Davie County Training School Reunion (1980s) Courtesy Davie County Public Library.

Yearbooks and other types of school memorabilia are some of the most popular types of items we digitize. They bring out nostalgic feelings, in addition to being sources of information about individuals and communities.

Some of the most prolific preservers of school memorabilia are High School Alumni Associations, and we’re pleased to announce that the Digital Heritage Center will now work with them to help share their collections online.

For the last 6 years, the Digital Heritage Center has served cultural heritage institutions throughout North Carolina. While many Alumni Associations may not have a brick and mortar presence, they are often entities with long histories and an active and coordinated membership. We are looking forward to helping them share their history online, along with the libraries, archives, museums and other institutions we currently partner with.

It’s important to us that users of DigitalNC.org can get in touch with the institutions that hold the collections we digitize over time. To that end, we’re happy to work with Alumni Associations that are organized and persistent. To participate, the Alumni Association must be associated with a North Carolina high school and have at least a few of these characteristics:

• have contact information (phone, email, address) belonging to the association and not just held by an individual or individuals,
• have been in existence longer than 5 years,
• be incorporated as a 501(c) organization,
• hold regular meetings or events,
• maintain an online presence (an updated website or active Facebook page),
• operate with some sort of governance structure.

If you’re part of an Alumni Association and are interested in becoming a partner, please read about how to participate and get in touch with us. We’d love to hear from you!

Cove Creek High School Class of 1949 Reunion (1997) Courtesy Watauga County Public Library.

NCGS 2015 Award Winners at the Annual Luncheon in Raleigh. (left to right) Helen F. M. Leary, CG (Emeritus), FASG; Ginger R. Smith; Pam Toms, Awards Chair; Vickie P. Young, NCGS President; Sharon Gable; Maryann Stockert Tuck; Judi Hinton; and Lisa Gregory

On Saturday, at the North Carolina Genealogical Society Annual Meeting luncheon, we were honored as co-winners of the NCGS 2015 Award for Excellence in Web Presence.

We work hard to make sure our site represents the materials shared by our 180+ partners in a professional and easy-to-use manner, and are thrilled at the recognition from NCGS. It’s our hope that genealogists everywhere continue to find our site helpful for their research. We share this award with the State Library of North Carolina and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, without whom our work wouldn’t be possible. Even more, we share this award with all of our partners, who are making their collections more accessible for users all over the world through DigitalNC.org.

If you’re in the Charlotte area and interested in local history and digital libraries, please mark March 30 on your calendars: we will be holding an event to celebrate and explore digital library efforts in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Here are the details:

Event: Digital Charlotte: Celebrating and Exploring Local Digital Library Projects
Date: March 30, 2015
Time: Talk at 6:30, followed by a reception
Location: UNC Charlotte Center City Campus, 320 E. 9th St.
Parking information: http://www.charlottecentercity.org/transportation/parking/
Admission: Free and Open to the Public
Questions?: Write digitalnc@unc.edu or call 919-962-4836

“Digital Charlotte” will feature a talk by Julie Davis, Project Director, Digital Loray, and Public Historian in Residence at the Loray Mill, who will speak about the role of public history in the redevelopment of the Loray Mill in Gastonia. The talk will be followed by a reception during which guests can see demonstrations of digital projects from local libraries including UNC-Charlotte, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Johnson C. Smith University, and Davidson College. This will be a terrific opportunity for local genealogists and history buffs to learn more about the rapidly-growing number of online resources devoted to local history. We are also encouraging Charlotte-area librarians, archivists, and students to attend and participate.

This event is being held as part of our work on a recent grant from the Digital Public Library of America. The grant funding has enabled us to expand our services for libraries, archives, and museums around the state. The DPLA is the primary sponsor of the Digital Charlotte event. Additional support is being provided by the Olde Mecklenburg Brewery.

Please contact us if you have any questions. We hope to see many of you in Charlotte!