The Mountain West Digital Library (MWDL) is a collaborative digital library that was formed in 2001. It aims to help more organizations digitize materials about the region's history and maintain a public portal called mwdl.org to provide access to these digital collections. The MWDL uses a three-tiered infrastructure model with partner institutions that own collections, hosting partners that manage digital assets, and the MWDL that aggregates metadata. It has over 164 partner institutions across 6 western states and provides services like training, hosting, and standards development to promote collaboration and access to digital collections in the region.

1. Overview of the
Mountain West Digital Library
The Power of Partnership

2. Overview
• The MWDL Collaborative
• Value of Partnership
• Working with an MWDL Hub
• Sharing Regionally: MWDL
• Interoperability
• Sharing Nationally: Digital Public Library of
America
• Open Invitation to Participate

3. Mountain West
Digital Library
• Formed in 2001 as a
program of the Utah
Academic
Library Consortium

4. Mountain West
Digital Library
Goals:
 Help more organizations to digitize
materials about our region’s history and
cultural heritage
 Maintain a public portal to pull together
the digital collections in the Mountain
West region at mwdl.org

5. MWDL
Discovery portal
Digital library community
Digital Public Library of America
on-ramp

6. http://mwdl.org

7. Types of resources
Photographs, maps, artworks,
scholarly documents, music, sounds,
books, birth and death records,
finding aids, and more!

8. Digital Library
Community
• History in Your Attic
• Public Library Partnerships Project
• Digitization Mini-Contracts
• MWDL Webinar Series
• Task Forces
• In-person training

9. Public Library
Partnerships Project
Training for Public Librarians
Public Librarians workshop, May 2014

10. Partners
164 institutions
• Academic libraries
• Academic departments
• Archives
• Historical societies
• Museums
• National heritage institutions
• Natural history associations
• Public libraries
• Publishers
• Academic presses
• State Libraries
• Other state agencies

11. Partners
In six states:
• Utah
• Nevada
• Arizona
• Idaho
• Montana
• Hawaii

12. MWDL Staff
• Sandra McIntyre
Director
• Rebekah Cummings
Assistant Director/
Outreach Librarian
• Anna Neatrour
Digital Metadata Librarian
• Our newest addition!
Evan Young
Web Development
Assistant

13. DPLA Onramp

14. DPLA Onramp

15. Governance and
Consultation
• UALC Council of Directors
• UALC Digitization Committee
• Advisory Committee (in formation)

16. Funding and Support
• UALC funding
• DPLA sub-grants 2013-2015
• In-kind support from Marriott Library

17. Digitization and hosting
WORKING WITH
AN MWDL HUB

18. Tiered Infrastructure
Three tiered model
• Collections Partners Tier (“Partners”) –
Own and manage collections
• Hosting Tier (“Hubs”) -
Host the digital materials
• Central Aggregating
Server Tier (MWDL) –
Harvest metadata from hubs

19. Digital Library
Community

20. Tiered Services
• Distributed network
• Flexible and scalable
• Consolidates equipment and expertise
• Reinforces standards
• Facilitates collaboration

21. Digital Assets
Management Systems
NW Digital
Archives: Utah
EAD Files BYU Finding
Aids
Repository

22. Hub Services
• Digitization
• Metadata Assignment/ Assistance
• Online hosting in digital assets
management system
• Metadata shared for MWDL harvest
• Long-term preservation (some hubs)

23. MWDL Services
• Harvesting metadata/
aggregation
• Training for new partners
• Central search portal
• Sharing access with DPLA
• Collaboration on standards
and best practices
• Platform for collaboration

24. Infrastructure:
Ex Libris Primo
• An integrated discovery system
• Powerful harvesting of digital collections
• Powerful searching and faceting
• “Did you mean...?” suggestions
• Online delivery via pointing to link

25. International Protocols
• Open Archives Initiative (OAI)
for transmitting metadata over the Web
http://openarchives.org
– Based on XML
– Commonly used for harvesting

26. Working together to make it happen
INTEROPERABILITY

27. Standards and Policies

28. Partnership Agreement
http://mwdl.org/docs/MWDL_Partnership
_Agreement_ver12_2008-03-14.pdf

29. Standard Prices

30. Metadata Standard
• Qualified Dublin Core
• 8 required fields; 2
other mandatory-if-applicable
fields
• Preservation fields
recommended

31. Imaging Standard
• Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR)
document:
Digital Imaging Best Practices
“The planisphere of Copernicus, or Copernicus' hypothesis
of the entire universe, in a planar view” University of Utah

32. Setting Up a
Repository
http://mwdl.org/getinvolved/repository_setup.php

33. Submitting a
Collection

34. Jumping on board
OPEN
INVITATION
An invitation to an inspection and wetting-down party.
Brigham Young University – Hawaii Campus.

35. Invitation to repository
managers
1. Open up your metadata for harvest
2. Link to MWDL and DPLA on your web
pages
3. Collaborate on
standards and
controlled vocabularies
4. Be curious about new opportunities for
cooperation and sharing

36. Invitation to collection
managers
• Contact:
Rebekah Cummings
MWDL Assistant Director
(801) 587-8893
rebekah.cummings@utah.edu
• Not quite ready? We can help you get there!
– New partner interview
– Hub services
– Training and support

37. Get Involved
with MWDL
• Resources for members and perspective
members:
http://mwdl.org/getinvolved/getinvolved.php
• Like us on Facebook + follow on Twitter
(@MWDigLib)
• Check out our blog:
http://mwdlnews.blogspot.com/

38. Fall Webinar Series
http://mwdl.org/events/webinars/webinarschedule.php

39. MWDL
Partnership Summit
• Open to any eligible group
that has agreed to MWDL
Partnership Agreement
• Discuss future directions for
MWDL
• Network with colleagues!

40. Questions?
• Sandra McIntyre
Director
(801) 585-0969
sandra.mcintyre@utah.edu