American Heritage: Historic Sites, Museums and Battlefields across the US

Begun in July, 2007, HeritageSites provides information on nearly 4,000 museums and historical societies nationwide. It is a collaboration between American Heritage and the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH), whose organizational members are largely included in the system.

AASLH is a 106-year-old association comprised of and representing the interests of America’s history museums. It is providing administrative oversight for HeritageSites, acting as a fiscal agent for grants, and helping with liaison with historical organizations. AASLH President Terry Davis serves on the Advisory Group and Bob Beatty, Vice President for Programs, co-chairs the Working Group.

American Heritage is the project leader, soliciting participation from museums and building the systems. The American Heritage team is led by Edwin S. Grosvenor, President.

The HeritageSites Advisory Committee is chaired by Allen Weinstein and is providing oversight and strategic advice on such important issues as 1) Ways to encourage broad-based participation by repositories, 2) How to increase the visibility of the site and its usability and value to a variety of users, and 3) Guaranteeing the sustainability of the project through strategies and additional funding sources, including fundraising for gifts and/or grants needed to fully fund the projects undertaken.

Members of the Advisory Committee are:

• Allen Weinstein, Chair, former Archivist of the United States

• Bruce Cole, President, American Revolution Center, and former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities

• Terry Davis, President & CEO, AASLH

• Ellen S. Dunlap, President, American Antiquarian Society

• D. Stephen Elliott, President and CEO, New York State Historical Assn

• Barbara Franco, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Comm.

• Brent Glass, Director, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

• Edwin S. Grosvenor, President, America Heritage Publishing

• Nik Honeysett, Head of Administration, J. Paul Getty Museum

• Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, The Library of Congress

• Edward Papenfuse, Archivist of Maryland

• Robert C. Wilburn, former President of the Gettysburg Foundation and of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

The Working Group is composed of top experts from museums, archives, and libraries with knowledge in collection documentation, metadata issues, and the development of national standards. These respected experts represent a wide range of organizations such the Library of Congress, the American Association of Museums, the Society of American Archivists, the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) Committee, and the Cataloging Cultural Objects Initiative. They include:

• Daniel Gelaw Alemneh, Metadata Specialist, University of North Texas

• Douglas E. Barnett, Chief of Staff, University of Texas Libraries

• Bob Beatty, VP for Programs, AASLH

• Paul G. Bourcier, Chief Curator, Wisconsin Historical Society

• Myers Brown, Curator of History & Extension Services, Tennessee State Museum

• Spencer Downing, Academic Researcher, Orlando, FL 3

• Max J. Evans, Director of Research and Development, LDS Church

• Michael J. Fox, Deputy Director for Programs, Minnesota Historical Society

• Brian L. Gomez, VP Operations, PastPerfect Software, Inc.

• Edwin S. Grosvenor, President, American Heritage Publishing Co.

• Nik Honeysett, Head of Administration, J. Paul Getty Museum (representing the American Association of Museums)

• Sally McCallum, Chief of MARC Office, Library of Congress

• William E. Moen, Director of Research, Texas Center for Digital Knowledge, UNT

• Angela O’Neal, Director, Information Technology, Ohio Historical Society

• Mark Phillips, Head, Digital Projects Unit, University of North Texas Libraries

• Lisa Spiro, Director of the Digital Media Center, Rice University

• Herbert Van de Sompel, Los Alamos National Laboratory and co-founder of the Open Access Initiative

• Scott Wands, Heritage Resource Center Director, Connecticut Humanities Council

The evaluator for this project is Conny Graft, consultant in Evaluation and Research for museums and nonprofit organizations. Ms. Graft recently retired as Manager for Research and Evaluation at Colonial Williamsburg and is a nationally recognized expert on visitor research and evaluation and how organizations can use research to improve the visitor experience. In addition to Colonial Wiliamsburg, Ms. Graft has advised many organizations on evaluation, including AASLH and the Smithsonian Institution.