OLA Annual Conference 2017

The unique but complementary historical collections of the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) and the OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) offer numerous opportunities for collaboration. In an effort to share Oregon’ rich history with the broader community OHS and SCARC are immersed in two grant-funded projects to digitally unite important historical manuscript and photograph collections: the Oregon Heritage grant for the digitization of the Oregon Farm Bureau Foundation for Education’s Oregon Century Farm & Ranch Program records and the IMLS-sponsored LSTA William L. Finley and Herman T. Bohlman digitization grant. Currently researchers and students must visit two geographically separated repositories to access the full range of material related to these subjects. The projects will result in online collections that have benefit to historians, researchers, librarians, students, and others interested in these valuable resources. Bridging the physical and intellectual distance between our collections is an effort to create a more complete and accessible archival picture of some of Oregon’s most important historical records. This talk will address the benefits and challenges of cross-repository collaboration, the use of these collections for instruction and outreach efforts, and offer previews of the engaging images from the collections.