Council authorizes grant application to digitize early North Yarmouth records

Prince Memorial Library Director Stacy Mazer and Julia Walters of the North Yarmouth Historical Society asked the council on Oct. 27 to authorize submission of a Maine Semiquincentennial Commission grant application to digitize and publicize a set of early municipal records.

Project scope: The partners plan to scan and transcribe roughly 1,600 pages from two record sets: the Ancient North Yarmouth proprietors records (1681–1809) and the town records and vitals (1733–1784). Materials will be scanned to state archival standards, run through optical-character recognition (OCR) where feasible, and uploaded to the Maine Digital repository to make the content searchable and broadly accessible.

Public engagement: The project includes museum-quality exhibit panels, a short public presentation that can be shared among partner towns within the historic boundaries of Ancient North Yarmouth (which historically encompassed modern Cumberland, Yarmouth, North Yarmouth, Freeport and parts of surrounding towns), and exploration of a print transcription edition.

Funding and partners: The library sought the full $10,000 award being offered by the semiquincentennial commission and said the amount should cover scanning, OCR, metadata work and public-outreach materials. Partners named in the presentation include the North Yarmouth Historical Society, the Maine Ulster Scots project and WICARE (the Yarmouth Community Alliance for Racial Equity).

Quotation: "We would like to bring those out into the light and showcase the potential treasures of history we could find within those pages," Stacy Mazer said.

Council action: After public comment and discussion the council unanimously authorized the library to submit the grant application.