Last spring, Billings Public Library launched a program to collect photos of Billings from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The library displayed those images and then partnered with the Montana History Portal to make some of the scanned photos available online.
People were asked to complete a Creative Commons agreement (giving permission to share the photos), This step is critical! They were also asked to answer questions about each photo. (The questions below were taken directly from BPL’s description of the project):
Title: A short title describing what's shown or going on in the image.
Creator: Who took this photo? If it was not you, please name who did and your relation to this individual. Due to copyright concerns, ambiguous descriptions in this field may force us to disqualify the image for event display and upload to MHP.
Location: Please provide a physical street address if possible. If not, please describe where the image was taken with as much detail as possible.
Date: Month/day/year, or as close to the actual date as possible. Please refrain from using "circa" and provide at least the correct year the image was taken.
Description: Here's your chance to describe what the image portrays in detail. Where is this taken? What landmark is shown? What event was this taken at? What is the significance of this image? If possible, include the names of people shown in image.
BPL did this with members of the general public, but I’m wondering if this could be a class project, in cooperation with your public library and the Montana History Portal. (Note: You'd need to include your local library, because you'll need their help editing the metadata into a form that will work for the Portal.)
I reached out to BPL archivist Joe Lanning, and he said he’d be happy to visit with folks who want to take something like this on. Just email him at lanningj@billingsmt.gov.
PS: Joe has also offered to help classes or individual students conducting research for National History Day projects. Learn more about NHD, a program for grades 6-12, here.
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