Digital Commonwealth Conference
Join us at the Hogan Center at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester on Thursday, April 2, 2015 for the 9th annual Digital Commonwealth Conference. This year’s featured morning keynote speaker is Clifford Lynch, director of the Coalition for Networked Information. The lunchtime keynote speaker is Dan Cohen, executive director of the Digital…
DPLA’s Strategic Plan
DPLA (The Digital Public Library of America) has just released its Strategic Plan for 2015-2017. This is significant to us because the Digital Commonwealth in partnership with BPL is a service hub for DPLA. The DPLA plan is organized into four major initiatives: Complete the hub network so all collections and item types have an…
Hanukkah Begins December 16
Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday sometimes known as the Festival of Lights. It’s an eight day festival beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. This year, Hanukkah is observed from sunset December 16th to nightfall December 24th. The Digital Commonwealth includes photographs of a Brookline family celebrating Hanukkah in 1971 taken…
Roller Skating
On December 9, 1884, Levant M. Richardson was issued a patent for the use of steel ball bearings in skate wheels, reducing friction and increasing speed, ushering in the modern age of roller skating. This photograph by Leslie Jones shows three children roller skating on Boston Common circa 1939.
Tewksbury Almshouse Intake Record Collection at UMass Lowell
UMass Lowell Libraries in partnership with the Tewksbury Museum of Public Health has nearly completed the first phase of a project to digitize intake records from the Tewksbury Almshouse. Funding for this project was provided through a Library Services and Technology (LSTA) grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded by the…
Mohawk Trail’s 100th Anniversary
The general route we now know as the Mohawk Trail was once a rough footpath used by the Wampanoags, Nipmucs, Mahicans, Mohawks and Pocumtucks for hunting and trading. Early European settlers used this path as a travel route between Boston and Albany, and as a military route during the French and Indian Wars and the…