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Community Development Model for Digital Community Archives

Community Development Model for Digital Community Archives is a model for community engagement that fosters robust partnerships among academic libraries and regional organizations, which will result in greater digital access to currently isolated collections and networks. Small regional institutions and organizations possess rich cultural heritage collections but often lack robust digital infrastructures. This project addresses these library and community needs through collaborative digital repatriation and collection development. The team will develop and pilot a participatory library development model. The work will expand digital access to previously isolated or rural collections while ensuring that the collections continue to reside with their owners.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services LG-15-19-0137-19.

The views, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Goals

The primary deliverables for this project are:

  • A project plan for a Southwestern Virginia community archive
  • A replicable model for developing regional non-custodial digital archives

This model will identify the sociotechnical resources libraries need to leverage in order to support smaller institutions in community archiving efforts, and to aggregate content with them.

Project Teams

Community Partners

Community Outreach Team

Implementation Planning Team

  • Nathan Hall, Director of Digital Imaging and Preservation, Virginia Tech University Libraries (Project Director)
  • Alex Kinnaman, Digital Preservation Coordinator, Virginia Tech University Libraries
  • Luke Menzies, Digital Preservation Technologist, Virginia Tech University Libraries
  • Wen Nie Ng, Digital Collections Librarian, Virginia Tech University Libraries
  • Steve Tatum, Digital Collections Curator, Virginia Tech University Libraries
  • James Tuttle, Associate Director for Digital Libraries, Virginia Tech University Libraries

Advisory Board