Wow-What a Website!
March 9th, 2004
Warwickshire is perhaps best known as the birthplace of William Shakespeare - but a new website sets out to show that the county is, and always has been, much more than that.
Created as part of the Enrich UK programme, a National Opportunities Fund project, Windows on Warwickshire is an interactive website offering unprecedented online access to more than 10,000 images depicting the people, places and past of Warwickshire.
WOW is the result of a partnership between local museums, archives, libraries, art galleries and other collection-holders, such as Warwick Castle, Compton Verney and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The site brings all these historic collections together for the first time, giving one-stop, online access to resources which represent the very best of Warwickshire's heritage, culture and personalities.
The wide-ranging material includes old photographs, maps, rare documents, art, letters, fossils, literature, everyday memorabilia and much more. Powerful search tools make exploring the website easy - and a series of 'spotlight' features focus on key aspects of the collections, giving users an added opportunity to learn more about Warwickshire's unique past.
WOW went 'live' in January 2004 at: windowsonwarwickshire·org·uk. Positive feedback has already been received from users across the world.
WOW has an extra, regional dimension - thanks to lottery funding and Enrich UK. It is one of a series of digitisation projects within the Midlands. Seven of these have been brought together as Digital Midlands and made accessible via a single web portal: www·digitalmidlands·org·uk They are:
Digital Handsworth
Secret Shropshire
Exploring the Potteries
Staffordshire Past Track
Literary Heritage West Midlands
Windows on Warwickshire
Revolutionary Players
Windows on Warwickshire project manager Jon Kirby, of Warwickshire County Council's Libraries, Heritage & Trading Standards department, said: "We are proud of our website - which definitely has the WOW factor. We are delighted to be able to open this window on the past and grateful for the funding and support which has made it possible. WOW makes all this fascinating material easy to access and available to everyone - a real contribution to Lifelong Learning that users of all ages can enjoy."
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