much more-and provide a rich, engaging, and easily-accessible source of information that can help patrons explore topics, themes, and events in Maine history and provide context for the experience of their own community or area.
Getting Started
The first step is to do some initial project planning. The project planning process will help your library identify the type of local history initiative best suited to your interests and goals, and develop a plan for moving forward.
- View the Project Planning Guide.
- See examples of projects other organizations have undertaken.
