Introduction to the Blackstone Library Digital Archives
Our digital archives site is designed to be searched or browsed depending on the individual’s preference. Enter search terms in the search box at the top right of the page or click on Browse Collections, Browse Items or Browse Tags.
PDFs will show a preview; click on the article itself and the page will load full-screen in your browser or in Adobe Reader (may be restricted if your pop-up blocker is on).
Browsing and Searching
For those who wish to browse or search the archives, it will help to understand the terms used.
- An Item is an individual resource, that may be a newspaper article, a photograph, a postcard, etc. For the most part, each item has its own page.
- A Collection is a group of items with a common theme. Some examples of our collections are library construction photographs, 1938 hurricane photographs and articles on the history of Branford written by Town Historian, Jane Bouley.
- A Tag is a simple keyword or phrase that describes an item; each item can have many tags.
The Digital Archives uses Dublin Core metadata. Dublin Core is a set of fifteen core elements used to describe a resource; these facilitate indexing and searching and provide standardization. The fifteen elements are Creator, Contributor, Publisher, Title, Date, Language, Format, Subject, Description, Identifier, Relation, Source, Type, Coverage, and Rights.
The Creator field might contain the name of a photographer or the author of an article. The Title field will generally be a short description of the item. Date will indicate when an item was created or published. Subject terms are generally taken from the Library of Congress Subject Headings, but may include locally created subjects. Coverage will indicate the location (or occasionally time frame) of an item. The Digital Archives relies on the Library of Congress Names, but there will also be locally created names.
In addition to these fifteen core elements, the site includes a broad range of Tags. Tags are created by the staff at Blackstone Library and are especially useful for visitors who want to browse through items related to a particular area of town, a specific family, business or event