Bringing a Community's History to Life, with Inmagic Presto

T he Local History and Genealogy Room, known as The Sudbury Archives, is located within the Goodnow Library in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Sudbury was one of the very first inland towns in Massachusetts, and there are many families who can trace themselves, through town records, back to the early 1600s. The library’s historical collections are available to the general public on a limited basis for research involving local, genealogical and/or historical issues, and the library’s 5-person reference department handles international requests as well as those from people living locally or in the U.S.

Supporting a mission

Per the Goodnow Library, “The intent of the Local History Collection is to preserve, collect, describe, exhibit, and make publicly accessible materials that document the history of Sudbury and its inhabitants.”

In support of that mission and strategy, using Inmagic Presto the Library offers an online, searchable database of approximately 15,000 town records dating from 1639 – 1850. It includes records from the Town Clerk’s Office, the Goodnow Library, Longfellow’s Wayside Inn (the oldest running hostelry in the United States), the Sudbury Historical Society, and the Wayland Historical Society. Each record is searchable by title, date, subject, personal name, location of original, document category and record number, and many include editorial or historical annotations. Many records also contain scanned images or transcriptions of the original documents. Per Ms. Tobin, the Goodnow Library’s Assistant Library Director and Head of Reference, the digitization project began “incredibly early” and was the first of its kind in Massachusetts.

Renewed dedication

The original Sudbury Archives Online legacy database was languishing, with no updates and limited browser compatibility, so it was frustrating for users and staff. The Town re-dedicated efforts to finding and implementing a Web-based, browser-agnostic and technology-forward platform with mobile capabilities, ultimately investing in Inmagic Presto. With the help of the Town’s IT department, and working with Lucidea’s Client Services Team, Ms. Tobin was able to efficiently import records from the legacy database, and easily perform any required post- import clean up, using Inmagic Presto’s batch editing capabilities.

Engaging with materials

Per Ms. Tobin, so many patrons had become used to the old database and its limitations that they were “completely thrilled” when they could find and see records and artifacts previously unavailable, and the Library staff are very happy with the modern functionality (including mobile), look and feel.

There are several other local major history organizations engaged with the Archives, and it is a goal to leverage Inmagic Presto’s permissions management capabilities to create logins and allow staff from these organizations to enter records and materials themselves. Per Ms. Tobin, it will be a lot more efficient having them add their own content, and “because they are experts they can add their own color and make the database even more robust and interesting.”

Bringing history to life

Speaking of “adding color,” Inmagic Presto’s multimedia capabilities allow the library staff to “give a face to the Archives” through such means as providing an online slideshow of painter Alfred Sereno Hudson’s series of historical works depicting early Sudbury homes. These special paintings were recently restored and have been photographed for inclusion in the Archives database, with rich identifying information and links to supplementary materials about the families who lived in them.

Additional plans for the Sudbury Archives Online are focused on expanding the date scope beyond 1850; Ms. Tobin and her team would like to bring the database up to 1900, using Inmagic Presto to provide as complete an historical record of Sudbury as possible—online and accessible to anyone who is interested, no matter where in the world they are.