State history magazine Alabama Heritage received the Digital History Award in the Large Project Category from the Alabama Historical Association at its annual meeting in Birmingham. The magazine has digitized a substantial portion of the articles it has published since its debut in 1986.
The AHA Digital History Award recognizes excellence in projects that contribute to promulgating state and local Alabama history by digital means. Projects are reviewed on their delivery of exceptional and hidden information about Alabama’s past using websites, blogs, social media and other forms of digital media. This is only the second year that the Digital History Award has been given.
In 2012, Alabama Heritage made a concerted effort to digitize its then-26 years of back issues, especially those no longer in print. Given changes in intellectual property and copyright laws since its launch, the Alabama Heritage team had to reacquire permissions for more than 5,000 images to be used digitally.
“We wanted to ensure our publication reaches the widest possible audience,” said Dr. Donna Cox Baker, editor-in-chief, “By digitizing our back issues, we are able to provide our features as individual pieces that people can read for enjoyment or use for research.”
Alabama Heritage was also recently awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2017 Eddie and Ozzie Awards, presented by FOLIO: magazine in New York City. The award was given for the excellence in design for the winter 2017 issue featuring the cover story of Alabama’s World War I nurses. The cover was designed by Robin McDonald, creative director for Alabama Heritage since 1991.