An innovative digital repository on the website of the Army Women's Museum is providing valuable insights into well-preserved artifacts, archives, and exhibits related to the contributions of women in the U.S. Army.

Tracy Bradford, the curator of the Army Women's Museum, stated that the objective of this initiative is to establish an internet-based collection that will safeguard and provide access to the archive materials held at the museum for the entire nation.

The AWM's inaugural digital archive, known as "Digital Collections," will provide access to individuals unable to physically visit the museum, enabling them to virtually explore and appreciate the archives, displays, and collections.

"We aim to provide individuals who are unable to physically visit our museum with the opportunity to fully engage with all the offerings it provides," stated Alexandra J. Kolleda, education specialist at the Army Women's Museum.

In order to make this history accessible to the public, the museum undertakes the task of processing and digitizing all of their holdings, making them available online.

In order to initiate the process, it is necessary to digitally scan and upload each unique piece within a collection. Subsequently, data entries are generated for each piece, containing essential information such as the date, title, and subjects.

These items consist of photographs, certificates, postcards, and even more varied things such as an audiovisual file.

"Incorporating informative data into all the components enhances the comprehensiveness and preparedness of each collection for public accessibility," stated Kolleda.

Certain pieces may also be incorporated into the museum's virtual tours.

To access these online archives, visitors can navigate to the AWM's website homepage and scroll down until they locate a historical image depicting a gathering of women in the Army. The image will be labeled "The U.S. Army Women's Museum Digital Collections." By clicking on this photo, visitors will be directed to the digital collections section of the website.

The U.S. Army Women's Museum has developed an online archive of historical significance that is accessible to the public. Visitors to the digital collections can access special exhibits, collections, historic photos, documentations, certificates, and perform advanced searches to locate specific items.

Through the advanced search feature, users have the ability to input precise details in order to improve the effectiveness of their search. The required information includes a title, a specified period of time, an individual's name, and potential descriptions to facilitate the identification of the precise search criteria.

The overwhelming majority of artworks, which cannot be exhibited at the gallery owing to spatial constraints, will now be accessible for viewing through the online exhibition in the digital collections section of the website.

"The upload process for these collections is solely determined by the size of the collection," stated Kolleda. "A smaller collection could be processed within a day, whereas a larger collection may require two weeks or even longer."

The U.S. Army Women's Museum has developed an online archive of historical significance that is accessible to the public. The AWM aims to employ its new digital collections to educate a wide audience, including students from Virginia and other states who rely on the museum for their academic studies and school assignments.

"We believe it is our duty to make these historical documents available to the public, so that researchers, students, families, and others can easily access these exceptional primary source materials," stated Bradford.

To access the official website of the Army Women's Museum, please click on the following link: https://awm.army.mil/.

To access the digital collections of the Army Women's Museum, please click on the following link: https://awm.historyit.com/public-sites/home/digitalcollections?hsxezn=kezfcv

Two North Carolina-based genealogists, David McCorkle and Diane L. Richard, recently started GenWebinars. They sought a better chance to offer their lectures with more time, less restrictions, and at times that would most help the audience. So born GenWebinars, located at genwebinars.com.

Reviewing their Frequently Asked inquiries (FAQ) section on the website will help you find responses to your inquiries on how things will go.

They talk about the expenses of attending—usually $25—without a subscription. Zoom buys one of the lectures at a time; they also include how to engage with the speaker and so on. Every webinar runs ninety minutes, including time for questions.

The page's subtitle is "live, in-depth, and interactive genealogy webinars." Among their earlier presentations were "Tracing Landownership Over Time," "Using Artificial Intelligence Tools in Genealogy," and "Using Timelines." You can find on the website how, when, and whether past webinars are viewable.

Currently president of the North Carolina Genealogical Society, McCorkle is well renowned as the land grants specialist from North Carolina and maintains a webpage for that. Richard editor of the North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal and well-known genealogical speaker.

These GenWebinars by two seasoned professionals are absolutely worth looking at.

Proton, the privacy-focused technology company, has launched Proton Docs, a new document editing tool that bears a striking resemblance to Google Docs. The service, launched as part of Proton Drive, offers features such as rich text editing, real-time collaboration, and multimedia support.

Since this is a Proton product, security is everything: the company says every document, keystroke, and even cursor movement is end-to-end encrypted in real time. Proton has long promised to never sell or otherwise use your user data, which may appeal to more people than ever now that there are so many questions about how your documents and information are used to train AI models. (For what it’s worth, Google says it also doesn’t use your content to train its models.)

There's a saying that "the internet never forgets" but that's just wishful thinking. Storing data on servers takes money, time, and effort. Eventually, something you care about will be wiped from the web forever. The good news is that you can do something about it now. 

Web Content Is Always Under Threat 

Just a day before I sat down to write this, Paramount removed almost everything from the Comedy Central and MTV websites. The Internet Archive, arguably one of the most important websites on the internet, has been forced to remove around 500,000 books from its site. While archival sites do their best to preserve what they can, legal and financial pressures will inevitably lead to losses of content and our easy access to it. Even peer-to-peer hosting of rare content, such as implemented by the Internet Archive, doesn't guarantee that eventually some torrents will have no seeds. Streaming services and digital content such as ebooks and digital-only games can likewise disappear in the blink of an eye. 

We ourselves, as collective users of the web, can individually preserve content. So don't let time and entropy rob you of the content you think should be saved somewhere. Here's how you can keep a small piece of our culture safe from digital death.

You can read more in an article by Sydney Butler published in the howtogeek.com web site at: https://bit.ly/4ctnHd3

MTV News was closed down last year due to staff reductions at its parent firm, Paramount. Last week, Patrick Hosken, a former editor of MTV News (and a contributor to Stereogum), observed that the website of the music publication had been deactivated, resulting in the loss of numerous years of esteemed music journalism. The Internet Archive has provided a searchable database of MTV News, offering a solution to the problem.

The database contains a total of 460,575 web pages that were formerly published on mtv.com/news, starting from the website's establishment in 1996. Paramount also removed content from its CMT, Comedy Central, and TV Land websites. "In order to enhance our website, Paramount has implemented more efficient versions of our sites, directing fans to Paramount+ to enjoy their preferred shows," stated a representative from Paramount Global. The MTV News database can be accessed here.

Shari Redstone's National Amusements Inc., which has control over Paramount Global, recently ended discussions of a merger with David Ellison's Skydance Media, known for producing popular movie franchises such as Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. Currently, National Amusements Inc. is seeking to reduce its yearly expenses by $500 million and is considering selling off certain parts of its media empire. Paramount's intentions regarding the sale of MTV and its other cable networks, such as Nickelodeon, remain uncertain. However, recent information suggests that the corporation is considering selling BET to the network's CEO and CC Capital's Chinh Chu for $1.6 billion. Following yesterday's revelation that IAC, led by Barry Diller, may be considering purchasing Paramount, it appears that the merger with Skydance is indeed taking place.

Paramount Global's long-term debt amounted to $14.6 billion last year, and recently its shares reached its lowest point ever. Notwithstanding the decline of its cable business, Paramount also possesses valuable assets in the form of CBS and Paramount Pictures. Additionally, it aims to consolidate its Paramount+ platform with another streaming service, such as Warner Bros. Discovery's Max.

MTV was established in 1981 by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment and later acquired by a consortium that included Paramount, which was then known as Viacom, in 1983. In 1987, Sumner Redstone's father, Sumner, gained ownership of Viacom through his company, National Amusements. In 2010, MTV removed "Music Television" from its branding, but it maintained its production of music journalism until the closure of MTV News. The MTV Video Music Awards will commemorate its 40th anniversary on September 10th, although the MTV Movie & TV Awards will not take place this year.

The following is an extract from the MyHeritage Blog:

As we celebrate July 4th, it’s the perfect time to dive into your family history and discover your American roots. The United States is a melting pot of cultures and backgrounds, and people all around the world have American relatives. For a limited time, from July 3–7, 2024, we’re offering free access to our extensive U.S. City Directories collection. 

Search the U.S. City Directories for free! 

MyHeritage’s U.S. City Directories collection was produced from 26,000 directories published between 1860 and 1960, and consists of 1.3 billion individual records, which we consolidated into 561 million records. 

These directories are invaluable for several reasons:

• Alternative to Census Records: City directories serve as an important resource, especially for periods where census records are incomplete or missing, such as the 1890 census, which was largely destroyed in a fire.
• Consolidated Records: Multiple records about the same individual are consolidated, making it easier to track your ancestors’ movements and activities over time.
• Rich Details: City Directories often include names, addresses, occupations, and sometimes even additional information like business advertisements, offering a vivid picture of your ancestors’ lives.

If you want to take a deep dive into the city directories, watch this in-depth webinar on Legacy Family Webinars: A Deep Dive into U.S. City Directories at MyHeritage. This comprehensive session will guide you through using MyHeritage’s U.S. City Directories collection to find not only residential information about your ancestors but much more. Learn about the unique features and search capabilities that can help you uncover detailed insights into your family history.

Usually, a Complete, Data, or Omni plan is required to view these records, but for a limited time only, you can search and view them for free. Note that you’ll be asked to create a free MyHeritage account to access these free records.

Take advantage of this limited-time offer to explore your American roots. Dive into the records to uncover addresses, occupations, and other valuable information that paints a picture of your family’s past.

Here is an article that is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, I have had great success converting old computers to Linux and firmly believe this article will work well for many people:

As someone who's been around the block a few hundred times with technology, planned obsolescence has long bothered me.

Consider this: When Microsoft released Windows 11, it became clear that a lot of hardware (capable of running the previous iteration) wouldn't support the new version of Windows. A lot of people wound up having to purchase new systems (if they wanted to stick with Windows). For some, that wasn't an option, so they had to keep using a Windows operating system that would eventually fall out of support. That meant no more security updates, which can leave users (and their data) vulnerable.

If you've found yourself in such a situation, there's hope by way of a handful of Linux distributions designed specifically for older (or less-powerful) hardware. With these operating systems, you can revive an old machine and make it run as though it were new.

Here are five Linux distributions that are perfectly at home on older (and even newer) hardware:

You can read the rest of the article  by Jack Wallen in the ZDnet web site at: https://bit.ly/4eKmaAR.

A new state law took effect Monday in Minnesota opening access to original birth records for all adopted people 18 years and older, offering thousands of Minnesotans a wealth of information that they previously could not obtain through the state.

The law, passed more than a calendar year ago in 2023, lifts long-running restrictions on adoptee birth records that date back to 1939. According to a Minnesota Department of Health spokesperson, roughly 150,000 original birth records are now eligible for public release upon the implementation of the law on July 1.

Joe Duea, who was adopted by a Central Minnesota family as a baby, placed his notarized paperwork in the mail early Monday afternoon so that he can finally obtain his original birth records. 

You can find the full story by Danny Spewak at: https://bit.ly/3W6PcDG.

On Monday, the Supreme Court reversed two court rulings on Republican-backed laws from Florida and Texas meant to restrict social media firms' capacity to filter material on their sites.

Noting that lower courts had failed to properly examine the First Amendment objections to the statutes, the Supreme Court is forwarding both cases back to them for additional scrutiny.

"In such a case, the issue is whether the unconstitutional applications of a law are significant relative to its constitutional ones," Justice Elena Kagan noted in the ruling. "A court must ascertain the whole spectrum of applications of a legislation, assess which are constitutional and which are not, and then compare the one with the other in order to render that conclusion. Neither court conducted the required necessary research.

Adopted in 2021, both regulations sought to answer grievances from conservatives who felt social media firms such as Facebook and X (previously Twitter) were unlawfully suppressing conservative political opinions. The worries grew more intense after Facebook and X deleted former president Donald Trump's accounts following the Capitol building attack on January 6.

The legislation sought to prevent social media corporations from deleting specific political accounts or messages. The trials might decide whether social media firms ought to be allowed to control hate speech, false information about elections, spam on their own platforms.

Arguing that the rules violated the speech rights of the social media sites, NetChoice, a tech sector lobbying group, filed to have the laws overturned. The group contended that the provisions give the government undue authority over material posted on privately held social media sites.

Lower courts decided differently on the laws as Texas law was maintained but important Florida law measures were denied. Neither statute, however, has been implemented; both were put on hold until the Supreme Court rendered its ruling.

The following is a press release issued by the Institute of Museum and Library Services:

The federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today released InformationLiteracy.gov, a website with specialized tools and resources designed for library and museum professionals to engage diverse communities in developing critical information literacy skills. The website and resources will debut at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego, California.

The work of the Information Literacy Initiative focuses on providing library and museum professionals with successful practices, tools, and programs related to financial, health, digital, and other information literacy subject areas. In 2022, the U.S. Congress and the White House invited IMLS to explore ways to improve information literacy across the country. Under the guidance of the Information Literacy Taskforce, this effort focuses on disseminating training and technical assistance resources for professionals in libraries, museums, zoos, aquaria, botanical gardens, arboretums, nature and science centers, archives, and other community-serving institutions.

“Guided by an Information Literacy Taskforce comprised of 16 federal agencies, we set out to help confront the challenges, faced by people of all ages and backgrounds, of a lack of information literacy in many areas,” said IMLS Acting Director Cyndee Landrum. “We want to empower these trusted library and museum professionals who play a critical role in helping improve digital, financial, and health literacy to serve the needs of diverse communities.”

Landrum and IMLS Deputy Director for Museum Services Laura Huerta Migus are featured in a new video showcasing the mission and program highlights of the IMLS Information Literacy Initiative.

IMLS will be an exhibitor at the ALA Library Marketplace showcasing Information Literacy toolkits and marketing collateral that will help library and museum professionals better serve the needs of their patrons and community members. IMLS has developed a comprehensive website with resources and engagement ideas for professionals. A key feature of the website are toolkits for professionals that include lesson plans, community engagement materials, and suggestions for partnership outreach. Landrum will be on site at the ALA Conference representing the IMLS leadership team.

IMLS will be in good company, as the ALA Conference promises to offer top-quality education and best practices, special programming for library professionals, and a roster of A-list featured speakers including Trevor Noah, Taraji P. Henson, and MSNBC Host Ali Velshi.

For more information on the IMLS Information Literacy Initiative and to access resources, visit www.InformationLiteracy.gov.

About the Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America's museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our diverse natural and cultural heritage. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.