From the Buffalo News:
Many of the Niagara Falls Public Library’s historical pictures of the city are falling apart.
That’s to be expected – some are 150 years old.
The roughly 10,000 historic photographs in the archives of the Local History Department are being given new life thanks to a new digitization project at the library by City Historian Christopher R. Stoianoff.
“There’s a need for it, that’s the biggest thing,” Stoianoff said when asked how the effort began.
The photographs, contained in a half-dozen filing cabinets, are the most heavily used and handled items in the Local History Department.
It’s a preservation issue, both for the quality of the pieces – some of which are crumbling – as well as to prevent more photographs from “disappearing” from the library.
The goal is to have all the images accessible online through the library’s website.