News Release
October 2000
(Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania) – Moravian College’s Reeves Library collaborated
with the Bethlehem Area Public Library for a joint project titled, "The
Bethlehem Digital History Project." The project has launched a
Web site to provide easy access to a wealth of information about Bethlehem's
first one hundred years and its Moravian heritage. The site, located
at http://bdhp.moravian.edu, contains information, documents, and images,
from 1741 through 1844, that bring to life Bethlehem’s storied
Moravian history.
The Web site contains early Bethlehem community records
including the Bethlehem Diary, and business activity ledgers and extracts.
The Land section includes historic maps, and surveys. The Personal Papers
section contains memoirs of a number of early Bethlehem settlers. Portions
of the site will be continually updated while others are still under
construction. The sections, art, education, music, and teaching materials
are scheduled for completion by January 2001.
Last year, the Commonwealth Libraries of Pennsylvania
awarded a $71,670 federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA)
NETShare to Reeves Library, Moravian College and the Bethlehem Area
Public Library for this project. The Commonwealth Libraries of Pennsylvania,
which has funded the Project, administer this federal LSTA NETShare
grant.
"It is the aim of this project to encourage broad
or specialized exploration of local, regional and national history,"
said Julia C. Maynard, project director. "This type of study can
be conducted by utilizing the information contained in this site, the
vast resources available at various institutions in Bethlehem, as well
as the wide array of published works on the subject of Bethlehem’s
history."
"We attempted to take into consideration the capabilities
of all viewers. Efforts were made to keep file sizes to a minimum while
maintaining legibility requirements for source documents. To aid in
determining download times, all file sizes over 300 K are noted,"
said Maynard. "As the project continues past its first year, additional
materials will be developed and added to the site. Resources currently
available and those available in the future can be determined by visiting
the project’s Site Index," she said
"Many of the source images on this site are in German
script. Every effort was made to provide German transcriptions and English
translations for each source; however, some documents are accompanied
by the English translation only," Maynard explained. "For
the benefit of the researcher who can read German script, selected documents
will be reproduced without transcriptions or translations. These sources
are being developed and will be available on the site," she added.
The Bethlehem Digital History Project will lay the foundation for an
ongoing effort that will continue well beyond the grant year. The recipient
libraries will be able to add digital images of materials indefinitely.
They will also be able to develop related material to make the information
both interesting and entertaining to the general public, local school
children as well as the serious researcher.
The project was sponsored by the Bethlehem Area Public
Library and Moravian College Reeves Library. While the federal grant
covers all monetary outlays of the project, Moravian students and other
volunteers contributed time to the project. Additionally, Moravian College
donated the Internet domain name as well as the Internet and telephone
connections. The Moravian Archives and Moravian Historical Society provided
documents and information. The project director is Julia C. Maynard
and project evaluator is William G. Thomas.
The Web site was designed by Moravian College student
Erica Wolbach, along with Scott Piccotti who worked on programming and
imaging, and Michael Preston who provided programming support. Jim Beers,
Paul Edinger, and Tom Mondeschein from Moravian’s Center for Information
Technology (CIT) provided technical support and Maria Lucas served as
network administrator. Patrick St. John provided software and imaging
assistance. Moravian College students, Jessica Lyscek, Tara Tramontozzi,
and Erica Wolbach served as student interns for the project.
Katherine E. Carté worked on transcriptions and
translations.
Content consultants and contributors included Katherine
Carté, Otto Dreydoppel, Susan Dreydoppel, Katherine Faull, Melanie
Fiske, Scott Garrigan, Karen Gartner, Jane Gill, Karen Huetter, Linda
LaPointe, Paul Larson, Willard Martin, Vernon Nelson, Ralph Schwarz,
Rosalind Remer, and Mark Turdo.
Moravian College is a private, coeducational, selective
liberal arts college located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tracing its
founding to 1742, it is recognized as America's sixth-oldest college.
For more information call (610) 861-1491 or visit the web site at www.moravian.edu
