Andrea Coffin (WiLS) and Rose Fortier (Marquette University) presentation at the Brown Deer Public Library to Milwaukee County librarians. March 24th, 2014.

1. Sharing Your Digital Collection
Rose Fortier, Coordinator of Digital Programs, Marquette University
rose.fortier@marquette.edu
Andrea Coffin, Community Liaison/Service Specialist, WiLS
acoffin@wils.org

2. South Wood County Historical
Museum
http://content.mpl.org/cdm/singleite
m/collection/swch/id/1229/rec/232
Why digitize?
• Connect to your
community
• Reach new audiences
• Improve access to
“invisible” materials
• Protect fragile or
heavily used materials
• Learn more about your
collections
• Contribute to our
collective knowledge

3. What do you
mean, digitize?
• Selecting materials
• Reformatting materials
(scanning or photographing)
• Adding metadata
(descriptive information)
• Making available online
• Storing and maintaining
digital files and data (digital
preservation)
Wisconsin Historical SocietyMilwaukee Public Library
http://content.mpl.org/u?/mcml,1319

4. Defining a digital collection
• A good digital collection…
– Is publicly accessible
– Is searchable - Includes keywords and other descriptive
information (metadata) so users can find what they’re
looking for
– Uses software that is sustainable (will be around for a long
time) and interoperable (can be migrated or shared)
– Remains true to the original materials
– Respects intellectual property rights

5. Selecting materials
• Decisions to make
– Digitize selections from a collection
• Good for collections with like materials
– Digitize an entire collection
• If it’s very large, how will the project be staged?
• Do you have the rights to put up the
collection?
– Physical ownership doesn’t translate to copyright

6. Digital reproduction
• Assess/choose the collection based on your
digitizing capabilities
• Can it be done in-house
– Where to outsource reproduction if not
– Great area for fund-raising
• Make sure your images are being reproduced
to current standards
– NISO’s A Framework of Guidance for Building
Good Digital Collections

7. Image editing
• How much image
editing should
you engage in?
– Two schools of
thought
Carroll University, Charles & Rufus King Digital
Collections
http://content-
dm.carrollu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/King/id/60
http://content-
dm.carrollu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/King/id/1707

8. Metadata
• Probably the most important step
– Describes the object and adds access points
– Allows users to find the item and to know what
they’re looking at
• Metadata adds context and allows it to stand
on its own
Milwaukee Public Library, Horace Seaman Wisconsin
Infantry Collection
http://content.mpl.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/horace

9. Keys to metadata
• Be consistent!!!
– Use controlled vocabularies
• Update and maintain the CVs
– Create a local style guide
• We modeled ours after the one provided by
Recollection Wisconsin
– Wisconsin Heritage Online Metadata Guidelines

10. Where do I start
• Most people start with image collections
– Advantages and disadvantages to starting with
images
• Get your feet wet
– Start with a small, well-described collection
• Bring in enthusiastic staff members
• Foster collaboration
– Both within and without your institution

11. Collaborations
• Many tools exist
– Google Drive for metadata entry
• Spreadsheet with Forms
• Social media
– Collections on social media
• MPL has a Flickr photostream
– Soliciting metadata through
library’s Facebook page
• A type of crowd-sourcing

12. recollectionwisconsin.org
provides free access to a
growing set of state and
local history resources
from the collections of
libraries, archives,
museums and historical
societies across Wisconsin.
South Wood County Historical Museum,
Wisconsin Rapids
http://content.mpl.org/u?/swch,64

13. Recollection Wisconsin
also provides guidelines,
training and support to
contributing partners and
offers opportunities for
visitors to share their
own stories, images and
comments.
UW-Madison Archives
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/SS
RecIDSearch?repl1=UW&repl2=UW.uwar
00831.bib

14. Program sponsors and partners
• WiLS
• Milwaukee Public Library
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Wisconsin Historical Society
• Nicholas Family Foundation
• Academic libraries, public libraries, archives,
museums, and historical societies around the
state
Wisconsin Historical Society
http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/maps/id/248

15. Founded as Wisconsin Heritage Online in 2004
– Original mission: “to inspire education and discovery by
making Wisconsin’s cultural heritage available to the public
via the World Wide Web”
New name, Recollection Wisconsin, and new
website launched in 2013
– Addition to mission: “and provide opportunities for
audiences to discover personal connections to the past.”
Three Lakes Historical Society
http://content.mpl.org/u?/tlhs,88

16. February 2014: recollectionwisconsin.org includes:
132,142 historical resources
from 208 digital collections
…and more content is added every month.
McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids
http://content.mpl.org/u?/mcml,1319

17. • Apply Recollection Wisconsin
standards and guidelines for digital
imaging, metadata, and digital
preservation
• Ensure that digitized resources are
freely available to the public for
personal, educational, informational,
recreational and research use
• Ensure that digitized resources are in
the public domain or cleared for public
access
• Accept responsibility for preservation
of digital master files
Contributing Partners are
expected to . . .
Mount Horeb Public Library
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/SSRecIDSearch?rep
l1=WI&repl2=WI.hitch0187.bib

18. – File naming
– Digital preservation
– Protecting your physical
collections
– Metadata
– Project promotion
– Video tutorials on photo
scanning and assigning titles to
historic photos
recollectionwisconsin.org/guidelines
– Project planning
– Selecting materials
– Copyright
– Creating digital images
Woodville Community Library
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/S
SRecIDSearch?repl1=WI&repl2=WI.ind
h0078.bib

19. Ways to participate
– Add up to 50 items to the
Recollection Wisconsin Shared
Collection in Omeka,
recollectionwi.org/contributi
on
– Build a collection hosted in
CONTENTdm by Milwaukee
Public Library
– Build a collection using an
OAI-compliant platform of
your choice
– More info:
recollectionwisconsin.org/org
anizations
Wisconsin Historical Society
http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm/
ref/collection/march/id/663

20. Recollection WI Shared Collection
• recollectionwi.org
• Hosted in Omeka by WiLS
• User-submitted content and small, first-time
collections from libraries and historical
societies
• Submit content using form at
recollectionwi.org/contribute

21. CONTENTdm
• Produced and distributed by OCLC
• Hosted by Milwaukee Public Library through
Recollection Wisconsin
• $200 one-time setup fee
• Annual hosting fees starting at $75 for 500 items
• Hosted by OCLC
• “Quick Start” version (up to 3,000 items) free for OCLC
FirstSearch Base Package subscribers
• Hosted on your own server

22. http://content.mpl.org/ashland

23. http://content.mpl.org/ashland

24. http://content.mpl.org/ashland

25. http://content.mpl.org/ashland

26. ResCarta Web
• Free and open source
• Host it yourself; or hosting available through
Northern Micrographics (fee-based)
• ResCarta Foundation – based in La Crosse
• OAI-compliant (metadata can be harvested by
Recollection Wisconsin)
• rescarta.org

27. http://www.ecpubliclibrary.info/research/general/history.html

28. http://www.ecpubliclibrary.info/research/general/history.html

29. http://www.ecpubliclibrary.info/research/general/history.html

30. Omeka
• Free and open source
• Host it yourself; or subscribe to hosted
version, omeka.net
• Developed by the Center for History and New
Media, George Mason University
• OAI-compliant (metadata can be harvested by
Recollection Wisconsin)

31. http://uwoshkosh.omeka.net

32. http://uwoshkosh.omeka.net

33. http://uwoshkosh.omeka.net

34. Digital Public Library of America
dp.la
Bringing Wisconsin collections
to a national stage

35. Digital Public Library of America
dp.la
“The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) brings together the riches
of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely
available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human
expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records
of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science.”
• Conversations are underway to establish a “content hub” for
DPLA in Wisconsin. Hubs are “the on-ramp to the DPLA” for
local organizations.
• Minnesota Digital Library reported a 50% increase in digital
collections use after joining the DPLA.
• DPLA Community Representatives in Wisconsin: Dorothea
Salo, UW-Madison SLIS and Mark Merrifield, Nicolet
Federated Library System

36. Other tools for
online sharing
• Historypin
• Flickr
• Tumblr
• Pinterest
• Picasa
• Facebook
Consider these as ways to
expand your reach, not your
primary digital archive.
Milwaukee Public Library
http://content.mpl.org/u?/HstoricPho,1302

37. Milwaukee County Historical Society
http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/42465

38. Milwaukee County Historical Society
http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/42465

39. Milwaukee County Historical Society
http://www.historypin.com/channels/view/42465

40. Lester Public Library, Two Rivers
flickr.com/photos/lesterpubliclibrary

41. wiscohisto.tumblr.com

42. For more information
– Find out how your
organization can start a
digital project at
recollectionwisconsin.org/
organizations
– Get in touch with
Recollection Wisconsin at
recollectionwisconsin.org/
contact or emily@wils.org
McMillan Memorial Library
http://content.mpl.org/cdm/singleitem/c
ollection/mcml/id/178/rec/33

43. Thank You!
Mineral Point Historical Society
http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/singl
eitem/collection/mphs/id/3/rec/29