The November launch of the redesigned website not only provides a new look for Ohrstrom Library’s web presence, it also debuts a completely new online resource for the St. Paul’s School Archives. The Ohrstrom Library Digital Archives, or OLDA for short, takes the Archives’ online presence to a more dynamic level, and promises to grow into an even richer browsing experience as the online content expands. The function of this new Archives web component is described on the OLDA home page:
The OLDA website has been designed specifically to generate a sense of discovery for the user, establishing relationships between images through informed descriptive methods. Each image page provides a variety of browsing opportunities – through tagged links arranged by subject, Form year, Rectorship, and other classifications, as well as technical metadata about the digitized image presented online. Selected images are curated into themed exhibits that expand the information of individual item descriptions. In addition to tagged browsing, all images can be searched using the search box located in the header, and each image page provides a place for users to contribute tags to increase the knowledge base.
OLDA was developed using WordPress web software. Although primarily associated with blogging, this open-source software is also an incredibly powerful content management system. Through extensive customization OLDA has been developed to function as both a browser friendly website and a cataloging interface that follows established guidelines for best practices in archival description.
As the process to digitize the photo collection moves forward images will be selected from the over 30,000 photos in the archives to be included in OLDA. Each additional tagged image will add to the browsing experience, creating greater connections across more images and expanding this online visual narrative of the history of St. Paul’s School.
Bookmark OLDA today and visit often to see what new information you can discover about something old from the St. Paul’s School Archives.
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