Authors & Contributors - Toledo's Attic continues to invite citizen scholarship focusing on local history. These contributions can be in the form of:
- Historical essays or sketches with bibliography, footnotes, and illustrations used with permission of the author(s)
- Oral histories (with permissions from interviewers and interviewees)
- Student projects (essays, galleries), but parental permission will be required for context featuring underage individuals.
- Digitized photos (with captions, dates, locations)
All questions (including problems with the site) can be addressed to the Content Administrator:
Arjun Sabharwal
Professor/Digital Initiatives Librarian
Carlson Library Mail Stop #509
University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio 43606-3390
419.530.4497 (Canaday Center)
email:
Toledo's Attic has been a public history project from the outset with a Talkback feature (a comment box) in place on the original site in 1997. Today, it is social media that allows interaction between the public and the content administrator and curator, and you can visit the Toledo's Attic Page on Facebook with comments, questions, and requests. You can also email to
Ways to help:
- correct information on existing captions. Although every effort has been made to provide complete and verifiable information, errors are possible
- fill in the gaps by providing information on photographs with missing captions
- alert us if a linked website is no longer available or has moved
- alert us if the link is incorrect
- suggest new exhibit topics or collections
- Suggestions for including links to digitized primary sources will be truly appreciated
As with any Web content, visitors of Toledo's Attic may have questions about the content, structure, and navigation on this site. This FAQ page will address a variety of issues and questions visitors may have, and many will appear here to help visitors get most of out this site.
Question 1: The site does not display correctly in my browser
Answer: The site was developed using Mozilla Firefox but was also checked in Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Microsoft Edge. Our suggestion is to switch to such browsers as Firefox, Chrome, or Opera while visiting Toledo's Attic. You may still notice variations in the ways the site's contents appear and function.
Question 2: I am using a mobile device to access the site. Some pages simply do not open.
Answer: The site has been updated to Joomla 4.2.6, which is responsive to appear well on various mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops) and desktops. Many new features are specifically included for mobile users, but the original contents (such as interactive panoramas and flash content) had been created as early as 1997 and early 2000s. These will display on desktop and laptop computers, and as historical digital artifacts will remain in Toledo's Attic. Even so, it may be necessary to download and install QuickTime and Adobe Flash in your browsers to view these historical formats. We advise all mobile visitors not to handle mobile devices while driving.
Question 3: I have discovered material that is incorrect. How do I get to change that?
Answer: Please send an email with some description of the inaccuracy, and provide complete documentation (citation) such as a reference source or other source literature.
Question 4: How do I contribute to the material on Toledo's Attic?
Answer:Toledo's Attic continually accepts well-written historical essays with correct references (footnotes and a complete bibliography) following the Chicago Manual of Style. Donors may also submit photographs or other media, granted that they are either the sole creators or have obtained permission to publish that material. Authors retain their intellectual ownership even though the digital publication of essays and media will mean global access to these contents. A deed of gift form will acknowledge the receipt of all materials donated to Toledo's Attic.
Question 5: Is Toledo's Attic present in social media?
Answer: Yes. Please view the various social media channels where Toledo's Attic is present - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Question 6: Some videos are no longer playing in my browser
Answer: This is because browsers are changing, and some video formats no longer work in popular browsers. The horizontal panoramas used in the Historical marker series can still be viewed in the Safari browser.
Information for authors and contributors
Toledo's Attic welcomes contributions of written, recorded, and photographed material to the collection. The essays are original works by authors identified in the listings and in the essays. Please note the Creative Commons License on the bottom of the page. Toledo's Attic and all contents herein are to be used for educational and scholarly purposes, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Submission guidelines:
- Essays should be submitted in Word Document (.doc, .docx) format, must be original works of the author submitting them, evidence of research such as a bibliography with citations or footnotes, and a short author biography.
- Images throughout the essay should have captions included. The images must either be original, exist in the public domain, or obtained with permissions from the copyright owner.
- Images in the following formats are accepted: TIFF, GIF, PNG, JPEG, and JPEG2000 with a resolution of 300 ppi for photographs, and 600 ppi for maps
- Submitted images should also have description, which includes the following:
- Identification of people, place, and event in the photograph (any notes on the back or edge of the photo)
- Location and date information (when and where was the picture taken? see the back of the photo)
- Who took the picture (if that information is available)
- Any other pertinent information about the photo itself (what type of film or technology was used to create the photograph)
- Any information on the social, cultural, political, etc. context (are there any notes on the back or edges of the photo?
- References and Citations in the essay should follow the MLA or Chicago styles.
- Audio copies of oral history interviews and other recordings must also abide by copyright law. Please omit segments that violate someone's personal privacy or engage in libel or slander.
- All digital content in Toledo's Attic is governed and protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 as well as the copyright law under Title 17, U.S. Code, where section 107 of which is also called the "Fair Use" doctrine.
- Authors should consider a Creative Commons License for each work published on the Web; this grants authors the necessary copyright protection of their works while allowing institutions and individuals open access to scholarly information and valuable historical knowledge. With a Creative Commons License, authors can decide on the condition of use (commercial, non-commercial, etc.) Authors submitting essays will be asked to decide on the license, and we will also assist if necessary.
- Oral history (audio) files can be saved as MP3 or WAV and sent via Dropbox or other services. Need assistance with an oral history project? We will gladly assist, just contact us!
Collecting Scope
Toledo's Attic invites donations of historical material such as historical essays, scanned photographs and original documents, and recordings to develop valuable collections. The collecting scope of Toledo's Attic is the late 19th- through the late 20th centuries in the history of Toledo and Northwest Ohio area. Toledo's Attic focuses on the commercial, industrial, and social history of this area; therefore, we ask potential contributors and donors to contact us before sending materials. Donors with questions about digitizing documents, photographs, and recordings are encouraged to contact us with their questions and receive help from qualified and experienced staff.
Deed of Gift (PDF Form)
As an alternative to the Creative Commons License, author may decide to donate essays and photographs to Toledo's Attic. We will ask donors to complete and submit the Deed of Gift form with some details about the donated material at the time of submitting them. This formality is necessary so that Toledo's Attic can continue to provide access to information in support of learning, teaching and scholarly research activities. Please open the Deed of gift form (you will need Acrobat Reader to open files in PDF format), print, complete, and submit the completed form to Toledo's Attic if using mail or fax. If you prefer submitting this form electronically (that is, as an email attachment), please scan your completed and signed form, and send it along in an email addressed to