Open Parks Network. Clemson University and the National Park Service; sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services; https://openparksnetwork.org/. Created in 2016; Accessed in October, 29, 2018.
The Open Parks Network (OPN) digital archive provides free access to 350,000 cultural heritage objects and 1.5 million pages of gray literature relating to U.S. parks and historic sites. It includes digitized materials from national parks, state parks, universities and other historic sites. This project is the culmination of a six-year long collaboration between Clemson University and the National Park Service. The two institutions began working together in 2010 to make the digital archive, which was finally unveiled in 2016 for the centennial celebration of the founding of the National Park Service. The project was funded by a National Leadership grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The Clemson University contributed in-kind matching funds, bringing the total project investment to $1.57 million (Gouch).
The OPN is a collaborative effort with multiple institutions contributing materials. Most of the historical items had to be digitized at the Clemson University Library, which meant that items from each repository had to be transported to South Carolina in order to be scanned. In a few rare cases where items could not be shipped because of their fragility, Clemson members actually brought the scanning equipment to the items in order to digitize them on site (Staton).
The OPN project is working to advance knowledge about U.S. parks. Its collections include primary sources related to the founding, construction, interpretation, and visitor experience of the parks over the past century. The types of sources range from photographs, ephemera and educational slides to drawings, letters and cultural objects. The OPN is a valuable source for researchers and educators because it gathers into a single online platform a mass of historical materials that are scattered across the country in multiple repositories. General audiences should enjoy the archive as well. It contains hundreds of photographs of people enjoying the parks over the years.
The site itself is user-friendly. The OPN home page has an aesthetically-pleasing, uncluttered design that is easily navigable. The user is offered several options for finding primary sources within the digital archive. One can do a simple keyword search or browse by park name or by collection name. Those who prefer to search by location can use the interactive map that is accessible from the home page. Overall, it has a sleek design that is clear and highly functional. The primary sources are the focus, and the designers have successfully refrained from adding superfluous features that might distract users from the main attraction.
If you click on a particular park name from the home page it directs you to a page showing the collections and individual items related to that park. Each page also includes an interactive map of the park with pins in the places that are associated with the items in the collection. This helps the user visualize the geographic spread of where the items originated. This feature is especially interesting when viewing the collection of member cards for the Lincoln Farm Association. The collection holds record of more than 141,000 names and addresses of people who donated money to have a memorial built on the site of Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace. Viewing the collection through the map lets the user visualize the geographic scope of the donors who helped build the memorial.
The only shortcoming I came across while perusing the OPN was that there is no way to view all of the collections on the map at the same time. You have to search for a particular keyword, collection or park in order to populate the map with data. This was a minor disappointment, because it would have been interesting to be able to visualize the spatial spread of the entire archive.
OPN has broad institutional support, which should ensure its sustainability and continued expansion. There are still many parks that are not yet represented in its current collections, and OPN is encouraging additional contributions. The site has an "Outreach" tab that navigates to a contact form inviting more parks and organizations to participate by having their cultural heritage collections digitized and included in the archive.
Overall, this is a valuable one-stop digital archive for anyone interested in the founding, construction and visitor experience of U.S. parks.
Amanda Seim
Duquesne University
Citations:
Gouch, John. “Clemson collaboration receives grant to digitize national park materials.” The Newsstand. October 13, 2010. Accessed October 29, 2018. http://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/clemson-collaboration-receives-grant-to-digitize-national-park-materials/
Staton, Michael. "Clemson and National Park Service unveil digital repository for national and state parks." The Newsstand. August 11, 2016. Accessed October 30, 2018. http://newsstand.clemson.edu/mediarelations/clemson-and-national-park-service-unveil-digital-repository-for-national-and-state-parks/?utm_source=homepage
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