Oregonians and other historians are now able to harvest information about hundreds of historical books and studies in an online History and Archaeology Library created by the Oregon Heritage division of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. “During the past five decades, we have received hundreds of studies and reports about historic and pre-historic places in Oregon,” said Chrissy Curran, manager of Oregon Heritage and the deputy state historic preservation officer. “We’ve worked so that the public can now have easy access to these documents as well as the titles of other books that have been published since the 195s.” Organized by county, the online History and Archaeology Library also includes links to lists of historic cemeteries and National Register sites in the counties. There are also links to the State Archives location guides to government records in each county. “We have also included links to digital projects that we have supported with our grant programs,” said Kyle Jansson, coordinator of the Oregon Heritage Commission. “For example, we link to the historic photos digitized in a joint project of the Albany Regional Museum and the Albany Public Library. Another link is to historic land survey maps digitized by Baker County.” The History and Archaeology Library also includes listings and links of other regional and statewide resources related to history and archaeology, and history research guides. Oregon Heritage will continue to add studies and book listings to the online library as they are received. “We want researchers who know about other work to let us know of its existence,” said Ian Johnson, manager of the State Historic Preservation Office. “We want researchers to think of this as the first place to go when they are gathering information.” The History and Archaeology Library is located at http://www.oregon.gov/oprd/HCD/RESRCH/pages/histarch.aspx
