How much did it cost to eat out in Baton Rouge in 2017? Which local artist painted that mural on the side of the pawn shop on Government and how to do I learn more about them? What was game night like at Woodlawn High School? These are the types of questions researchers might ask in the future when exploring what Baton Rouge was like in 2016, 2018, and onwards, and web archiving offers a unique opportunity to collect this information in real time and at a large scale. In order to give future generations the most accurate picture possible the East Baton Rouge Parish Library needs your help to ensure the picture we paint with our our collecting practices represent Baton Rouge the way YOU see and understand Baton Rouge.
#BRWebstory is an initiative meant to guide the library’s collecting of archived websites for the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Web Archive. On the second Tuesday bi-monthly, the library will ask community members to answer questions regarding their experience in Baton Rouge. For example, in the July edition of #BRWebstory, EBRPL asked the community what their favorite local restaurants were in Baton Rouge, and y’all did not disappoint! We received so many responses that we were able to build a collection of 100 URLs, or websites, to preserve and make available to researchers in Baton Rouge and around the world!
The October edition of #BRWebstory wants to know more about local makers. We know everyone has made plans to to attend the Mini Maker Faire on Saturday, October 6th at the Main Library so makers should be fresh in the brain. Know of a maker that wasn’t able to attend but should still be included in the web archive? We want to know about them!
To submit, keep a lookout for the #BRWebstory post on the library’s social media. If you have a submission, simply type it into the comments. If you’d prefer to stay anonymous, there will be a submission link in the post that will allow you to submit via webform. We will not collect any personal identifying information.
We can’t wait to see who your favorite makers are! To learn more about the web archive and the collections we’ve been curating visit the Baton Rouge Room Infoguide or take a look at the collections on the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Web Archive.
For questions, comments or suggestions contact Emily Ward at 225-231-3752 or eward@ebrpl.com.
Guest post by library archivist Emily Ward.