Before launching the larger Global Cultural memory project, issues such as content, description, standards across collection types, web delivery and navigation, searching, vocabulary use, and visual, transferable templates need to be explored.

To this end, a proof of concept database focusing on the past fifty years of cultural history in Champaign County, Illinois has been developed.

Collaborating institutions include the Champaign County Historical Archives at The Urbana Free Library, the D'Arcy Advertising Collection of the University of Illinois Communications Library, the Illinois Heritage Association, and the University of Illinois Archives. We feel that the Champaign County Cultural Memory project meets the goal of bringing together kindred materials from a diverse group of cultural heritage collections.