Water works

Originally uploaded by sokref1

A few weeks ago, we posted about PhillyHistory.org, the site that digitizes photos from the city’s voluminous archives and makes them searchable by keyword, location, date, and more. We suggested a few improvements, and presently received a thorough response from Deb Sting, who works for Avencia, the software company who built the site for the Philadelphia Department of Records. We post it here with her permission:

I wanted to thank you for the feedback and suggestions that you posted on the Studio 34 Yoga blog regarding PhillyHistory. We’re very proud of PhillyHistory.org, and we are always happy to hear encouragement and suggestions from people who visit the website. PhillyHistory users often e-mail us at info@phillyhistory.org to provide feedback and suggest additional features. Several features on the website including the Recent Searches option and the option to view photos that were recently uploaded were suggested by PhillyHistory users via e-mail. Please feel free to e-mail us whenever you would like as it is the most reliable way to ensure that we receive your message.

Some of your concerns are issues that we are currently addressing. They include the following:

• Show photo in popup panel – We are reorganizing the popup panel to enable users to view the photo immediately rather than having to scroll down.

• Sharing and bookmarking – We are implementing a “share this” function that will provide a way for users to e-mail, save, and distribute links to the photos through various social media networks. In addition, a ‘saved searches’ feature is implemented for registered users that provides both a set of search bookmarks as well as an RSS feed for monitoring changes in a search.

• Permalinks – We already provide a ‘Recent Searches’ drop-down that not only tracks your current search but also the last several as URLs.

In response to your other comments:

• Use real windows, not silly popups – We chose to feature the photos in pop-up panels rather than new windows because it enables viewers to remain on the main search page while providing the option to view the photo in its own page via the printable version button. The original design for the site opened a new window for each photo, but this was confusing for many users, and we adopted the current design based on that feedback. This increases the speed of the site and prevents what could become a messy array of open tabs or windows.

• Don’t change my results – The scroll-wheel based zoom feature on the map is a standard function of consumer mapping systems, such Google Maps, MS Virtual Earth and many other mapping websites. We have adopted the same metaphor as these other common mapping sites use.

• User Preferences – I will certainly pass on your suggestion about saving the number of thumbnails per page as a cookie to the software development team.

I’m sorry that you feel that our photos are priced too high. The Records Department consulted many other non-profit and cultural institutions to ensure that the pricing was in line with the standards of other organizations, and based on that survey, they are actually substantially below that of other libraries and archives who charge for both prints and high resolution electronic versions, as well as a processing fee and sometimes a licensing fee. We also regularly provide discounted images to non-profit and educational organizations who request use of the photos. All proceeds from the sale of the images go directly to PhillyHistory.org to help underwrite the preservation and conservation of additional photos by scanning them. Without this revenue, the project would be unable to continue. As it stands, the budget cuts made last October by the City have already caused fewer staff hours to be spent on scanning and data entry.

PhillyHistory.org continues to be changed and updated. We try to add additional photos and blog entries every week as well as respond to error reports and scan requests submitted by PhillyHistory users. Unfortunately, we have an extremely small staff and limited resources which can prevent us from implementing other features such as the commenting, tagging, and geo-editing functions you suggested. While these are great ideas, such features would require a significant amount of staff time to monitor and manage, and we simply don’t have those capabilities. If you do believe that a photo is incorrectly geocoded or that the information contains an error, please let us know via the error report function. A link labeled “See an Error? Submit an Error Report” is located near the information for each photo, and we investigate each report that is submitted as quickly as we can.

Thank you again for your feedback and for spreading the word about PhillyHistory. We hope that PhillyHistory can help people connect with Philadelphia’s past, and we’re always looking for ways to improve the website and let more people know about it. We welcome any suggestions! I regularly check both this e-mail address and the info@phillyhistory.org address and would be happy to respond to any concerns that you or your members may have. Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you for supporting PhillyHistory.org.

My Best,
Deb

By the way, here's our class schedule for April 2009

This photo shows Studio 34's location in 1951. Our building came later, but the arches next door are still there.

PhillyHistory.org, the online repository for a small but growing proportion of the city’s archive of historical photos, is a wondrous thing. The archivists and interns at the city’s Department of Records have been working for the better part of a decade to scan and metatag a few hundred photos a week. These are added to a web site that allows the collection to be searched by keyword, date, location, or neighborhood. They even have a blog that notes photos and themes of particular interest.

But using the site is too often frustrating. Here’s some friendly requests of the good folks at PhillyHistory

(Update: Don’t miss PhillyHistory’s response!)

1. Remember my preferences. PhillyHistory allows you to choose how many photos are displayed as search results. The default is 12 photos per page; I always set it for the maximum 24 (and would prefer 200). But the site never remembers that. This is a simple fix via cookie or, for those who choose to register and log in, user preferences.
2. Don’t erase my results until I ask you to. When I use my mouse’s scroll wheel to look through search results, the cursor often drifts over the map, when promptly zooms in or out. Your site interprets that as a command to mount a new search. I’m sure this was meant as a feature, not a bug, but it’s annoying when one’s search results are whisked untimely into oblivion.
3. Use real windows, not silly popups. Did your search find an item you like? Click on it. Do you see the photo? No, you do not. You see a little popup window. If you want to, you know, see the photo, you must drag the popup’s scroll bar (or click “Printable Version”). This is ridiculous. Here’s an idea: why not just take me straight to the Printable Version?
4. Provide permalinks. Another thing about popups: they do not offer a permanent URL to bookmark, blogpost, or send to a friend. This is the Web; that’s what it’s for. (I know, there’s the vaguely worded “Share” button, but that only emails a nonpermanent URL.) Again, it’s Printable Version to the rescue!
5. Free your photos. PhillyHistory allows anyone to use its low-res photo files (which average about 600 pixels square); they ask in return merely proper attribution. They charge $10 for a 5×7 print, $20 for an 8×10 — not unreasonable for a city outfit that’s apparently running on a shoestring. But for a single high-res image, they want $100. One hundred dollars! How much money do you make from that, PhillyHistory? Is it enough to compensate for the tragic lost potential of these locked-up images yearning to be put to public use? C’mon, make them free, at least to non-commercial users. Reserve your rights by releasing the photos under a Creative Commons license, and go on charging commercial users $100 a pop. They’re the only ones who were paying a Benjamin per image anyway.
6. And finally, let your users help. Let us add comments and tags to the photos, as the Library of Congress does via Flickr. Let us correct your photos’ close-but-not-really location data, as Google does with addresses.

That last one is less a frustration than an invitation for PhillyHistory to better fulfill its mission of putting Philadelphia residents and fans in better touch with the history and heritage of their city. PhillyHistory, you’re doing a fine job — now let us help.

By the way, here's our class schedule for April 2009