A new website developed by OSU Libraries highlights the architecture of the Pacific Northwest and offers a wealth of photos and information about historically significant buildings in Oregon. Buildingoregon.org is a digital library that includes a collection of thousands of images of more than 5,000 cultural and historic properties. 

The website has certainly caught the attention of area news organizations, and Building Oregon has been featured in news stories in Portland's Oregonian newspaper, the Corvallis Gazette-Times, Eugene's Register-Guard newspaper, the Daily Journal of Commerce -- Oregon and KMTR-TV news.

OSU Libraries developed the website that makes the University of Oregon’s Building Oregon: Architecture of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest collection accessible to users on smart phones and other mobile devices. Building Oregon uses a map-based interface to allow people to search for buildings by location and retrieve related images and information. Many photos in the collection represent cultural heritage sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

“This grant project is a terrific example of ongoing collaboration between Oregon State University and the University of Oregon,” according to Faye A. Chadwell, Donald and Delpha Campbell University Librarian and OSU Press Director. “It leverages our respective strengths within each library to enhance access to important cultural content. Of course, I am especially pleased with OSU’s development work on this project as we’ve created an open technical framework for other cultural heritage entities such as museums, archives and presses to use to reach wider audiences.”

The development of the Building Oregon website was supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services Technology Act and administered by the Oregon State Library. The open source code for this application is available via GitHub.

 

See the Eugene Register-Guard news article at "OU, OSU join forces to produce Web app that brings Oregon history alive." 


Posted - July 27, 2015