[Colorado-Talk] Preserving our historical Documents

[Peggy Chong]

Hello All:

 

Much has happened in the past two weeks with the Preservation of Historical
Documents Committee.  Our old files have returned home from Docutek and we
are preparing to send out files to volunteer transcribers to make our
hisotyr more accessible to us.  But there is much more to be done.  We know
there are documents in the archives of newspapers and libraries we need to
gather and add to our files.  Newspaper clippings and pictures will need to
be purchased and we have a long list of files and people to look for.
Transcribing is just phase two of our multi-phased project.  I am asking
readers of this list to help fund the project by taking the flyer attached
and below to your local Optimist club, church group, Lion's club and more to
find funds to acquire history from outside sources.  We can still use a few
more volunteers to transcribe files as well.

 

How great it will be for us to read our own history!

 

Peggy Chong

 

 

"To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without
a root."

- Chinese  Proverb

We, the Blind, Need Your Help to Save Our History!

 

We Need Your Financial Support!

We Need Your Time to Transcribe Files into Word Documents!

 

Time holds our history hostage!  The National Federation of the Blind of
Colorado, NFBCO holds a unique and  irreplaceable history of the blind of
Colorado dating back to the early 20th century, but we, the blind, cannot
read it!  Help us preserve our one-of-a-kind, precious history before it
turns into moldy, paper dust.  

 

Historians and scholars have come to us to research the sole-source records
in our archives.  The information they have gleaned has contributed to
doctoral theses and published books such as Thomas A. Karinz's Delivering
Aid: Implementing Progressive Era Welfare in The American West.  However,
there is much history yet to be uncovered.  Valuable data is trapped in the
multiple formats and the desperate conditions of the records.  Boxes and
boxes of old Braille, typewritten notes on onion skin paper, faded
mimeographs, letters in cursive handwriting,  and faded newspaper articles
are deteriorating year after year. What can we do to save this unique
history of the blind in Colorado?

 

WE HAVE A SOLUTION!!

 

A Professional digitization firm has been identified to painstakingly create
electronic files, preserving an image of the original format.  They will
transcribe through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) the print records.
However, the majority of the records are in multiple formats that are not
OCR friendly.  Handwriting, Braille, mimeographs and faded print make
scanning difficult or impossible. That which scans poorly must be manually
corrected and that which doesn't scan at all must be transcribed into an
electronic format, such as MS Word..  The electronic files will be available
for all...searchable and easily read by multiple screen readers.  

 

When the project is completed, it will bring to life, in multiple formats,
the history of the blind of Colorado and the blind men and women pioneers
who contributed to state history through business, politics, education and
more.  The completed project will be shared with multiple public and
blindness specific libraries. Anyone will be able to access, search and
learn from our blind ancestors.  

 

We need your help!  Don't let our history be lost, forgotten or destroyed!
This preservation project is a huge undertaking that will take both money
and volunteer time. Call or email today to find out how you can help
preserve a vital part of Colorado history.




 

Mail checks to:

NFBCO, History

2233 W SHEPPERD AVE

LITTLETON, CO 80120-2038

On-Line at: www.nfbco.org

Peggy Chong-Coordinator

303-745-0473

 <mailto:chongpeggy10 at gmail.com> chongpeggy10 at gmail.com




 

 

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