A $185,000 grant will allow Oklahoma City to organize historic documents dating back to 1890 and create an online catalog.
The process is expected to take two years and will result in a website where the public will be able to discover what documents the city has and request additional information.
“This will help us organize collections that have previously not been available for researchers,” said Jennifer Day, who was hired as the city’s first archivist in 2012.
Day said the grant will be used to hire a full time and part time employee and purchase archival supplies.
While this project will not digitize historic documents for review online, it will create an online database that will make searching for historic documents much easier. The records inventory will include documents such as city council’s journal of proceedings, resolutions, deeds and abstracts and building plans for city projects such as pipelines, bridges and public use facilities.
The grant was provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
“At the end of this process we will then have an OKC archives website and a place to learn more about what we have,” Day said. “It will establish a jumping off point.”
