Using Digital Collections for Reference and ResearchAFPL Staff Development Day 2013

Russell Palmer

What is a “digital collection?”

“…organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities”

What have you used before?

• Share any digital collections you have used for reference or research—either for yourself or for a library patron

Focus areas for public libraries

• History –National, Local, Regional• Maps • Music/Media• Art and objects • Learning objects

History

U.S.: • Digital Public Library of America

– dp.la• Library of Congress, American

Memory – http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.ht

ml

Regional

• Documenting the American South– http://docsouth.unc.edu/

• Georgia: – http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/MediaTypes

World

• Europeana – http://www.europeana.eu/

• Eurodocs – http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Main

_Page

Maps

• General:• Perry Castanada Collection (UT-

Austin) – http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/

• Boston Public Library Rosenthal Collection – http://maps.bpl.org/

Georgia

• Digital Library of Georgia– http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/MediaTypes/

Maps.html

• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps – http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/sanborn/?

Welcome

Music and Media

• Library of Congress, American Sheet Music– http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mussmht

ml/

• Archive.org, Live Music Archive – http://archive.org/details/etree

• Alan Lomax Collection – http://research.culturalequity.org/home-

audio.jsp

Intellectual media

• Supreme Court Media– www.oyez.org

• Historic Speeches• Vincent Voice Library, University of

Michigan– http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/

Art and objects

• Archives of American Art (SI) • http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/online• Getty Research Institute Digital Collections• https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/digita

l_collections/

• Art Institute of Chicago • http://www.artic.edu/research/archival-

collections

Learning objects

• Merlot– www.merlot.org

• Professional Learning, Learning Objects Repository, Georgia Department of Education– http://www.professionallearning.gadoe.org/Pages/LORPu

blic.aspx?ResourceType=Document

Looking for a particular topic?General guides to digital collections

• Columbia University – http://library.columbia.edu/subject-guides/

archives_manuscripts.html• Infomine (UC-Riverside)

– http://infomine.ucr.edu/• Internet Public Library

– http://www.ipl.org/• ArchiveGrid (OCLC)

– http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/

Find my slides online via SlideShare:

Thank You for Attending!

Questions?• Professional

Development• 1.800.999.855

8• Web:

lyrasis.org•e-mail: russell.palmer@lyrasis.org