Presented at the 2013 British Columbia Library Association annual conference in Richmond, BC May 10, by Michael Conroy, Community Digital Projects Analyst & Coordinator, BC Digitization Coalition, and Simon Neame, Director, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
Building Strong Community Connections Through Digital Collections
1. Building Strong Community
Connections through Digital
Collections
Mike Conroy, Community Digital Projects Analyst & Coordinator, BC
Digitization Coalition
Simon Neame, Director, Irving K Barber Learning Centre
Jillian Povarchook, Collections Associate, Museum of Vancouver
2. BC Digitization Coalition
• Multi-sector partnership
• Goal: to build an infrastructure that
supports the access and discovery of
digitized content from BC’s cultural
and memory institutions
• Steering Committee
• Technical Sub-committee
• Collaborative funding model,
additional support from IKBLC Photography by Jean-François Lanzarone
3. Archives Association of BC | BC Electronic Library Network|
BC Libraries Cooperative | BC Historical Federation | BC
Libraries Federations | BC Museums Association |BC Teacher
Librarians’ Association | Canadiana.org | Irving K. Barber
Learning Centre | Simon Fraser University | Vancouver Public
Library | University of Northern British Columbia | University
of Victoria | Union of BC Indian Chiefs | University of British
Columbia Library
4. BC Bibliography Project
• Goal: build a single searchable database of the bibliography of
BC, based on searchable digital versions of the books from
volumes 1-3 (1849 – 1950)
• Phase 1 pilot – 166 items
• Phase 2 – 4,000 items from UBC holdings
• 7293 items in all three volumes
• High res, high quality scans
• http://bcbib.library.ubc.ca/
• West Beyond the West: Books
• Potential to integrate other themed collections e.g.
newspapers, videos
5. West Beyond the West Hosting
West Beyond the West Search Portal
6. Problem #1
Searching through digital
collections takes a lot of time
• You mean I have to go to
each library’s digital
collections?!
7. Problem #2
Searchers don’t always think about
visiting your digital collection.
Guys, have you checked out my
website yet?
8. Problem #3 – Everything!
How many FTEs do you think we
have anyway?
9. “There’s an app
for that”
Projects:
West Beyond the West Hosting
West Beyond the West Search Portal
- Metadata Wrangling
12. WBTW Hosting Features
– Branded institution page [Coalition sponsored]
– Text, image, audio, video
– Full text search
– Exports to Canadiana & West Beyond the West Search
Portal [Coalition sponsored]
– Remote back-up protects against equipment
failure/disaster
– Ability to select metadata schema at the collection level
[Coalition Sponsored]
– Priced for small to medium sized institutions
http://collections.westbeyondthewest.ca
19. How it all works
West Beyond the West
• Search and browse across
BC digital Collections
• Relies on Canadiana
metadata
Digital Collection Hosting
Service with
enhancements to AtoM
• Hosts digital collections
for small institutions
• Institutional branding
• CMR Metadata Export
Metadata Wrangling Service
• Transformation of
metadata from smaller
institutions with existing
digital collections to CMR
Canadiana
• Central
metadata
repository for
WBTW
AtoM
2.0
AtoM
2.0
AtoM
2.0
community instances