Technology Training for Digital Projects

Starting in June, 2005, The Southeastern New York Library Resources Council will sponsor a program to teach staff from libraries and cultural heritage institutions the issues and processes involved in digitizing materials for inclusion in a regional catalog of digital collections -- Hudson Valley Heritage (HVH; http://www.hudsonvalley heritage.org/). This training project will instruct the staff at regional institutions on how to perform requisite tasks such as scanning, creating metadata, and managing digital projects.

Who Will Benefit
The intended purpose of this project is to provide library and cultural heritage staff with the expertise to create and maintain digital collections in HVH. The audience for the digital collections created through the project is researchers, educators, students and the general public who will have immediate online access to historical documents and unique materials from archives and repositories throughout the Hudson Valley.

Training for Digital Projects in HVH
SENYLRC received a two-year LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) grant to provide this training for assisting institutions embarking on digital projects as part of HVH.

The training will run for two years, starting in April, 2005 through March, 2007. The training workshops plus hands-on assistance at the institution’s site will position their staff to contribute digital objects [A digital object contains both the scanned image and the metadata for a physical item.] online through HVH by the end of the grant funding.

Libraries/cultural heritage institutions who register for the training program must attend the entire series, either one person or a team of people. As part of this training series, participants will be required to digitize materials at various points in the project by contributing a minimum number of digital objects to HVH. SENYLRC staff will monitor their progress and make three site visits for hands-on training at the participating institutions. The final part of the project is on promoting the collections and monitoring usage of the resources in HVH by users.

Workshop Topics

Developing a Digital Project - includes an outline of the steps necessary to contribute collections in HVH, unique aspects of HVH including the CONTENTdm digital management software, regional standards, “best practices” and criteria for the inclusion of materials.

Digital Project Management – outlines the steps for managing a digital project from beginning to end.

Copyright and Ownership for Digital Projects - introduces the essential issues surrounding copyright and ownership of materials for inclusion in a digital project.

Scanning for Digital Projects - participants will have the opportunity to practice scanning and storing digital images.

Dublin Core/Metadata - this workshop will explain how to create metadata and more specifically, Dublin Core.

Managing Digital Projects with CONTENTdm - participants will learn how to use the CONTENTdm digital management software to contribute to HVH.

Preservation of Digital Materials - participants will learn the key issues for maintaining material in a digital format.

Promotion and Use -participants will work with a promotional expert and create a plan for promoting and enhancing the use of their collections by the education and research communities.

The actual cost to the participants are expected to be minimal; the cost for beverages and lunch, if the program is for a full day. The greater commitment is the staff time to attend the workshops and to create the digital images.

SENYLRC will invite and/or recruit up to 30 people to participate in the training program from area libraries and cultural heritage institutions that are seriously interested in contributing collections to HVH. Interested? Please give Tessa Killian a call (845 883 9065) or email her <Contact Tessa>.

By Tessa Killian, Member Services Librarian

Southeastern News Online is published bi-monthly by SENYLRC staff.