The Vieux Carré Virtual Library is a big project, funded by the Vieux Carré Commission Foundation, that consists of getting both the current and historic files of the Vieux Carré Commission (VCC) available to the public via a searchable website. The VCC is the second oldest historic district in the country dating back to the 1930s with innumerable images, maps, and property files. The first phase was completed and made available to the public in December 2018. This included a website hosting a new Historic Color-ratings GIS Map and approximately 44,000 images (digitized slides) searchable by address, date, square, building type, current style, zone, and notes as well as a 500+ term glossary. The second phase is also completed and consisted of digitizing
Currently, all images are tagged with a selection of terms from the glossary. Eventually every image will be meta-tagged with every applicable term so that each image is searchable . Ultimately, each of the property files will be run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software so each document is searchable.
I created a public-private partnership between New Orleans City Hall (department: VCC, IT, and Legal) and the Vieux Carré Commission Foundation to ensure that technological functionality is at its peak and personal privacy is both respected and maintained.
Check out the Vieux Carré Virtual Library HERE.