From Concept to Reality: An overview of the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

Melissa Mclimans

What we do:• Create digital resources to support instruction and research• Build quality digital resources from:

– rare, fragile, non-circulating, and high-use library and archival materials– materials not previously digitized nor available on the Internet– books, journals, archival collections, slides, photos, art illustrations, maps,

audio, and video• Develop tools that facilitate search, retrieval, and navigation of our

digital resources• Provide stable, scalable, and sustainable technology platforms for long-term

management of digital resources

The UWDCC is:– 6 full time and 10-15 student staff– Librarians, technology specialists, and other information

professionals– located in Memorial Library on

Madison campus

Two administrative bodies oversee and fund our projects:– UW System – UW-Madison Libraries

A little history...First text project was John Nolen’s Madison : a

model city First multi-media project was AfricaFocus

3000 slides, 500 photographs, and 50 hours of sounds from forty-five different countries

We have:–32000 audio minutes–Well over 5000 finding aids–92000 images–2.1 million pages of text

UW Digital Collections• strengths include: area studies, decorative arts, ecology, literature,

history, music, natural resources, science, social sciences, the State of Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin.

• Over 400 completed projects • Recently approved projects

Institutional repository (Minds@UW)• Store, index, distribute, and preserve digital materials • Deposited directly by UW faculty or staff• Research papers, pre-prints, datasets, photographs, videos, learning

objects, theses, student projects, conference papers• Content distributed through a searchable Web interface, receive

persistent URLs• For more information: http://uwdcc.library.wisc.edu/minds/

Where does the content come from?• UW Madison -- Libraries and Faculty– Playing House– Ainu Komonjo Volumes

• UW System Libraries– The Ku Klux Klan in Northwestern Wisconsin, circa 1915-

1950– UW-La Crosse Historic Steamboat Photograph collection

• Public Libraries, Museums and Historical Societies– World War II Veterans of Mount Horeb– Kenosha County History: Images and Texts, 1830s-

1940s

Projects that meet these criteria are most likely to be approved:• support instruction or research needs• do not circulate, e.g. rare books, materials from Special Collections• enhance an existing digital collection• are unique, e.g. not previously digitized nor available online in any format• high use, regularly requested by UW faculty or students• are distinctive and have potential for academic use and general education

interest (K-12)

The Process for submitting a proposal1. Proposals are submitted with our simple web form found at:

http://uwdcc.library.wisc.edu/forms/submitProposal.shtml 2. Our team will assesses project and meets with content providers to discuss project

details. 3. We will present the proposal to a committee, who will accept or decline the

proposal. 4. Once approved, we will work together to create a Memorandum of Understanding

that fully describes the project. 5. Work begins.

• A quick note about our project types– Efacs = Electronic Facsimile = Pageturner = TEXT• We do the metadata and scanning

– Mmbib = Multi Media, Bibliographic = IMAGES• Content provider is the subject specialist• Content provider does the metdata• We do the scanning

Value of digitization 1.Access • Google • catalog records, including Forward• and finding aids

2. Preservation• Back-up TIFF images, store offsite, committed to

migrating in the future

Value = Increased UseFacebook • Over 580 total fans • More Than 20,000 page views per month • Approx. 1,000 impressions per post Twitter • Over 1,040 followers • More than 1,000 clicks per month

Collection SessionsOverall collection sessions--18,508,649State of WI--1,904,409Ecology and Natural Resources – 1,512,121UW Collection--709,846

• Questions?