Help Us Build a National Preservation News Network on Paper.li
Like many others actively involved in the preservation field today, we were struck by the number of sources providing great historic preservation content on a regular basis. Regularly following all of these sources was difficult if not impossible. For that reason we utilized the Paper.li platform to publish a paper on preservation in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The purpose of this effort is to raise the profile of the preservation movement and generate a greater shared sense of purpose among the 15 million Local Preservationists in the U.S.
Paper.li is a relatively new and emerging technology that helps to agglomerate “headlines” from Twitter feeds, RSS feeds, and other sources to “publish” a daily or weekly online newspaper. The technology and interface are relatively straightforward and easy to use. After selecting a maximum of 25 sources, these then help to inform what appears in the “newspaper” each day.
For each paper we sought to achieve a balance between sources of national interest with those of statewide and local interest. A handful of the same national sources were utilized for each state paper. These include feeds from leading national organizations such as the National Park Service (@NatlParkService), Preservation Action (@PreservationAct), and the National Trust for Historic Preservation (@PresNation). Within the National Trust we tried to capture the work being done by several of their most active components including @NatlMainStreet, @SavePlacesPres, and @PresGreenLab. Other sources providing regular content of national interest were also added including @PresnewsLink, @PreservationTV, @RestoreMedia, @histpres, and @placepromo. Taken together these sources promise reliable and high-quality content of national interest.
Added to this are up to 13 state, regional, and local sources for each state featured. To give an example of the types of sources used, see the following list for the top 5 most followed statewide papers:
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The Paper.li platform and the Preservation Daily series of papers are as of yet in their infancy. We look forward to working with national, statewide, and other partners on fine-tuning these papers as an effective communication tool.
Here are a few things you may do to help promote the Paper.li for your state:
- Find your statewide paper from the list below. Go to that page and press the “Subscribe” button beneath the headline on the right side of each page.
- For each paper you follow press the “Share” button also beneath the headline on the right side. You may choose to “Like” on Facebook, “Tweet” on Twitter, and/or “Share” on LinkedIn. Doing so will help to encourage other people in your network to also follow the same statewide paper.
- Embed the paper on your blog or website with the “Nomad Widget” or embed just the headlines with the “Headlines Widget.” Both may be accessed by pressing the “Share” button and the respective tabs.
- Each paper has a “Discussion Corner” section where you can post your own comments.
- Have an organization, person, or project you want others to hear about? Tell us about it on Twitter @placepromo or Facebook.
Note that a maximum of 10 papers may be created per paper.li login. Users may login with an existing Twitter of Facebook account. For that reason we created multiple Twitter accounts that roughly correspond with different regions in the U.S. (Midwest, South, West, Northeast, etc.).