On April 29, at the Nineteenth Annual Shenandoah Valley
Technology Council Awards Gala, several individuals from JMU Libraries and
their project partners were recognized with the JMU College of Integrated
Science and Engineering's Innovation in Community Impact Award for their work
on the collaboration project “Exploring
Rockingham’s Past.” The Community Impact Award is given to an individual,
team, nonprofit/civic organization, or company in the Shenandoah Valley that
aspires to use its capabilities to help solve a social or environmental issue
in a local community while using technology to amplify the impact of a service,
mission, or project.
“Exploring Rockingham’s Past” is an ongoing collaboration
between JMU's History department, JMU Libraries, and the Rockingham County
Circuit Court Clerk's office designed to preserve and make select historical
court records publicly available. The project is sharing thousands of
historical legal records through a searchable and easy to use website. This
resource will be important not only for scholars researching Rockingham's past
but also for citizens and genealogists interested in exploring the history of
their family and other community members.
The project also acts as a bridge between the
campus and the community and provides an opportunity for graduate students to
contribute to real-world projects that stay in and benefit the community. In
return, history graduate students gain valuable technology skills and
experience impossible to provide in the classroom. JMU Libraries provides
space, equipment, IT services, training, and mentorship for digitizing,
describing, organizing, and publishing close to 20,000 scans of court records.
(From Left to Right) Dr. Kevin Borg (JMU History), Chaz Haywood (Circuit Court Clerk of Rockingham County), Kayla Heslin (M.A. in Public History ), Craig Schaefer (M.A. in Public History), and Kevin Hegg (JMU Libraries) were present to accept the award.