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Resolution to authorize the Mayor and the Director of the Department of City Planning to enter into a ten-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Heinz History Center for the digitization and publication of select historic records.
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Be it resolved by the Council of the City of Pittsburgh as follows:
Section 1. To authorize the Mayor and the Director of the Department of City Planning to enter into a ten-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Heinz History Center for the digitization and publication of select historic records.
The Heinz History Center was awarded a Regional Asset District (RAD) Grant to improve public access to the records of five Heinz History Center partners, including the City of Pittsburgh, and has invited the Department of City Planning to participate in this undertaking. While funding sources may vary during the ten-year term, the City will incur no direct costs for work conducted under the proposed Memorandum of Understanding.
This project is designed to maximize the value of these civic assets by increasing transparency and engaging the community with searchable information on historic Pittsburgh community features and public records.
Section 2. A series listing of the first set of included records will be submitted with the Memorandum of Understanding. This series listing will consist of records-e.g., commission meeting records from the early twentieth century and photographs of Pittsburgh structures, parks, public spaces, and/or municipal projects-as selected by the Department of City Planning.
Section 3. Materials will be scanned into digital formats appropriate for both long-term digital municipal “copy of record” preservation and Internet publication. Heinz History Center will add metadata to the digital images and post them to the Historic Pittsburgh website maintained by the University of Pittsburgh.
Heinz History Center will retain original prints/negatives in temporary custody at their facility, where they will be carefully maintained and made available for citizen reference and access, with the understanding that ownership is retained by the City of Pittsburgh and may be retrieved at the City’s discretion.
The Memorandum of Understanding will include the initial series listing, as well as the conditions under which materials will be transported, digitized, stored, and made available to the public.