Archives at Handley have more than 8,000 images available online

View larger image Bettina Helms, an archives special assistant at the Handley Regional Library, examines some photographs before scanning them for the archives website. Helms has scanned nearly 19,000 photographs, of which close to 9,000 are online. Dennis Grundman/Daily View larger image Helms scans an old photograph into the Handley Library’s system. The library uses a program called Past Perfect to make the collection available online.

By Josette Keelor -- jkeelor@nvdaily.com
WINCHESTER -- For such a small library archives system, the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives at Handley Regional Library in Winchester has undertaken an impressive project in recent months, said Library Director Trish Ridgeway.

Following an anonymous donation of $2,000 in 2008 to the Joint Archives Committee, which includes the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, the committee decided to use the gift this summer to upgrade software for adding photographs to its website.

"They did specify that the gift was to help us get our records online, and so we brought in consultants who helped us review our possibilities," said archivist Rebecca Ebert.

"We purchased it specifically to handle our photographs," she said. "So we've been building toward this [point] for quite a while."

The archives had been devoting part-time staff to its online photo project since 2003. In 2004, Bettina Helms began as an archives special assistant for eight hours a week, but the process was slow going -- until the donation came.

"It enabled them to have me in here for another day, and that helped enormously," said Helms, who now has 12 hours a week and so far has posted more than 8,000 photos to the website during her seven years working at the library.

The money also helped the archives pay the hosting fee for the site and access the site from any computer, not just the one computer that Helms uses.

The 4.0 version of Past Perfect software the Joint Archives Committee purchased this summer upgraded the system the library already was using, allowing for faster uploading, Ebert said. She estimates the archives' cache of donated photos at more than 23,000.

"That's definitely a low-ball estimate," Helms said.

The upgrade to the Past Perfect database also allows users to more thoroughly search for photos they're trying to find. Previously visitors to the library's website would have had to know who was in the photos they were looking for; now they can search by people, Winchester, Frederick County or events/objects, Helms said.

When looking for photos on the library's site at www.handleyregional.org, click on Our Services, then Family and Local History and choose the link for "8,000 photographs online."

"The first thing you get is a page of random images," Helms said, but visitors will find search options in the left-hand column.

"In Past Perfect, every person we can identify is indexed," Ridgeway said.

"And you can look for things like a winter scene or snow," Ebert said, a search tactic that has come in handy for visitors making a calendar of local settings.

The site has been most helpful to visitors interested in researching their family genealogy, Ebert said.

"And also anything and everything to do with the Civil War," Helms said. "Any Civil War connection seems to run through Winchester at one point or another," she later added.

It's a long road to when the archives will be finished adding photos from its filing cabinet to the website, but in the meantime, Ebert enjoys being able to offer the service to the community. She also invites the community to loan or donate photos to the library, or to inform the archives of any needed updates to the database.

Recently an archives visitor identified his grandparents in a nearly-100-year-old photo of the Empire Theater, where Rouss City Hall now stands in Winchester, Ebert said.
She invites the public to email, call, mail or bring in any information they have.

"Anything to do with Winchester/Frederick County, we're interested in," she said, though stressing that the archives can use only actual photos, not scans of photos.

To protect the integrity of the photos and their sources, the library uploads them using a low resolution and branding them with a watermark to make them accessible for viewing but not downloading, Ebert said. Anyone interested in purchasing photos should contact the library.

Pricing varied depending on the size of the photos. Photos that are 4-by-6-inches are $5 each, while 5-by-7s are $8 and 8-by-10s are $12. The library can accommodate up to 81⁄2-by-11 in house, Ebert said.

Prices cover the cost of time spent on the project, special equipment needed, and supplies to care for the equipment, Ebert said.

"It's been really grand for folks to view photographs online," she said.

She recalls a recent website visitor from California contacting the archives about photos -- a cousin of the Nelson branch of Stewart Bell Jr.'s family, after whom the archives is named -- "and, so, that's been very rewarding," Ebert said.

Most people who look up the photos are working on family projects, but sometimes something unique reaches the ears of those working in the archives.

"Oh, yes, the Denny's project," Helms said, recalling when the restaurant chain contacted the archives for its Frederick location.

"They wanted photos that are typical of Winchester," she said. After adorning its walls with artwork from the area's history, a customer contacted the archives, surprised and excited to identify her sister in an old photo of a marching band.

"It's really been exciting seeing these and getting online and reaching more people," Ebert said. "[It's been] more involved than just scan and post."

"And it's taken a lot of people to pull all of this together."

To contact the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives of the Handley Regional Library, call 662-9041 or visit www.handleyregional.org.