About the Project: History of the Project

Operating Principles

• Audience
• Themes
• Selection Criteria for Digitized Images

Audiences for the Virtual Collection

Educational Users

• College and University Faculty

• High School teachers

• 4 th and 7 th Grade NYS teachers, especially for development of Document-based questions (DBQs)

Administrative Users

• Government agencies
• Regional and local government departments
• Surveyors
• Attorneys

Historical Users

• Environmental historians
• Researchers
• Authors/journalists
• Publishers
• Local historians
• Environmental historians
• Policy makers and planners (legislators)
• Environmental activists and organizations
• Industry/Corporations

Themes

This list is derived from environmental themes identified, and those suggested by the Partners & Advisory Groups. They were used to guide the selection and description processes.

Land Use

• Eminent domain
• Community development
• Historic preservation
• Forestry

Water

• Quantity/quality/pollution
• History
• Dams
• Reservoirs

Protection

• Lakes, rivers
• Coastal zones
• Wetlands
• Flora & fauna

Pollution

• Air quality
• Toxics
• Water

Energy

Solid and Hazardous Waste Disposal

Biodiversity

Recreation

• Outdoor use
• Tourism/tourists

Public Health

• Tuberculosis

Policy & Law

• Environmental justice

• Development and implementation of environmental laws and regulations

• Environmental litigation

Citizen action Through Organizations and Government

Roles of Business and Corporations

• Mining, forestry, lumber, agriculture

Environmental Education and Technical Assistance

Science and Technology

Funding of Environmental Affairs

People/Groups/Cultures

• Native Americans
• Ethnic groups
• Leaders/Personalities (Colvin, Stoddard, Robert Marshall)

Religion

Management of Natural Resources

Transportation

• Canals
• Interstates
• Railroads

Fires

Cultural/Esthetic/Artistic Significance

Criteria for Selecting Materials for Digitization

Mandatory criteria:

• Relevant to themes/goals/audience
  
• Cohesive thematic focus
  
• Clear ownership of material and copyright to it; or, copyright permission is considered easily obtainable
  
• Manageable size

Probably necessary criteria:

• Processed with finding aid
  
• Past user demand or anticipated future user demand justifies electronic access
  
• Relatively easy to describe
  
• Physically stable
  
• Historical significance

Desirable criteria:

• Visually interesting
  
• Diverse formats (e.g. text, still picture, motion picture, sound,  microformat)
  
• Representative example of document type
  
• Interlocking collections/items (i.e., Cockburn family papers (State Library) and Cockburn field books (State Archives))
  
• Items that document change over time
  
• Items that are exemplars of a series/collection and that help users understand its nature and content
  
• Seminal items/collections
  
• Scope of materials is broad enough to provide context for understanding their significance

Formats that are good candidates for imaging:

• Maps
• Photographs
• Prints
• Drawings
• Paintings
• Archives/textual documents
• Newspaper cartoons
• Scrapbooks
• Aerial photographs
• Broadsides
• Postcards
• Stereo views
• Audiovisual: sound recordings, motion pictures
• Sheet music
• Artifacts (3-D)
• Land papers: leases, fieldbooks