Copyright © Building a CommonWealth Collaborating on Pennsylvania’s Digital Library Tom Clareson, PALINET December 5, 2008 Copyright © PALINET 3000 Market Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19104

2 Program Components Digital Creation Digital Collection Development Metadata Standards Discovery of Digital Collections Digital Preservation Through the work of leading institutions and cultural heritage professionals in Pennsylvania

3 Digital Collection Development Scope: To develop a collective, communal approach to digitization of and access to historically important resources housed in collecting institutions across Pennsylvania Audiences: For digitization—Libraries, museums, historical societies, schools, other cultural heritage and educational organizations, and the funders that support them Audiences: For use—Everyone!

4 Digital Collection Development: Context and Charge Context: Association of Research Libraries Task Force on Hidden Collections Funded by Office of Commonwealth Libraries in through Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) monies The charge: –To identify audiences, topics, and material types for digitization –To provide practical guidance on best practices and next steps

5 Digital Collection Development Working Group Executive directors/staff of three library consortia: PALINET, PACSCL, PALCI Chair of PALCI cooperative collection development task force (Bob Kieft) Director of the State Library (Caryn Carr) Consultant Katherine Skinner, Digital Projects Librarian, Emory University PACCD, Pennsylvania Advisory Committee on Collaborative Digitization

6 Project Advisory Panel In a series of meetings, provided guidance on the needs of a range of potential audiences College and university faculty K-12 educators from Pennsylvania Department of Education and school districts Representative of the Office of Cultural and Heritage Tourism

7 Project Advisory Panel College and university librarians Staff from historical societies The State Archivist and the regional administrator of the National Archives Plus interviews with public librarians, special collection librarians, Pennsylvania historians

8 Audiences for digitization Middle and high school students and teachers/National History Day participants Local and family historians College students Scholars and researchers Heritage tourists and tourism professionals Funders

9 Priorities for digitization Topics are suggestive, not prescriptive The environment and land use Population groups from 1850 to the present Transportation and industry Pennsylvania’s role in major 19 th - and 20 th - century conflicts--and the communities of conscience that have reacted to war, injustice, and intolerance

10 General topics for digitization The economy Politics and government Society: race, gender, native populations, religion and social justice, slavery and the Underground Railroad Technology, science, and medicine Culture

11 Materials for digitization Among the range of material types, give special consideration to the following: Historical sound and moving images, especially where preservation is an issue Materials not currently being digitized by major programs, such as vital records and land records

12 Going forward Guidelines website, Brochure in development Conduct regular review of subject guidelines Conduct statewide survey of digital projects Join other consortial projects Begin statewide conversations on digitization and on key issues such preserving sound and moving images; Build capacity and infrastructure

13 Best practices for digitization Getting started – PACCD metadata guidelines available at AccessPA website ( Copyright; accessible design; training, equipment, and funding Standardized metadata and access Pennsylvania Digital Library metadata repository (

14 PADL metadata repository Pennsylvania Digital Library, metadata repository and search interface for Pennsylvania digital collections Co-developed by University of Pittsburgh and PALCI Any collection using Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) can be included

15 PADL All collections in Access PA Digital Repository adhere to this protocol and are harvested by the PADL Collections from libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, cultural heritage agencies, et al., may be included

16 Mass Digitization Collaborative: Background PALINET is establishing a collaborative digitization service to assist members with their digitization needs and support access to the rich cultural heritage materials of PALINET member institutions Funded by the PALINET membership and supported in part through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

17 Overview 1st component of the collaborative digital collection strategy: –Mass digitization of text –Approx. 60,000 books/20,000,000 pages into digital format Books, serials Microfilmed books, serials and newspapers

18 Mass Digitization Collaborative Partners –PALINET members content service fee –PALINET staff coordination and collaborative model –Sloan Foundation grant funding –Internet Archives (IA) digitization and preservation

19 Pilot Participants Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Goucher College Independence Seaport Museum Lancaster County Historical Society Lycoming College Paterson Public Library Penn State St. Mary’s College of Maryland University of Maryland University of Pittsburgh University of Scranton Villanova University West Virginia University

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23 Benefits of MDC Participation Centralized coordination Collaborative collection development Visibility Sustainability Model for collaborative regional mass digitization

24 Questions? For further information: –John Barnett, –Laura Blanchard, –Laurie Gemmill, –Tom Clareson, Presentation developed in conjunction with John Barnett, Assistant Director, Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI), and Laura Blanchard, executive director, Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL)