Free Digital Access to an Online Community History Archive
What makes us different? We provide free access to your images once they are uploaded to your website. The hosting charges for an online Community History Archive are entirely taken on by us as a partner, and are free to you and your community– Forever. If you do want to keep your site IP restricted to within the walls of your institution, or username and password protected, we can do that too.
Our goal is that you will, in turn, make the historical images free to access for your patrons. We are truly passionate about history, and believe it will drive engagement and enrich the lives of your community members.
If you would like to know more, Schedule a Time to Talk!
Fully Searchable Online Digital Archive
The “Advantage”s of having your content on an online digital archive are plenty. We will OCR your images so they are fully searchable, which allows much faster browsing and searching time, getting you and your patrons exactly what you need, faster than ever. No more flipping through dozens or decades of newspapers, while also pulling similar yearbooks, or trying to find what you’re looking for on an old microfilm reader.
Putting all the content in the same place also allows patrons to search the source they want, but also sources they may never have even thought of, all at the same time. This provides a more thorough window into the past, and almost always helps reveal a bigger picture. If you have previously digitized content have no fear. The cost to upload an already digitized image is significantly reduced (roughly 7x more budget friendly, to be more precise.) This goes a long long way in building a community history Archive, and making your past accessible in the present– and future too!
Our Services
- Yearbook Digitization
- School Newspapers
- Microfilm Digitization
- Photographic Materials
- Commercial Imaging
Yearbook Digitization
Advantage Archives is well known for our newspaper digitization and preservation, and for good reason. Newspapers, though, only paint a portion of the picture. Adding yearbooks to an online Community History Archive is one of the best ways showcase the world from the lens of the community. World and local event, fashion of the time, and accomplishments are some of the most requested archival information, and they’re all found in yearbooks!
School Newspapers
Newspapers are a direct reporting of the events going on that are important to a community. Just like with Yearbooks, School Newspapers also provide that information through the lens of the institution at that time. Here at Advantage, we find these sources to be just as important as the city newspaper. History is all about perspective, and young elementary, high school, and college students are full of changing perspectives, making for unique and personal sources.
Microfilm Digitization
The newspaper microfilm will be scanned in 8-bit greyscale, which is best suited to providing volume and cost-effectiveness while retaining an image quality that allows for easy access. The Advantage Archives scanning process is intended to accurately render the content of the original newspaper if the source material in respect to its completeness, appearance of the original text, and the correct sequence of pages.
Newspaper microfilm is scanned for access, not as a preservation method. Advantage considers microfilm digitization as an enhancement to make the content more practically accessible and not as an archival solution.
Photographic Materials
Digitization ensures that your photographs, negatives, or slides can be viewed anytime, anywhere, from any device, allowing you to relive those moments in the community through pictures of the people, places, and events that shaped your community and will enable you to share those moments with others. Once digitized, the original copy is to be tucked away and stored to keep in pristine condition and allows the image to be shown to all that want to see it.
Advantage Archives has the experience and equipment to ensure that these Photographs are preserved to the highest of standards. In addition, we have special equipment that is built to preserve these exact pieces. As a result of this and our staff with extensive experience, we will preserve these to the highest standards.
With our Community History Archives platform, we can index and organize these materials in any way you would like. This allows for easy viewing. The Community History Archives platform is also mobile-friendly and will allow you to view and explore these photos anywhere you choose. You no longer need to carry around those important photos, but all in one spot, you will have access to all these memories.
Photos weren’t designed to live forever in print form. Each time you touch and share these photos, they deteriorate. Preserving these by digitization is how you can ensure that the original copy stays in as good shape as possible while still being able to look at all these photos, whenever, wherever.
Commercial Imaging
Digitized records can be easily accessed and retrieved from anywhere at any time. This eliminates the need for manual searching through physical files and allows for quick and efficient retrieval of information. Employees can access the records remotely, promoting collaboration and productivity.
Storing physical records requires valuable office space and ongoing maintenance. By digitizing your records, you can significantly reduce the need for physical storage space, potentially leading to cost savings on rent or reallocation of space for other purposes.
Digitized records can be indexed, tagged, and searchable, making it easier to locate specific information within the documents. Optical character recognition (OCR) technology can be used to extract text from scanned documents, allowing for keyword searches and advanced document organization.
Education Series: Using Archives in the Classroom
Our Co-Founder Jeff Kiley recently did a blog series on using digital archives and sources in the classroom, and it was a hit! You can read more at these links:
Bringing History to Life: Integrating Historical Newspaper Research in the Classroom
Old Words, New Lessons: Helping Students Navigate the Language of the Past
Reading Between The Lines: Helping Students Recognize Bias in Historical Newspapers
Putting The Text In Context: Embracing the Challenges of Historical Newspaper Research
Using Digital Archives To Rewrite History (Lessons) For Elementary School Students
Using Digital Archives To Rewrite History (Lessons) For Middle School Students
Using Digital Archives To Rewrite History (Lessons) For High School Students
Spotlight: St. Bonaventure University
The St. Bonaventure Archive contains a variety of content from 1837-2022.
“The Bona Venture,” the student newspaper of St. Bonaventure University, has a rich history as a key part of the university’s student life and communication. Established in 1926, it has been a platform for students to express their views, report on-campus events, and discuss issues relevant to the university community.
The newspaper is primarily run by student journalists, editors, and staff members. It provides a practical learning experience for students interested in journalism, writing, editing, and other aspects of newspaper production.
Read more in our Spotlight on St. Bonaventure University
Want to discuss creating an online Community History Archive for your community? Schedule a Time to Talk
Sign up to win a Decade of Digitization!
Come by booth 1012 at LibLearnX to see us, and sign up to win a free Decade of Digitization. Whether that’s Yearbooks, School Newspapers, Microfilm Digitization or more!*
This has the potential to have 10 yearbooks (or similar content) uploaded to a free Community History Archive at no cost to you. A site like this is an extremely valuable to increase engagement and show your community how valuable access to its history is!
