For those of you who have been following the Now and Then blog, you may be aware that we’re working on developing an online resource for social history documents and for teachers. This resource database tentatively called “Herb” after the esteemed Herbert G.Gutman.

Just a wireframe preview....

Currently were are in production. We’ve entered in over 800 social history documents, teaching activities, photographs and so on, and currently we are working on putting together a working wireframe site while our design team is working on the appearance. I’ve posted a sneak peak of the type of content we’re working on.

The backend uses Omeka, an open source curation and document management application created by the Center for History and New Media. We’re making some key additions to their core functionality such as focus questions and the ability to dynamically filter your search results using AJAX.  We’re attempting to incorporate as much of the feedback we received from teachers and historians before we demo a beta version for a test group later this fall.

Stay tuned to the ASHP site and the Now and Then blog to keep up with our progress on this exciting new project!