Web Consultant

A Web Presence has quickly become a necessary investment in a company's overall marketing strategy. The fact is that the Internet has expanded so rapidly that not having a web site would be throwing away a MOST IMPORTANT marketing tool.

Having a website at www.yourname.com and an e-mail address is as important as a business needing a telephone line. However, each business must create a different type of webpage depending on what the business is trying to accomplish.

The majority of visitors to kosharehistory.com originate from the United States. However, visitors from thrity-nine countries have also logged on to the site in the last three months. The following is the top twelve countries with the highest number of unique visitors according to Traffic Facts:

For seventy-five years the Koshares have created magical moments in history and their history has been well documented in news articles, magazine articles, films, photographs, letters, booklets and books.

Fifteen years ago these documents were stored in a damp storage room in the basement. Included in this storage area were letters from President Dwight Eisenhower, President Ronald Regan, Bert Geer Phillips, Woody Crumbo, Senator J. Edgar Chenoweth and many others. Photos with famous Potter Maria Martinez, Astronaut Scott Carpenter, Actor Lorne Greene, Boxer Jack Dempsey, Governor C. A. Robbins, Governor Adam Trujillo, and Director Arthur Cohen were just a few of thousands unknown to many. In addition to Koshare photos, many pictures within that room could be dated back as far as 1894.

In 1998, these historical documents became a valuable source for much research on the Koshare organization, but for many documents it was to late. Not only has age damaged many documents, but also due to poor preservation techniques several documents did not survive. Now the archives itself is in a race against time as memories of the earliest days fade away with each passing year. The documents have to be both identified and preserved, while at the same time handled as minimally as possible.

Preservation and identification are key to the archives of the Koshare Indian Dancers. However, archives preservation runs at a high price which the museum cannot currently fund. In addition, with the Koshare alumni spread throughout every state in the nation and various parts of the world identification of the photos would take many years, if we were to wait for each member to come back and visit.

While preservation is key to the archives, it is also necessary that these documents are easily accessible. Many foundations and funders, alumni and relatives of alumni have asked for information buried in the archives. Also, shocked visitors continue to have their doubts about the amazing Koshare story - not many can believe a bunch of kids could accomplish such a feat. When a skeptic is shown the proof of the Koshare story, they often become the greatest promoters of the organization, making it all more important for accessibility.

Displaying original documents would compromise the preservation efforts and making hundreds of copies of several thousand documents would be costly.

Imagine that your family for the last one-hundred years took over ten thousand photos and only identified the people in six-hundred of them. The photos themselves have no date and are not sorted by date, they are just a collection of photos stashed away in boxes, albums and drawers. The ten thousand photos collectively contain over four thousand different individuals in them and you must identify every last person and date the photo itself. In addition, you never met the great majority of the individuals in the photos.

It seems like a tough job, but in the collection of photos are little clues. Newspaper articles, magazine articles and letters are the pieces that might help in the identification process. Can you imagine researching to the finest detail of one hundred years of history, ten thousand photos and four thousand people? Where would you begin?

You have to start some where. The archives project began in 1998 when only fifty photos were to be identified and it took one entire summer. Now, the goal is to organize the entire Koshare history. It is a massive project, but in the end it will be worth it.

It only seems obvious that the Internet can provide the best platform for such a project. Digital preservation of historical documents and photos is a must for any archives. In addition, a digital format makes the archives accessible to many people without concerns of high cost or damage.

The website makes it easy to connect related documents to each other, building a more organized system as you go. The site has its own search engine, making it easy to search for specific documents. And it is very easy to add new files to the site without affecting any other files. Therefore, www.kosharehistory.com is the best possible solution for the archives.

While preserving this portion of the history the website is also attracting hundreds of people each day - marketing the Koshares to the rest of the world.

In 2002, the Koshare Archives moved into its own room for storage. Because the archives is becoming better known to people, the importance of it grows. Also, plans are being drawn up to add additional space to the Archives Room with the next building expansion.