For organizations with historical collections-historical societies, museums, archives, libraries, town governments, hospitals, churches, and others-the building block of participation is the collection. The first step is to become a Maine Memory Network Contributing Partner (CP). Maine Historical Society (MHS) staff will help identify items in the collection to share, and provide the training and support needed to get those items online.
Benefits of Participation
Sharing collections and information about your town's history through Maine Memory Network (MMN) will give your organization the opportunity to:
- Digitize collections
- Vastly expand access to collections (within your community and beyond) while reducing handling and protecting the originals
- Collaborate and develop deeper partnerships with local schools and libraries
- Expand its ability to reach and serve the community
- Develop skills and increase capacity
- Find new support and resources within your community
How to Participate
The first step is to become a Contributing Partner. Fill out the CP application, sign and return the Contributing Partners' Agreement (PDF), and we'll create a (free) account for your organization on MMN that will enable you to upload, catalog, manage, and share materials online.
Contributors share their history in the following ways:
- Digitizing Collections: A local team selects historical items, creates high resolution scans or digital photographs, completes catalog records for each, and uploads the items to MMN. The online CP Quick-Start Guide explains how this works.
- Building an online exhibit: A local team picks a story to tell based on a local collection. Once historical items have been uploaded to Maine Memory, we offer a variety of flexible tools that enable contributors to create exhibits that explore topics, themes, and events in their community's history.
- Building a website: Maine Memory also allows CPs and community teams to build their own websites. Contributors can create an organizational website to share information about collections and programs, or a simpler website that serves as a customized gateway to their material on MMN.
Our standards, process, and online tools are all designed to ensure that collections and information about Maine history are easy to find and of the highest possible quality.
Getting Started
If you aren't quite ready to become a CP, undertake some initial project planning. The project planning process will help your team clarify its goals, identify the project type best suited to your interests, and develop a plan for moving forward.
- View the Project Planning Guide.
- See examples of projects other organizations have undertaken.
