My digital project is up and running at this website: roundaboutkentucky.wordpress.com.
I am using the Library of Congress website, chroniclingamerica.loc.gov, to tell the stories of the people who lived in Frankfort, Kentucky at the time the Frankfort Roundabout, a local newspaper, was being published. I have chosen to do this because I want to make local history come alive for people. Reading the stories behind the names is always more interesting than reading a list of people. In order to find the stories I have delved into state government records that are open to the public, archives, and other treasure troves of information available thanks to the internet. I have had success in finding birth and death certificates as well. Another feature that has added greatly to my project is google my maps. I created a tour of buildings in Frankfort, that were contemporary with the publications dates of the Frankfort Roundabout. This has added an element of interactivity to the blog.
I would like to attract readers of all ages and backgrounds. Schools may find this site interesting and useful to teach local history. It is linked to the Lexington History Museum website already. I am still waiting for a response from The Lexington Herald-Leader, which published an article about Chronicling America back in February; which can be found here. The article states that local genealogists would find Chronicling America helpful; I’m hoping to attract these same people to my site because they may be able to add depth and richness to the conversation.
I have run into a few problems with wordpress so far. One of these is that wordpress has shut down on me twice. The second problem is that no matter what I do I cannot seem to get my headline picture clear. Everything else is running smoothly. I have had consistent readership at an average of 6 people a day. Unfortunately there have still been 0 comments. This is a number I would like to change drastically before the project is due. Any suggestions regarding this would be appreciated.
The header actually seems to be too big instead of too small. That is probably why I am unable to wrap my head around this problem. I think I will try posting some questions. I just don't have it in me to start a twitter for this project. While there are things I could tweet, I do not this it would substantially add to this particular project.