Jekyll2023-04-21T09:56:48-04:00https://localpreservation.github.io/feed.xmlLocal Preservation SchoolTools, resources, and tutorials on saving historic places in your community.Local Preservation Schoolinfo@baltimoreheritage.orgWhat did we learn building the Local Preservation School?2017-05-04T00:00:00-04:002017-05-04T00:00:00-04:00https://localpreservation.github.io/summary-report<p class="notice--primary">We are glad to share the summary report we put together for the National Park Service to mark the end of the grant for the Local Preservation School project. We hope to continue to <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/localpast-open-review/">hearing feedback</a> from professional and volunteer preservationists about how we can expand and improve our <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/tools/">tools</a> and <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/">resources</a>. We’ll try to incorporate small changes as best we can but we are taking a break from any major development for now. If you have any suggestions for future funding or partnership opportunities, please <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/contact/">get in touch</a>. Thank you to everyone who supported this effort over the past two years! <em>~ Eli Pousson (<a href="https://twitter.com/elipousson">@elipousson</a>)</em></p>
<h1 id="introduction">Introduction</h1>
<aside class="sidebar__right">
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<header><h4 class="nav__title"><i class="fas fa-fa-bookmark"></i> Contents</h4></header>
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<li><a href="#introduction" id="markdown-toc-introduction">Introduction</a></li>
<li><a href="#contributors-and-partners" id="markdown-toc-contributors-and-partners">Contributors and partners</a></li>
<li><a href="#outcomes" id="markdown-toc-outcomes">Outcomes</a></li>
<li><a href="#project-website" id="markdown-toc-project-website">Project website</a></li>
<li><a href="#project-timeline" id="markdown-toc-project-timeline">Project timeline</a></li>
<li><a href="#educational-resources" id="markdown-toc-educational-resources">Educational resources</a></li>
<li><a href="#lessons-learned" id="markdown-toc-lessons-learned">Lessons learned</a> <ul>
<li><a href="#what-we-think-worked-well" id="markdown-toc-what-we-think-worked-well">What we think worked well</a></li>
<li><a href="#what-we-would-change" id="markdown-toc-what-we-would-change">What we would change</a></li>
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<p>The Local Preservation School is a collection of open educational resources for preservation advocates and volunteers. We created this collection to engage and support people interested in learning how to save and sustain historic places within their communities. Baltimore Heritage developed the Local Preservation School with support from the National Park Service and National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. The name of the project, inspired by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s <a href="https://intoorg.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Field_Guide_to_Local_Preservationists.pdf">Field Guide to Local Preservationists</a>, is intended to reflect our inclusive understanding of the people interested in learning about preservation online. We sought to build open educational resources that could be used by experienced educators and new learners, volunteers and professionals, people who want to learn online, and, even, people seeking to learn through in-person experiences.</p>
<p>This summary project report seeks to document the outcomes of this work over the past two years and the open-source approach we used to achieve these outcomes. The following sections include:</p>
<ul>
<li>A list of individual contributors and partners</li>
<li>A description of the project outcomes</li>
<li>A description of the project website and related online educational resources</li>
<li>A project timeline</li>
<li>A list of all educational resources created</li>
<li>A summary of “lessons learned”</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="contributors-and-partners">Contributors and partners</h1>
<p>This project was the primary responsibility of Eli Pousson, Director of Preservation & Outreach for Baltimore Heritage, a citywide nonprofit preservation advocacy organization in Baltimore, Maryland. Eli undertook this project in collaboration with Baltimore Heritage staff and volunteers and partners from a variety of preservation organizations including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Johns Hopkins, Executive Director, Baltimore Heritage</li>
<li>Patrick Grossi, Director of Advocacy, Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia</li>
<li>Molly Garfinkel, Place Matters Director, City Lore</li>
<li>Priya Chhaya, Manager for Online Content and Products, Preservation Resources, National Trust for Historic Preservation</li>
<li>Rhonda Sincavage, National Trust for Historic Preservation</li>
<li>Samantha Hunter, Intern, DC Preservation League</li>
<li>Rebecca Miller, Executive Director, DC Preservation League</li>
<li>Nicole King University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)</li>
<li>Denise Meringolo, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)</li>
</ul>
<p>Participants in the courses and workshops created during this project included dozens of different organizations (including nonprofits, local government agencies, and state historic preservation officers); individuals including preservation graduate students and public history professors; community association leaders and neighborhood residents with an interest in history. Special thanks to individuals who provided support and feedback on Twitter and through informal in-person discussions including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Jenny Ferretti (<a href="https://twitter.com/CityThatReads">@CityThatReads</a>)</li>
<li>Jolene Smith, Virginia Department of Historic Resources (<a href="https://twitter.com/aejolene">@aejolene</a>)</li>
<li>Tod Robbins (<a href="https://twitter.com/todrobbins">@todrobbins</a>)</li>
<li>Albert Bowden (<a href="https://twitter.com/jalbertbowdenii">@jalbertbowdenii</a>)</li>
<li>Grant R. Stevens, National Trust for Historic Preservation (<a href="https://twitter.com/GrantRStevens">@GrantRStevens</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p class="notice--info">P.S. If you contributed to this project as a participant in a workshop, please <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/contact/">let us know</a> if you’d like to be recognized in our contributor list.</p>
<p>Finally, this project made substantial use of several different open-source projects and open resources. These projects and their creators include:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://jekyllrb.com/">Jekyll</a> created by <a href="http://tom.preston-werner.com/">Tom Preston-Werner</a> and Jekyll contributors</li>
<li><a href="https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/">Minimal Mistakes</a> theme created by <a href="https://mademistakes.com/">Michael Rose</a></li>
<li><a href="http://lab.hakim.se/reveal-js/">Reveal.js</a> created by <a href="http://hakim.se/">Hakim El Hattab</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/highsm/">Carol M. Highsmith Archive</a> created by photographer <a href="http://www.carolhighsmithamerica.com/majestic/photos-pi_4.html">Carol M. Highsmith</a> and made available by the Library of Congress</li>
<li><a href="https://www.p2pu.org/en/facilitate/">Learning Circles Facilitator’s Guide</a> created by <a href="https://www.p2pu.org/">Peer 2 Peer University</a></li>
</ul>
<h1 id="outcomes">Outcomes</h1>
<p>Between July 2015 and February 2017, Baltimore Heritage staff and a collection of project partners worked together to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Learn how to take an open source approach to educational resources for preservation</li>
<li>Identify existing educational resources and the audiences they sought to reach</li>
<li>Seek feedback and promote collaboration through online and in-person outreach</li>
<li>Develop a series of open educational resources using Google Sheets, Jekyll, and GitHub Pages</li>
</ul>
<p>The project directly engaged approximately three hundred individual preservation professionals and volunteers through fourteen in-person classes and workshops, and reached over 2,600 individual web users through the main Local Preservation School website. Between October 2015 and February 2017, we sought to engage local preservation advocates in ways including:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://tinyletter.com/localpreservation/">An email newsletter</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/">A project website</a></li>
<li>Social media:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/localpast">@localpast</a> Twitter account</li>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/localpast">#localpast</a> Twitter hashtag</li>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/savingplaces/">Saving Places Facebook group</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/bmorehistoric/">Bmore Historic Facebook group</a></li>
<li><a href="https://reddit.com/r/historicpreservation">Historic Preservation Reddit group</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Conferences and presentations:
<ul>
<li>OpenLab Workshop, Crystal City, VA</li>
<li>NCPH THATCamp unconference, Baltimore, MD</li>
<li>Bmore Historic unconference, Baltimore, MD</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Local Preservation School Study Group workshops:
<ul>
<li>New York City, NY</li>
<li>Philadelphia, PA</li>
<li>Washington, DC</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Throughout this outreach effort, we used GitHub to share nearly all of the writing and visuals created during the project. Although it is a popular platform for web and software development, using GitHub and applying an open source approach to develop educational resources is relatively unusual and, as far as we know, previously unknown for any historic preservation related projects. In most cases, the people we sought to engage through the Local Preservation School were largely unfamiliar with GitHub and uncertain how to use the platform to collaborate. We recognized this as a potential barrier early in the process and focused on fostering collaboration through more traditional approaches as well including focused interviews with preservation professionals to solicit background on their approach to organizing and advocacy and collaborating through writing and lesson design activities during the workshops.</p>
<p>The Local Preservation School was most successful at revealing the learning communities that already exist within historic preservation and creating new supports for people who seek to join this community of learners and advocates. While the initial vision of a collaborative online learning community akin to learning communities that exist for open data, libraries, and digital history proved unrealistic, we believe the project has made a substantial contribution to the infrastructure for open preservation education and laid a foundation upon which Baltimore Heritage and our partners seek to build into the future.</p>
<h1 id="project-website">Project website</h1>
<p>The goal of the main project Local Preservation School website and related websites (such as the <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/placematters/">Place Matters Toolkit</a>) is to share open educational resources with web users interested in learning more about historic preservation. The design of the project website was directly inspired by the <a href="http://howto.p2pu.org/">Course-in-a-Box Jekyll template</a> developed by <a href="https://www.p2pu.org/">Peer 2 Peer University</a> in 2015. Although we experimented with using P2PU template (primarily for the prototype for the <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.github.io/explore-101/">Explore Baltimore Heritage 101 course site</a>), we ultimately decided to use the open-source <a href="https://mmistakes.github.io/minimal-mistakes/">Minimal Mistakes Jekyll theme</a>. This theme was well-documented and easy to modify by Baltimore Heritage staff without requiring professional web design services.</p>
<p>We also followed the model of P2PU (and other online educational resources such as the <a href="http://programminghistorian.org/">Programming Historian</a>, <a href="https://librarycarpentry.github.io/">Library Carpentry</a>, and <a href="http://maptime.io/">Maptime</a>) by creating <a href="https://github.com/localpreservation/">a GitHub organization</a> for the Local Preservation School and using <a href="https://jekyllrb.com/">Jekyll</a> and <a href="https://pages.github.com/">GitHub Pages</a> to publish nearly all of our educational resources. As with the listed examples, this approach avoids any recurring costs for web hosting and domain registration (if using a github.io domain). It also avoid the need to maintain the security and performance of a web application through regular updates. We anticipate the materials should be available in perpetuity even without any additional funding in the future. For our workshop presentations, we used Reveal.js which allowed us to keep the presentation slides and notes in a plain-text Markdown format. In some cases, we used Google Sheets and Google Slides to share materials but we plan to archive those materials as static PDF or CSV files to ensure their future accessibility. Nearly all these materials are available on GitHub for any person on the web to access and any GitHub users to modify.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/">Local Preservation School website</a> consists of three main components:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/">A resource directory</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/tools/">A tool library</a></li>
<li>Additional information related to the project including:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/learn/">A guide for learners</a></li>
<li><a href="http://localpreservation.github.io/teach/">A guide for educators</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/about/">Background information about the project</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The resource directory includes a variety of materials organized around six primary themes: history, community, advocacy, planning, design, and education. In assembling the resource directory, we focused on listing resources that use open licensing (resources using open Creative Commons license and resources in the public domain) but also included resources with non-open licensing (resources using the restricted noncommercial Creative Commons license). We assigned descriptive metadata to individual resources based on the approach suggested by the <a href="http://lrmi.dublincore.net/lrmi-schema/">Learning Resources Metadata Initiative</a>. Our general <a href="http://localpreservation.github.io/resources/about/">description of resources</a> and the <a href="https://github.com/localpreservation/localpreservation.github.io/blob/master/_resources/template.md">resource template</a> offer additional information on how resources can be described and organized within the collection.</p>
<p>The resources in the directory take three different forms:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>External resources</strong> where the directory links to another website or PDF publication and encourages people to access the resource from the original publisher. Examples include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/building-technology-heritage-library/">Building Heritage Technology Library</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/culture-in-transit/">Culture in Transit Toolkit</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Single-page resources</strong> where the directory includes the full text of the resource on the main project website. Examples of these single-page resources include two classic National Park Service publications (redesigned for more effective and accessible presentation online):
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/maintaining-exteriors/">Maintaining the Exterior of Small and Medium Size Historic Buildings</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/architectural-investigation/">Understanding Old Buildings: The Process of Architectural Investigation</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>Stand-alone resources</strong> where the directory links to other Local Preservation School websites that use the same platform and theme to present a distinct collection of educational materials. These stand-alone were adapted from pre-existing printed publications that were republished under open Creative Commons Attribution licenses for this purpose. Examples of these stand-alone resources include:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/placematters/">Place Matters Toolkit</a> (<a href="http://localpreservation.github.io/resources/placematters/">directory listing</a>)</li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/community/">Community Preservation Guide</a> (<a href="http://localpreservation.github.io/resources/community/">directory listing</a>)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The resource directory is designed to work in conjunction with the tool library which lists many of the same free or low-cost web applications and software we use at Baltimore Heritage to support our own preservation advocacy efforts and those of volunteers in our community. Highlights from the tool library include:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/tools/timelinejs/">TimelineJS</a>: used to create the <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/timeline/">timeline history of preservation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/tools/zotero/">Zotero</a>: used to create a <a href="https://www.zotero.org/groups/explore_baltimore_heritage_101">shared bibliography for the pilot course</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/tools/arches/">CARTO</a>: used to create <a href="https://localpast.carto.com/viz/10a62bdc-234f-11e6-8ca1-0e3ff518bd15/public_map">a map of local history research guides</a></li>
</ul>
<p>The tool library was a late addition to the project website but reflects our intent to make it easier for people to learn how we created those resources published directly by the Local Preservation School.</p>
<p>We sought out comments and feedback on the resources in the directory and the tool library through the “study group” workshop series and by reaching out to project contacts through the email newsletter, website, and social media. We received a variety of general comments and reflections that shaped the development of the completed site. We expect to continue making modifications and additions to both the resource directory and tool library based on our own use and feedback from local preservationists using the website. We also see significant potential in using the Hypothesis web annotation platform to encourage readers to annotate these and other online resources with relevant commentary and links to online resources on the topic.</p>
<h1 id="project-timeline">Project timeline</h1>
<p>We put together an interactive <a href="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1f3g84ZXRDUCuQIwGtJkpWJj5vKRewp2bCEPxJnvl-GA&font=Default&lang=en&hash_bookmark=true&initial_zoom=2&height=650">project timeline</a> with a detailed list of teaching, outreach, and planning tasks related to the project. This is an adapted excerpt of that timeline focused on teaching and outreach. Links to presentation materials and additional information about each activity is included in the <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f3g84ZXRDUCuQIwGtJkpWJj5vKRewp2bCEPxJnvl-GA/edit?usp=sharing">Google Sheet</a> we are using to create the interactive timeline.</p>
<div class="full">
<iframe src="//cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1f3g84ZXRDUCuQIwGtJkpWJj5vKRewp2bCEPxJnvl-GA&font=Lustria-Lato&lang=en&initial_zoom=1&height=650" width="100%" height="650" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</div>
<h1 id="educational-resources">Educational resources</h1>
<p>Overall, we created and published thirteen educational resources for the Local Preservation School and another six resources for Baltimore Heritage. These seven featured resources show the variety of approaches and technology we used in developing these materials.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><strong>Featured Resource</strong></th>
<th><strong>Description</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://localpreservation.github.io/resources/syllabus-directory/">Syllabus Directory</a></td>
<td>A list of syllabi related to historic preservation assembled from existing resources from the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Urban History Association, H-Net, and other sources.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://localpast.carto.com/viz/10a62bdc-234f-11e6-8ca1-0e3ff518bd15/public_map">Local History Research Map</a></td>
<td>An interactive map of over 250 local history research guides published by libraries, universities, historical societies, and historic preservation offices across the United States and Canada.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://localpreservation.github.io/resources/online-communities/">Online Communities for Preservation</a></td>
<td>A list of online communities (including email listservs, Facebook groups, and others) organized around historic preservation and historic places for neighborhoods, cities, and states across the United States. This list includes both active and inactive groups.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/">Local Preservation School</a></td>
<td>A collection of open educational resources on historic preservation including a resource directory, tool library, and related information on teaching and learning about historic preservation.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/placematters">Place Matters Toolkit</a></td>
<td>An open educational resource on preservation advocacy based on an existing toolkit created by Marci Reaven for the Place Matters program in New York City, NY.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/neighborhoods">Historic Neighborhoods 101</a></td>
<td>An open educational resource based on a 2011 publication “How to Look at Your Neighborhood” from the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia in Philadelphia, PA.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/community">Community Preservation Guide</a></td>
<td>An open educational resources on building coalitions, organizing advocacy networks, fundraising, and inclusive organizing based on a series of publications by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, DC.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Additional resources are listed in <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tJer9apnoboSNZ3qzqFXZExwQCKn-iqRP6gzhyXvBT4/edit?usp=sharing">this Google Sheet</a> which includes links to the open-source repositories for each resource.</p>
<h1 id="lessons-learned">Lessons learned</h1>
<p>This report concludes with a series of “lessons learned” during the course of this project. These lessons include a brief list of what approaches worked well for the Local Preservation School project and how we’re continuing to use them in our continued work at Baltimore Heritage. They also include a list of approaches that were less successful whether due to outside factors or imperfect implementation.</p>
<h2 id="what-we-think-worked-well">What we think worked well</h2>
<p>There are three main areas where this project worked well:</p>
<ul>
<li>Using open licensing and open source tools (e.g. Jekyll and GitHub) for digital publishing</li>
<li>Taking an inclusive approach to engagement and participation</li>
<li>Creating resources at the local and national level simultaneously</li>
</ul>
<p>We are continuing to use the first two approaches at Baltimore Heritage in a few different ways. Examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li>In January 2017, we launched <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.github.io/places/">Baltimore Places</a>: a new website built with Jekyll and GitHub Pages to share open data, writing, and related information about historic places. That same month, Baltimore Heritage switched from using an open Creative Commons Attribution license for our photographs on Flickr to a more liberal Creative Commons Zero Public Domain dedication. This change serves our interest in simplifying the process for image reuse for all people and our recognition that public domain resources (like the Carol Highsmith Archive) can be enormously helpful to open source projects. This shift to public domain licensing has also encouraged us to use Flickr more extensively for the photographic documentation of historic places with the creation of new albums to share growing collections of photographs related to <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/baltimoreheritage/albums/72157681463546416">modernism</a> and <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/baltimoreheritage/albums/72157675883091384">vacant buildings</a>.</li>
<li>We are also continuing to experiment with inclusive programming that seeks to engage and empower a diverse range of people interested in preservation. Recent examples include our <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.github.io/vacant-buildings-101/">Vacant Buildings 101</a> workshop series designed for neighborhood advocates, a tour of Confederate Monuments designed for a group of eighth grade students, and a happy hour program intended to build a broader community of support for our annual Bmore Historic unconference.</li>
</ul>
<p>For the third area of success, it is important to note that the overall concept for the Local Preservation School and the relationships we used to implement the project are based in our decades-long experience as a preservation advocacy nonprofit in Baltimore, Maryland. In contrast to projects where national nonprofits are developing resources for local organizations to use, we sought to convert resources created primarily for local audiences and find ways to make them more broadly accessible and relevant. We see this is as an unusual approach that may be a good model for other preservation education and training projects to consider.</p>
<h2 id="what-we-would-change">What we would change</h2>
<p>These are three of challenges we encountered during the development of the Local Preservation School:</p>
<ul>
<li>Infrequent communication on resource development</li>
<li>Limited participation in the open review of published resources</li>
<li>Shifting standards for evaluation and inconsistent data collection</li>
</ul>
<p>While we offered regular project updates on Twitter, we had difficulty providing detailed updates on the process of collecting and developing educational resources. This irregular or infrequent communication may have been a barrier to potential volunteers who had expressed interest in contributing to the project. If we had created a communications plan at the beginning of the project, it may have been easier to prioritize essential project communications and make sure that effort on project outreach was matched to a specific intended audience and an anticipated outcome.</p>
<p>This challenge is likely related to what can be seen as limited participation in the open review of published resources. Some of the educational resources that served as models for this project engaged large groups of people as active contributors who helped to write, revise, or design the completed resource. Examples include <a href="http://www.americanyawp.com/">The American Yawp</a> which cites a group of 263 contributors and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_National_Register_of_Historic_Places">National Register of Historic Places Wikiproject</a> in which thousands of individual editors have participated. In contrast, the approaches we used for fostering remote collaboration were largely unsuccessful at engaging a significant community of collaborators. An open roadmap we made with <a href="https://trello.com/">Trello</a> received few comments, our GitHub repositories received few pull requests or issue submissions, and very few people tried commenting with <a href="https://web.hypothes.is/">Hypothesis</a> during our open peer review.</p>
<p>The greater difficulty than expected in attracting comments or contributions likely has a variety of causes. Some project contacts may have seen the published resources were “set in stone” (as most published online educational resources are) or “fine” in their current form (as they are broadly perceived to be by many existing preservation professionals). Our own relative inexperience with facilitating this form of collaborative resource development is another potential factor. A more structured approach to user research and testing, budgeting for incentives for participation, and establishing clear contributor guidelines earlier in the project are all strategies that might improve the level of participation in any future open source preservation projects.</p>
<p>Finally, we neglected to establish clear and consistent standards for evaluation and were somewhat inconsistent in our efforts to collect data to support that evaluation. For example, we deployed Google Analytics for the main project website and the Place Matters Toolkit but have no analytics available from the project period for the Community Preservation Guide and Historic Neighborhoods 101 prior to May 2017. In addition, the project website launched initially as a place to share background information about the Local Preservation School so the analytics available up until the launch of the resource directory provide very limited insight into the utility of the site for people who might use it in the future. For future projects, we’d recommend spending more time defining specific, measurable goals at the outset and directing any exploratory research or development to support those goals.</p>Local Preservation Schoolinfo@baltimoreheritage.orgWe are glad to share the summary report we put together for the National Park Service to mark the end of the grant fnding for our Local Preservation School project. We hope to continue to hearing feedback from professional and volunteer preservationists about how we can expand and improve our tools and resources.Help us make the Local Preservation School more useful by sharing your feedback on our resources2017-02-06T00:00:00-05:002017-02-06T00:00:00-05:00https://localpreservation.github.io/localpast-open-review<p>We are excited to share an update on our brand-new <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/">resource directory</a> and our growing <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/tools/">tool library</a>. This varied collection of publications, toolkits, software recommendations, and subject guides includes:</p>
<ul>
<li>Classic National Park Service publications adapted for the web:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/maintaining-exteriors/">Maintaining the Exterior of Small and Medium Size Historic Buildings</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/architectural-investigation/">Understanding Old Buildings: The Process of Architectural Investigation</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Guides and toolkits by local and national preservation advocacy organizations:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/placematters/">Place Matters Toolkit</a> from CityLore in New York City</li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/community/">Community Preservation Guide</a> based on publications from the National Trust for Historic Preservation</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Essential links and resources from related fields such as urban design, place-making, community archiving, and more:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/how-to-creative-placemaking/">How to Do Creative Placemaking</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/culture-in-transit/">Culture in Transit Toolkit</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/tactical-urbanism-guide/">Tactical Urbanist’s Guide to Materials & Design</a></li>
<li><a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/building-technology-heritage-library/">Building Technology Heritage Library</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Now, we need your help. We are asking you to join our <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_peer_review">open peer review</a> of the resources and tools we’ve gathered so far and to let us know what we’re missing.</p>
<p>Here is what we’re asking:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Explore the directory</strong>: <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/">Take a look</a>. Pick one or two links and look them over. You can filter by topic or browse by <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/year/">publication year</a> or <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/tag/">tag</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Reflect on a resource</strong>: Did you like the resources you read? Are they useful? Do you have any suggestions about how we can improve these resources? Do you know any related resources we should add to the directory?</li>
<li><strong>Share your feedback</strong>: Send us your comments and feedback <a href="mailto:pousson@baltimoreheritage.org">by email</a> or by using a new tool called <a href="https://hypothes.is/">Hypothesis</a>.</li>
</ol>
<p>You can read about how people are using Hypothesis for <a href="https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2016/09/22/annotations-as-peer-review-an-interview-with-maryann-martone-of-hypothes-is/">scholarly peer review</a> and for <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2016/02/critiquing-climate-coverage">critiquing media coverage of climate science</a> but we think this is the first time anyone is using the tool for preservation education. We’ve set up our site so you’ll sometimes see the Hypothesis sidebar pop-up at the edge of your screen, e.g. <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/resources/architectural-investigation/">Understanding Old Buildings</a>. You can review or comment on any part of our website <em>or</em> on any of our recommended resources with <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bjfhmglciegochdpefhhlphglcehbmek">the Hypothesis Chrome extension</a>. Either way, please try it out and tag your public annotations with our <a href="https://hypothes.is/search?q=tag%3A%23localpast">#localpast hashtag</a> so we can find and incorporate your feedback. You can also keep your annotations private by joining our <a href="https://hypothes.is/groups/AozKGLY6/local-preservation-school">Local Preservation School Hypothesis group</a>.</p>
<p>If you’re still not sure how to use Hypothesis, try <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmuJEyeapl2eznT3UHbLxuaQJaulzKHVZ">watching a video tutorial on YouTube</a> or read the <a href="https://hypothes.is/quick-start-guide-for-students/">quick start guide for students</a>.</p>
<p>We’ll be collecting <em>all</em> the feedback we receive on our new resource and tool directories and incorporating that feedback into the Local Preservation School within the next few weeks. We’re also working to incorporate the comments and suggestions we recieved through the workshops this fall. Thank you again to everyone who has already contributed to this project and we look forward to hearing your thoughts!</p>Local Preservation Schoolinfo@baltimoreheritage.orgPlease share your thoughts on our new resource directory and featured educational resources created by local preservation advocates and the National Park Service.Join our next workshop in Washington, D.C. on December 92016-11-14T00:00:00-05:002016-11-14T00:00:00-05:00https://localpreservation.github.io/localpastdc-december-9<p>Please join the <a href="http://www.dcpreservation.org/">DC Preservation League</a>, <a href="https://savingplaces.org/">National Trust for Historic Preservation</a>, and <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/">Baltimore Heritage</a> next month for our latest workshop on open education and preservation. We want to learn how local preservationists can build more inclusive programs, advocacy campaigns, and organizations and how we can teach those skills to volunteer advocates.</p>
<h3 id="local-preservation-school-dc-study-group">Local Preservation School: DC Study Group</h3>
<p>Friday, December 9, 2016, 9:00am to 2:00pm – <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-preservation-school-dc-study-group-tickets-28629788468">register today!</a><br />
National Trust for Historic Preservation<br />
2600 Virginia Avenue NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC 20037</p>
<p>We welcome volunteers and professionals in the greater Washington, D.C. area for this half-day interactive workshop where we plan to create a collection of online lessons around the topics of community outreach and engagement, organizational development, and inclusive communities for the Local Preservation School and our DC partners. We’ll be publishing a collection of related materials <a href="https://github.com/localpreservation/community">a new repository on GitHub</a> and sharing <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/11yEhfL5ZMtweAcIHSSBL3IKmOat0Kgp0eDgx1czlXww/edit?usp=sharing">workshop notes with Google Docs</a>.</p>
<p>This workshop is <em>free</em> and lunch is provided.</p>Local Preservation Schoolinfo@baltimoreheritage.orgWe want to learn how local preservationists can build more inclusive programs, advocacy campaigns, and organizations and how we can teach those skills to volunteer advocates.Local Preservation School workshops in New York City and Philadelphia this fall!2016-08-12T00:00:00-04:002016-08-12T00:00:00-04:00https://localpreservation.github.io/new-york-philadelphia-fall-workshops<p>We need <em>your</em> help in shaping the Local Preservation School. Please join us for one of our two upcoming workshops: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-preservation-school-new-york-city-study-group-tickets-26380299185">September 9 in New York City</a> and <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-preservation-school-philadelphia-study-group-tickets-27012181161">October 7 in Philadelphia</a>.</p>
<p>Both workshops are <em>free</em> with breakfast and lunch provided. We’ll start each workshop with a discussion about open online educational resources then spend the day working together to create lessons and activities to teach people how to preserve historic places. Questions? Suggestions? Let me know at <a href="mailto:pousson@baltimoreheritage.org?subject=Local%20Preservation%20School%20Workshops">pousson@baltimoreheritage.org</a> at 301-204-3337 or on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/elipousson">@elipousson</a>.</p>
<h2 id="upcoming-workshops">Upcoming Workshops</h2>
<h3 id="new-york-city-study-group">New York City Study Group</h3>
<p>September 9, 8:30am to 2:00pm - <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-preservation-school-new-york-city-study-group-tickets-26380299185"><strong>sign up today!</strong></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-preservation-school-new-york-city-study-group-tickets-26380299185"><img src="/assets/images/2015-02-25-ps-40.jpg" alt="Public School 40, Jeffrey Zeldman (CC-BY)" /></a></p>
<p>In New York, we are excited to partner with <a href="http://citylore.org/">City Lore’s Place Matters program</a> for a workshop building on the Place Matters toolkit created in 2007 by Marci Reaven and Emily Gertz. Working with Molly Garfinkel, Place Matters Director, we’ve started work on a <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/placematters/">new digital edition of the toolkit</a> published under an open Creative Commons Attribution license. Our September 9 half-day workshop is an opportunity to discuss how we advocate for the preservation of culturally and architecturally significant places-and how we can teach the knowledge and skills advocates need using open online resources. This workshop takes place at the City Lore gallery at 56 East 1st Street, New York, NY 10003.</p>
<h3 id="philadelphia-study-group">Philadelphia Study Group</h3>
<p>October 7, 8:30am to 2:00pm - <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-preservation-school-philadelphia-study-group-tickets-27012181161">sign up today!</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/local-preservation-school-philadelphia-study-group-tickets-27012181161"><img src="/assets/images/2014-06-14-juliarowe-philadelphia-rowhouse.jpg" alt="Photo: stand tall, juliarowe/Flickr (CC BY-NC)" /></a></p>
<p>In Philadelphia, we are working with the <a href="http://www.preservationalliance.com/">Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia</a> to focus on preservation advocacy and planning for <strong>neighborhoods</strong>—building on the foundation of the group’s 2011 publication <em>How to Look at Your Neighborhood: A Guide for Community Organizations</em>. We need to hear from both neighborhood activists and preservation professionals to build resources that help communities protect important historic places from demolition, promote appropriate infill, and encourage development that meets their needs. This workshop takes place at the University of Pennsylvania, Meyerson Hall - Room B2 210 S. 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104.</p>
<h2 id="explore-baltimore-heritage-101-update">Explore Baltimore Heritage 101 update</h2>
<p><img src="http://gallery.tinyletterapp.com/3270d5b41e77d806b498bbfc78fb361e63a01b5a/images/c794c0f4-53f6-4e3f-885c-83eadbc2b1d6.png" alt="Buildings leave a trail of evidence" /></p>
<p>If you are curious about the Explore Baltimore Heritage 101 class, we led earlier this summer you can take a look at our four in-class presentations below. We created these presentations using the HTML presentation framework <a href="http://lab.hakim.se/reveal-js/#/">reveal.js</a> so anyone can reuse and adapt our presentations for your own class or workshop. Stay tuned for a more complete report and a big update to our <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.github.io/explore-101/">Explore Baltimore Heritage 101 course site</a>.</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://elipousson.github.io/presentations/2016-06-21-explore-101-research.html">Research</a></li>
<li><a href="https://elipousson.github.io/presentations/2016-06-28-explore-101-writing.html#/">Writing</a></li>
<li><a href="https://elipousson.github.io/presentations/2016-07-05-explore-101-visuals.html#/">Visuals</a></li>
<li><a href="https://elipousson.github.io/presentations/2016-07-12-explore-101-outreach.html#/">Outreach</a></li>
</ol>
<h2 id="local-preservation-school-at-openlab-workshop">Local Preservation School at Openlab workshop</h2>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NQiXzO-OqcM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Finally, you can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQiXzO-OqcM">now watch a lightning talk</a> I delivered at the Openlab workshop unconference back in December offering a fast introduction to the goals of the Local Preservation School. Thanks to Michael Peter Edson, the CLIRDLF, and all the Openlab organizers and supporters for the opportunity to share our work.</p>
<p><em>Image Credits: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zeldman/16648053932">Public School 40, Jeffrey Zeldman</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC-BY</a>); stand tall, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/juliarowe/14803584772/">juliarowe/Flickr</a> (CC BY-NC); <a href="https://thenounproject.com/term/house/467145/">House by Artem Kovyazin, RU</a> (CC-BY) from <a href="https://thenounproject.com/">The Noun Project</a>; <a href="https://thenounproject.com/term/snail/340890/">Snail by Pencil, SK</a> (CC-BY) from <a href="https://thenounproject.com/">The Noun Project</a>.</em></p>Local Preservation Schoolinfo@baltimoreheritage.orgWe need your help in shaping the Local Preservation School. Please join us for one of our two upcoming workshops: September 9 in New York City and October 7 in Philadelphia.Maps, directories, and new preservation study groups2016-05-27T00:00:00-04:002016-05-27T00:00:00-04:00https://localpreservation.github.io/resources-class-workshops<h2 id="what-have-we-been-working-on">What have we been working on?</h2>
<p><img src="/assets/images/18659u.jpg" alt="Columbus Signature Academy, Fodrea Campus. Columbus, Indiana. Photograph by Carol Highsmith, Library of Congress." /></p>
<p>We’ve been a bit quiet since November but we are continuing to work on building the Local Preservation School.</p>
<p>The past few months we have built a few online resources that we plan to incorporate into Local Preservation School teaching materials:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Map</strong>: <a href="https://localpast.cartodb.com/viz/10a62bdc-234f-11e6-8ca1-0e3ff518bd15/public_map">Research House History – Local Guides & Resources</a></li>
<li><strong>Directory</strong>: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NBImLcBi2DGlNsJJWDz1nhGh85BTgeQjczLYLscxOfs/edit?usp=sharing">Online Communities for Historic Preservation</a></li>
</ul>
<p>With both the directory and the map, our goal is to connect interested learners with to preservation advocates who are already working in their local communities. If you have any suggestions for “house history” guides that we missed on <a href="http://localpast.cartodb.com/viz/10a62bdc-234f-11e6-8ca1-0e3ff518bd15/public_map">our map</a> or online communities we missed in the <a href="http://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NBImLcBi2DGlNsJJWDz1nhGh85BTgeQjczLYLscxOfs/edit?usp=sharing">directory</a>, please let us know.</p>
<p>In June, we are launching our first class: <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/education/sign-explore-baltimore-heritage-101-free-four-week-class-local-preservation-school/">Explore Baltimore Heritage 101</a>. This free four-week class is designed to teach people how to research and write about historic places in Baltimore. By teaching this class in-person, we expect to learn a lot about what works and what doesn’t when trying to teach neighborhoods how to tell stories about local landmarks. Student input will help us shape a revised of the class designed to be broadly relevant to residents in historic communities across the country.</p>
<p>In August, we are planning to start a series of workshops—what we are calling Local Preservation School “study groups”—where we can meet with local preservation advocates (both volunteers and professionals) to talk about the value of open educational resources and collaborate on the creation of new lessons and tutorials. These workshops are inspired by other open educational programs and collaborative writing events like <a href="https://mozillascience.github.io/studyGroupHandbook/">Mozilla Study Groups</a>, <a href="http://schoolofdata.org/data-expeditions/">School of Data’s Data Expeditions</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_run_an_edit-a-thon">Wikipedia Edit-a-thons</a>, and <a href="http://maptime.io/about/">Maptime’s local meetups</a>.</p>
<p>You can <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HZFJS8P553LBmVAS19z-KHh5hx-Et3M24Zfgx5vOa54/edit?usp=sharing">read and comment on our workshop plan</a> and stay tuned for possible workshops this fall in New York and Philadelphia. If you are interested in hosting a Local Preservation School Study Group, we’d love to talk to you.</p>Local Preservation Schoolinfo@baltimoreheritage.orgWhat have we been working on?How to write a grant application in four days—we’re showing you how we do it!2015-10-30T00:00:00-04:002015-10-30T00:00:00-04:00https://localpreservation.github.io/ncptt-media-grant-application<p>A couple weeks ago, I came across the NCPTT (National Center for Preservation Technology and Training) <a href="https://ncptt.nps.gov/grants/2016-ncptt-media-grants-program/">2016 Media Grants</a>. Thanks to Heritage Documentation Programs, NPS for promoting the opportunity <a href="https://www.facebook.com/HeritageDocumentationPrograms/photos/a.391904257540197.87657.130899723640653/966514066745877/?type=3">on Facebook</a>—a good reminder of the value of social media for preservation. When I saw the grant on October 14, the deadline about 2 weeks away but after a quick look at the requirements, I decided that Baltimore Heritage could likely apply for a Media grant to help support the Local Preservation School. I called the staff at NCPTT to try to get a better understanding of the intent of this grant program and whether our project would be eligible or competitive. I was excited to hear that this is actually the first year the NCPTT grants are being offered. The program is focused on “media” production broadly defined. In the past, NCPTT has funded the publication of technical and scholarly printed materials but with this funding they wanted to make sure that web, mobile, video and other media formats could be considered for funding. It is great to see NCPTT taking an inclusive approach with these grant guidelines and they encouraged us to apply.</p>
<p>In what may be a familiar situation for many small nonprofit employees, the grant deadline snuck up on me and the application is <strong>due next Tuesday, November 3</strong>. We don’t have much time to write this grant but we think it is still worth applying. If we receive additional funding for this project, we might be able to hire additional writers, developers or instructional designers to be part of the team developing our course materials.</p>
<p>When I started working on the grant application yesterday afternoon, I realized that I wanted to continue using the same <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/how-to-open-education-jekyll-github-pages/">open-source approach</a> even when we are writing a grant application—something that we’d more typically keep private. After checking with my colleague Johns Hopkins, we agreed that it makes sense to put our money where our mouth is and use the application as an excuse to give anyone interested a look inside the process of writing and submitting a grant application.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in seeing how we write a medium-sized grant application, please keep checking back over the next couple days! I’ll be primarily writing the grant but working with Johns on revisions. We’d hoped to send it to NCPTT for a quick review (something many grant officers will provide as a courtesy) but I’m not sure if they’ll be able to provide any feedback at such short notice.</p>
<p>Here is my game plan:</p>
<ul>
<li>Review the grant application focusing on goals and eligibility requirements to identify key terms</li>
<li>Draft an outline of the application narrative that addresses the stated goals for the program</li>
<li>Expand the outline into a the first draft of the grant narrative</li>
<li>Draft a budget to accompany the application</li>
<li>Review and revise the grant narrative and budget</li>
<li>Collect any required attachments (resumes, certification of nonprofit status, etc.)</li>
<li>Submit the grant application by <strong>Tuesday, November 3</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Can we do all this in just four days? Stay tuned to find out!</p>
<h1 id="how-does-a-small-nonprofit-apply-for-a-federal-grant">How does a small nonprofit apply for a federal grant?</h1>
<p>We are applying for the NCPTT 2016 Media Grant. Continue reading for our break-down of the grant application and the outline for our grant narrative.</p>
<h2 id="what-is-the-ncptt-media-grant-program">What is the NCPTT Media Grant program?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://ncptt.nps.gov/grants/2016-ncptt-media-grants-program/">NCPTT Media Grants program</a> provides funding for innovative dissemination of new technologies or existing technologies to preserve cultural resources.</p>
<p>Grant recipients will develop publications, web or mobile applications, and video products that offer preservationists a better understanding of tools and resources available to preserve cultural heritage. The resulting grant products help increase the longevity of cultural resources.</p>
<p>We are working from the <a href="https://ncptt.nps.gov/download/36252/">How to Apply Quick Guide for 2016 NCPTT Media Grants</a> as our reference as we put together this application.</p>
<h2 id="what-will-this-program-fund-are-we-eligible-to-apply">What will this program fund? Are we eligible to apply?</h2>
<p>What is the purpose of this grant program?</p>
<ul>
<li>Provide <strong>media tools</strong> for preservationists and the <strong>general public</strong> to better conduct preservation efforts on historic structures, archeological sites, historic landscapes, and museum collections.</li>
<li><strong>Disseminate new technologies</strong> through publications, online resources, mobile applications, and video production.</li>
<li>Provide tools that can <strong>gather information</strong> about cultural resources through mobile devices.</li>
</ul>
<p>Here are a few question we had about this description:</p>
<ul>
<li>What is a media tool?</li>
<li>What is a new technology?</li>
<li>Who is the general public?</li>
</ul>
<p>After some discussion, here are the most relevant categories of potential product that we think the Local Preservation School qualifies under:</p>
<ul>
<li>Web publication</li>
<li>Video/multimedia products</li>
<li>Mobile websites/apps</li>
</ul>
<p>It also prompts a few additional questions that will help us focus the grant application:</p>
<ul>
<li>Are GitHub and Jekyll “media tools”?</li>
<li>Is using open-source HTML/CSS/JS a “new technology”?</li>
<li>How should we describe the audience for the Local Preservation School?</li>
<li>Does it make sense to frame the Local Preservation School or related efforts as “publications”?</li>
<li>What is our strategy for dissemination of the resources we are developing?</li>
<li>How do you teach people how to gather documentation with mobile devices?</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: we already have some information related to this questions in our <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/background/">background research</a> document</p>
<p><strong>To submit this application we need to write:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>A project abstract (100 words maximum)</li>
<li>A project narrative (10 page maximum, including resumes—approximately 2700-3600 words)</li>
<li>A budget</li>
<li>Any additional required forms and attachments</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="when-questions-do-we-ask-when-writing-a-grant">When questions do we ask when writing a grant?</h2>
<p><strong>What do we need the money for?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Instructional Designer</li>
<li>Web Development (requires experience GitHub, open-source projects, HMTL/CSS, Javascript)</li>
<li>Open Source Community Manager</li>
<li>Content Marketing</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>What do we think makes this a compelling project?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>There are few existing models for collaborative, open-source projects related to historic preservation. This project could help increase the base of preservation professionals using GitHub with potential secondary benefits for other open-source projects in the future.</li>
<li>Open education is increasing in importance across the country. The White House also just <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/10/19/openly-licensed-educational-resources-providing-equitable-access-education-all">announced a major initiative</a> to support the “use of open educational resources to provide equitable access to quality education.”</li>
<li>Other federal agencies are using and promoting open-source tools, notably 18F, but also the White House, the National Park Service (of which NCPTT is part), etc.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Why do we think we may be competitive applicant?</strong></p>
<p>What makes Baltimore Heritage a competitive applicant as the project lead?</p>
<ul>
<li>We are a small organization where even modest investments in funding can make a big difference for our capacity.</li>
<li>We now have a track record of successful federal grants thanks to the Baltimore Heritage archaeological dig in Patterson Park in 2014.</li>
</ul>
<p>What about our broader network of advisors, partners, contacts and friends make this a more competitive project?</p>
<ul>
<li>This project is based around open communications with professionals and volunteers around the country.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="project-abstract-tell-us-about-this-project-in-100-words-or-less">Project Abstract: Tell us about this project in 100 words or less</h2>
<p>Here is what NCPTT says is required for the <strong>abstract</strong>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The abstract is a summary of proposed work suitable for dissemination to the public. It is limited to 100 words in length. The project abstract will be a file attachment in the application. Please create the file in Microsoft Word or Word compatible software.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 id="project-narrative-tell-us-about-this-project-in-10-pages-or-less">Project Narrative: Tell us about this project in 10 pages or less</h2>
<p>Here is what NCPTT says is required for the <strong>narrative description</strong>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The proposal is a narrative description that should specifically address each of the review criteria (see Section IV). The proposal text must be no longer than 10 pages, no smaller than font size 11, and have 1-inch margins. The 10-page limit includes all text, figures, references, and resumes (Forms SF-424, SF-424A, SF- 424B, project abstract, key contacts, and the statement of indirect charges are not counted as part of the 10 page limit).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I’m estimating that resumes, references and figures will take about 3-4 pages of the total. That leaves us to write (or reuse) around 6-7 pages of description to explain this project. I’m going to start with an outline of the key components of our project and how they fulfill the goals for the grant. It is always good to make this very explicit—don’t assume a grant reviewer will understand why your project is a good fit for a funding opportunity? You <em>always</em> have to tell them.</p>Local Preservation Schoolinfo@baltimoreheritage.orgA couple weeks ago, I came across the NCPTT (National Center for Preservation Technology and Training) 2016 Media Grants. Thanks to Heritage Documentation Programs, NPS for promoting the opportunity on Facebook—a good reminder of the value of social media for preservation. When I saw the grant on October 14, the deadline about 2 weeks away but after a quick look at the requirements, I decided that Baltimore Heritage could likely apply for a Media grant to help support the Local Preservation School. I called the staff at NCPTT to try to get a better understanding of the intent of this grant program and whether our project would be eligible or competitive. I was excited to hear that this is actually the first year the NCPTT grants are being offered. The program is focused on “media” production broadly defined. In the past, NCPTT has funded the publication of technical and scholarly printed materials but with this funding they wanted to make sure that web, mobile, video and other media formats could be considered for funding. It is great to see NCPTT taking an inclusive approach with these grant guidelines and they encouraged us to apply.How to create open educational resources with Jekyll and GitHub Pages2015-10-22T00:00:00-04:002015-10-22T00:00:00-04:00https://localpreservation.github.io/how-to-open-education-jekyll-github-pages<p>Over the past few months, we have been learning how to a use a handful of new tools to create open educational resources and publish them online. GitHub, Jekyll and GitHub pages are three of those tools and we used them to create the website you are reading right now.</p>
<p><a href="http://jekyllrb.com">Jekyll</a> is a static site generator for turning plain text files into websites or blogs. <a href="https://github.com/">GitHub</a> is a popular service for sharing and collaborating on open-source projects. <a href="https://pages.github.com/">GitHub Pages</a> is an feature that allows users to host simple websites using a GitHub repository. I did not know much about how these tools worked when we started the project so I wanted to share some background on how they work, how we are using them and how you can too.</p>
<h2 id="how-did-we-get-started">How did we get started?</h2>
<p>We started to get curious about Jekyll, GitHub and GitHub pages after finding the Peer 2 Peer University <a href="http://howto.p2pu.org">Course-in-a-Box Jekyll template</a> while developing our project proposal back in the spring. After gaining some experience using Jekyll for another Baltimore Heritage project (<a href="https://baltimoreheritage.github.io/baltimore-civil-rights-heritage/about/">our ongoing research on the history of Baltimore’s Civil Rights movement</a>, we feel ready to use these tools and an open-source approach for the Local Preservation School project. We just started work on our first Jekyll-based site for the Local Preservation School—an online course we are creating to teach volunteers and local historians how to research and write about historic places. It is rough around the edges but you can take a look at <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.github.io/explore-101/">Explore Baltimore Heritage 101</a> right now.</p>
<p>These tools are exciting for a many reasons. They are <strong>free</strong>, <strong>open-source</strong> and <strong>easy to learn</strong> (thanks to a wealth of free online resources). Jekyll has many <a href="http://jekyllthemes.org/">attractive and user friendly themes</a> that we can use to build a good looking website without being an expert in HTML or CSS. Finally, GitHub makes it easy to collaborate and it has a community of users that includes historians, educators and cultural institutions including:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/cooperhewitt">Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/IMAmuseum">Indianapolis Museum of Art</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/nationalparkservice">National Park Service</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/CPHDH/">Center for Public History and Digital Humanities, Cleveland State University</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="what-is-github">What is GitHub?</h2>
<p>Wikipedia is almost always a good place to begin:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>GitHub</strong> is a Web-based <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)" title="Git (software)">Git</a> repository hosting service. It offers all of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_revision_control" title="Distributed revision control">distributed revision control</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_code_management" title="Source code management">source code management</a> (SCM) functionality of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)" title="Git (software)">Git</a> as well as adding its own features. Unlike Git, which is strictly a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command-line" title="Command-line">command-line</a> tool, GitHub provides a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application" title="Web application">Web-based graphical interface</a> and desktop as well as mobile integration. It also provides <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_control" title="Access control">access control</a> and several collaboration features such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bug_tracking_system" title="Bug tracking system">bug tracking</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_feature" title="Software feature">feature requests</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_management" title="Task management">task management</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki" title="Wiki">wikis</a> for every project.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the past few years, GitHub has grown to become the most popular host for source code in the world with a reported 9 million users. Wired Magazine wrote <a href="http://www.wired.com/2013/09/github-for-anything/">a long profile on GitHub in 2013</a> that noted how a tool originally developed for software engineers started finding a broader audience:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The folks at GitHub think this style of cooperative tinkering represents the future: a world where anyone can suggest improvements to almost any project, and all fixes can be discussed like Facebook posts. “The open, collaborative workflow we have created for software development is so appealing that it’s gaining traction for non-software projects that require significant collaboration,” says GitHub cofounder and CEO Tom Preston-Werner.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here are some tutorials and resources we used to get started working with GitHub:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/03/03/how-to-use-github-and-the-terminal-a-guide/">How to use GitHub and the terminal: a guide</a> by Melody Kramer, 18F</li>
<li><a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/09/30/understanding-github-a-journey-for-beginners-part-1">GitHub For Beginners: Don’t Get Scared, Get Started - Part 1</a>, <a href="http://readwrite.com/2013/10/02/github-for-beginners-part-2">Part 2</a> by Lauren Orsini, readwrite</li>
<li><a href="http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/getting-started-with-a-github-repository/47393">Getting Started With a GitHub Repository</a> by Konrad M. Lawson, ProfHacker</li>
<li><a href="https://guides.github.com/activities/hello-world/">Hello World</a> - GitHub Guide</li>
<li><a href="https://help.github.com/desktop/guides/getting-started/">Getting Started with GitHub Desktop</a> - GitHub Guide</li>
<li><a href="https://try.github.io/levels/1/challenges/1">Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?</a> - a command-line tutorial from GitHub</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="what-is-jekyll">What is Jekyll?</h2>
<p>For the answer to this question, we went <a href="http://jekyllrb.com/docs/home/">right to the source</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Jekyll is a simple, blog-aware, static site generator. It takes a template directory containing raw text files in various formats, runs it through a converter (like Markdown) and our Liquid renderer, and spits out a complete, ready-to-publish static website suitable for serving with your favorite web server. Jekyll also happens to be the engine behind GitHub Pages, which means you can use Jekyll to host your project’s page, blog, or website from GitHub’s servers for free.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jekyll is well-documented but a bit intimidating for anyone who is more accustomed to editing a website through a content management system (CMS) like WordPress or a website builder like SquareSpace. Here are some tutorials and resources we found helpful:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/build-blog-jekyll-github-pages/">Build A Blog With Jekyll And GitHub Pages</a> by Barry Clark, Smashing Magazine</li>
<li><a href="http://yeswejekyll.com/">Yes We Jekyll</a></li>
<li><a href="http://jekyll-windows.juthilo.com/">Run Jekyll on Windows</a>: A step-by-step guide to setting up Jekyll on Windows by <a href="https://twitter.com/juthilo">@juthilo</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="what-is-github-pages">What is GitHub pages?</h2>
<p>GitHub explains Pages <a href="https://help.github.com/articles/what-are-github-pages/">this way</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>GitHub Pages are public webpages hosted and published through our site. You can create and publish GitHub Pages online using the Automatic Page Generator. If you prefer to work locally, you can use the GitHub Desktop or the command line.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>GitHub Pages works well with another tool—<a href="http://prose.io/#about">Prose.io</a>—that makes editing Jekyll-based websites easy to do in your web browser:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Prose provides a beatifully simple content authoring environment for CMS-free websites. It’s a web-based interface for managing content on GitHub. Use it to create, edit, and delete files, and save your changes directly to GitHub.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Using GitHub pages also makes it easy to use an existing Jekyll site as a template for your own site. By forking the original code and making a few small tweaks, you can have a site up and running in minutes. This is exactly the idea behind the P2PU Course-in-a-box template. Here is how we can use GitHub pages and the Jekyll template to <a href="http://howto.p2pu.org/modules/start/create-your-course/">create a course</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You’re going to be building your course in GitHub. GitHub is web-based repository hosting service, which allows you to manage your code, and see revisions you’ve made via a good-looking, easy-to-use web interface. It’s newbie-friendly, and a great collaboration tool, which is why we’re using it for Course in a Box.
The flagship functionality of GitHub is “forking” – copying a repository from one users account to another. This is what we will do with this repository of content. By forking repository you will copy the Course in a Box content from our repository, and modify it under your own account and then publish with your own link to it.
Your course will live on GitHub (so you don’t need to worry about hosting) and you’ll do all the building work there, but you’ll be able to view it as a web page.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We’re putting together a list of all of the changes we are making to the template as we build our <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.github.io/explore-101/">Explore Baltimore Heritage 101 course</a> as a reference for anyone else who wants to use the template in the future. These changes include customizing the footer and header menus, as well as swapping out the existing course modules and lessons for our new modules and lessons.</p>
<h2 id="a-few-more-tools-we-are-excited-about">A few more tools we are excited about</h2>
<p>Jekyll is great for publishing simple websites but there are many other helpful tools available that work well for open-source projects. Here are a few more tools we are learning how to use and that you’ll probably see us mention in future updates:</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://datanews.github.io/tik-tok/">Tik Tok</a></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Tik Tok is a Javascript tool to easily create beautiful, simple, mobile-friendly, vertical timelines.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><a href="http://geojson.io">geojson.io</a></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>geojson.io is a quick, simple tool for creating, viewing, and sharing maps. geojson.io is named after GeoJSON, an open source data format, and it supports GeoJSON in all ways - but also accepts KML, GPX, CSV, TopoJSON, and other formats.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><a href="http://editdata.org">editdata.org</a></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>editdata.org is a simple version of flatsheet, a tool for curating data as editorial content.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Do you have suggestions for other tools or resources we should look at? <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/contact/">Please share your ideas!</a> If you use this guide to get started with GitHub, Jekyll or GitHub Pages, we’d love to hear about your experience. Share your feedback on Twitter with the hastag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23localpast">#localpast</a> or say hello to me – <a href="https://twitter.com/elipousson">@elipousson</a>.</p>
<p><em>P.S. We didn’t really discuss open educational resources in this post but we’ll make sure to post again with more information soon. Check out our new background page on <a href="https://localpreservation.github.io/open-education/">open education</a> for a preview of what we are working on.</em></p>Local Preservation Schoolinfo@baltimoreheritage.orgOver the past few months, we have been learning how to a use a handful of new tools to create open educational resources and publish them online. GitHub, Jekyll and GitHub pages are three of those tools and we used them to create the website you are reading right now.What is the Local Preservation School?2015-10-01T00:00:00-04:002015-10-01T00:00:00-04:00https://localpreservation.github.io/what-is-local-preservation-school<p>The Local Preservation School is free resource to teach people how to save and sustain historic places — and we want you to be part of it. <a href="https://tinyletter.com/localpreservation">Sign up for our newsletter</a> to learn more.</p>
<p>My name is Eli Pousson and I work for <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/">Baltimore Heritage</a> advocating for historic preservation and neighborhood revitalization in Baltimore, Maryland. Every day we work with volunteers, elected officials and city staff, property-owners and neighborhood associations trying to sustain and improve our city’s unique historic neighborhoods. Like other people trying to save and improve the places around them that they love, we use a wide range of approaches to fight for historic places—everything from <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/tours/">walking tours</a> and <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/archeology/">archaeology</a> to <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/preservation/">advocacy campaigns</a> and <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/awards/">award programs</a>. We also see the same challenges facing individuals and preservation groups in cities around the country—a very small (if any) staff, a tiny budget, and many, many historic places threatened by neglect or demolition.</p>
<p>This spring, the National Park Service approached us with an unusual opportunity to teach people about how we do historic preservation in Baltimore—and how volunteers and small community organizations can use historic preservation in communities around the country. For the next year, we are reaching out to friends and colleagues, not just in Baltimore but around the country, who work with preservation nonprofits, park “friends” groups, community archives, and small historic sites. Together, we’re opening a new online school to share the skills and knowledge you need to get your neighbors excited about local history, protect threatened landmarks from demolition, or secure resources for reinvestment in your historic neighborhood.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/12881v.jpg" alt="Desegregation landmark, Little Rock Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas" />
<em>Photo: Desegregation landmark, Little Rock Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas, Carol Highsmith. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/highsm.12881/resource/">Library of Congress</a>.</em></p>
<h2 id="why-start-the-local-preservation-school">Why start the Local Preservation School?</h2>
<p>There are many excellent online resources available on historic preservation from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Park Service, and others. But these resources can be overwhelming—especially for volunteers who do preservation on evenings and weekends. Who has the time to dig deep into technical documents? Taking inspiration from new approaches to online learning for <a href="http://schoolofdata.org">data-wrangling</a>, <a href="http://programminghistorian.org/">digital history</a>, and <a href="https://www.codecademy.com/">computer programming</a>, we wondered <strong>how can we use the web (and open-source tools) to make it easier for people across the country to learn about historic preservation?</strong> How can we do a better job sharing the skills and knowledge needed to save historic places?</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/15246r.jpg" alt="Abandoned adobe one-room schoolhouse in Las Animas County, Colorado" />
<em>Photo: Abandoned adobe one-room schoolhouse in Las Animas County, Colorado, Carol Highsmith. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011633439/resource/">Library of Congress</a></em></p>
<h2 id="what-does-the-local-preservation-school-teach">What does the Local Preservation School teach?</h2>
<p>We are already exploring dozens of different ideas for preservation courses, lessons, and tutorials to explain the practical aspects of preservation and the important organizing and outreach work that goes with it. <strong>Tell us you what want to learn (or what you want to teach) by voting and commenting on our <a href="https://trello.com/b/dxqnRFsi/local-preservation-101">Local Preservation 101</a> public Trello board.</strong></p>
<p>We believe that historic preservation is not just a job for “experts” or professionals. You might be one of the thousands of volunteers working hard to restore a historic park, revitalize a main street business district, or help historic home-owners navigate maintenance challenges. The Local Preservation School is for you (and your neighbors): a place to find new resources and a place to share your hard-won knowledge about how to preserve historic buildings and revitalize neighborhoods. We know that historic preservation is not just about the past. Historic preservation is a set of practical tools and ideas that empower people to use history and historic places as assets for a building stronger and more sustainable communities.</p>
<p>The Local Preservation School is built around the idea that educational resources should be accessible to beginners – not overwhelmed by jargon or require expensive software. We are making our lessons activity-based – teaching you how to document a threatened landmark, prepare and deliver a walking tour, or create a digital map of local historic sites. Finally, we are committed to the <a href="http://openglam.org/principles/">principles of openness</a> using a Creative Commons Zero license to ensure that anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute the material on this site. <a href="%7B%7Bsite.url%7D%7D/about">Learn more about the project</a> or <a href="https://baltimoreheritage.org/contact">get in touch with questions</a>.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/30602v.jpg" alt="Classroom of the Marine School at Log Cabin Village, a house museum consisting of saved rural cabins moved to a central site in Fort Worth, Texas" />
<em>Photo: Classroom of the Marine School at Log Cabin Village, a house museum consisting of saved rural cabins moved to a central site in Fort Worth, Texas, Carol Highsmith. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2015630838/resource/">Library of Congress</a></em></p>
<h2 id="how-can-you-get-involved">How can you get involved?</h2>
<p>We’re starting by asking lots of questions. If you’re interested in learning about historic preservation, teaching historic preservation, or just love older towns and cities, we would love to talk to you about the Local Preservation School. Share your questions or suggestions in the comments and sign up for our email newsletter. We promise regular emails (but not too many!) with helpful resources for anyone who loves old buildings, updates on our progress, and opportunities to help us figure out how the Local Preservation School should work.</p>
<p><a href="https://tinyletter.com/localpreservation" class="button">Subscribe to the Local Preservation Newsletter</a></p>Local Preservation Schoolinfo@baltimoreheritage.orgThe Local Preservation School is free resource to teach people how to save and sustain historic places — and we want you to be part of it. Sign up for our newsletter to learn more.