The African-Ammerican Experience in Ohio

The African-American Experience in Ohio is a digital collection from the Ohio Historical Society and includes images of manuscripts, newspapers, pamphlets, photographs, prints and serials. The collection aims to spotlight moments in African-American history, within the state of Ohio, during the time period of 1850 to 1920. There are 30,000 digitized pages available online.

1) Selection Decisions

The items in this collection take a variety of formats, and "provide evidence of the diversity and complexity of African-American culture during this time period". Though it is stated that items were selected to provide a varied and comprehensive understanding of the time period, no specific selection guidelines are given.

2) Metadata

Basic descriptive metadata is provided, including title, author, publication or creation date, item location, as well as an item's physical description if appropriate. Some structural metadata is also included, as items are grouped by subject and format type. The call number of each item is listed, as well as page numbers of the images if they are taken from a larger text. A copyright notice is included for the collection describing use restrictions for the items.

3) Object Characteristics

All items were scanned at 400 dpi as TIFF images. GIFS and JPEGS are made available online. It is stated that a variety of scanners were used to digitized, depending on the material. Files are named using an alpha-numeric system, which make items easy to place relatively. You can search for items using subjects and keywords, or you can browse the collection by material type.

4) Intended Audience

This collection is intended for students, teachers, and researchers looking for more information on African-American history within a specific geographical context. The items are intended to provide a comprehensive view of African-American life during this time period. This site could effectively be used as an advanced research tool. This could also be useful to casual viewer interested in American history.