Camden history center seeks to utilize Internet

CAMDEN – The Camden Area History Center, the next venture for retiring Camden Public Library Director Elizabeth Moran, will go far toward fulfilling the promise of the Internet.

The nonprofit center, to be located at 4 Union St., aims to provide online history buffs with virtual access to the collections of the Camden-Rockport Historical Society, the Lincolnville Historical Society, the Camden Public Library and the Camden Historic Resources Commission.

The idea, Moran said, is to “digitize” the collections of each of the collaborating organizations. That means old postcards, handwritten deeds, stereo-view photographs, cemetery records, the original script from the movie “Peyton Place,” which was filmed in Camden, and newspaper clippings, among many other items, will be scanned to allow web browsers to show them.

“It’s a massive digitization project,” Moran said.

She recently attended a training session at the Northeast Document Center’s “school for scanning,” she said. “It’s quite amazing.”

Someone interested in Megunticook Lake, for example, will be able to search and find old postcard images, deeds, maps and other information on the site. The documents and objects will be viewed in detail earlier Internet technology did not allow.

The physical collections will remain where they are, Moran said.

“We don’t want to take away customers from the historical societies,” she said.

Rather, it allows for one-stop shopping for local – or not-so-local – history sleuths.

The center will have a reading room where visitors can access the Web site and seek the assistance of staff. Microfilm collections of the Camden Herald, vital records from the three towns, and the contents of the Knox Mill Museum, formerly in MBNA’s offices in Camden, will also be located at the center.

Former MBNA executive and part-time Camden resident Charlie Cawley has provided the building for the center. Grants and other donations will be sought to keep the center operating.

The center, under Moran’s direction, also aims to publish a history of the Camden area in the 20th century, similar to that of Belfast, written by Jay Davis and Tim Hughes.

Moran also plans to record oral histories from area residents.

“We’ve got about 80 to do,” she said.

The library’s Web site is now previewing some of the information that will be available at: www.camden.lib.me.us/