Community digitization through regional partnerships

Abstract

Lack of funding, equipment, and expertise tops the list of reasons standing in the way of many smaller cultural heritage organizations digitizing their archival collections. Expanding on existing relationships with regional public libraries and museums, a pilot project was developed to address these reasons, partnering a university library's experience and expertise with a small institution's need to digitize their unique "hidden" collections. This article presents a case study of a university library's grant-funded pilot project to explore the feasibility of creating sustainable regional digitization services and hosted digital collections for public libraries and cultural heritage institutions. It also considers how community partnership projects are especially susceptible to the effects of external events, such as a pandemic.