history and genealogy

This March 2016 marks the 10th anniversary of Faces and Places (www.kentonlibrary.org/genphotos) , a unique online historical photo album that highlights the people, places and events of Kentucky (and some Cincinnati).  Since its inception a decade ago, the Faces and Places website has received over 9.2 million views. There are nearly 85,000 photos, 6,435 subject headings and nearly 2,000 comments.   This online album was created when the history staff at the Kenton County Public Library started digitizing some of its resources. They were digitizing documents and family files so that genealogy researchers around the world could obtain the information they needed without having to incur the cost of travel expenses. The staff then added photos to the mix, therefore creating Faces and Places.   The popularity of the photograph collection easily lent itself to a digital format. As such, staff scanned and the photos and staff and volunteers did the indexing. When the Kentucky Post, a daily newspaper, ceased publication they donated over 60,000 photographs to the Kenton County Public Library. Staff and volunteers began adding those to the database, using keywords and subject headings to make searching easier.   Faces and Places is searchable by surname, address, city, or subject. As the database became more well-known in the community, other area residents began donating photos to the library. One of the more significant collections was a local photography studio who donated over 1,000 photographs of greater Cincinnati scenes from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. Because of the accessibility of the photographs through the database, many have been used by local authors, in local history books, by the media, by teachers and students and by museums and local businesses.   With images of Riverfront [...]