Hello! I’m Amanda Lee, the OWLSnet Manager with the Outagamie Waupaca Library System. OWLSnet is a library consortium consisting of 29 libraries (with 49 service locations) in the Outagamie Waupaca Library System and the Nicolet Federated Library System. One of my main goals as the OWLSnet Manager is to provide services for this consortium, including the coordination and hosting of members’ digitized local history content.
I’ve been working with Kristina Warner this summer on what was supposed to be a digital preservation plan for OWLS to act as a central repository. Her first project was to contact the libraries with Memory Projects (11 total) and create an inventory of their files. The initial inquiries and explanation of the project were met with great interest and, quite frankly, some confusion. It became clear that while our member libraries place high value in digital collections, they are facing many challenges as they try to preserve and provide access to the collections they’ve already created.
Almost immediately we realized we needed to change direction from creating a digital preservation plan for OWLS to creating educational resources for the member libraries. Kristina continued with the inventory, which she shared with each location. She also started on a workflow document and best practices/guidelines (the word “policy” was not appropriate and too intimidating for this case). We also created a dedicated website for digital collections where we could place this information that should be ready by the end of summer.
Kristina’s flexibility to change direction based on our communities’ needs, our mentor Amy Cooper Cary’s advice and experience, and the resources CCDC has provided have really given us a solid foundation to continue this work. I hope Kristina was able to get as much out of this practicum as she’s given us. Public libraries face many challenges to make digital collections available including time, resources, and training. CCDC has given us the opportunity to look at these issues and try to address some of them.
— Posted by Amanda Lee, OWLSnet Manager, Outagamie Waupaca Library System
Curating Community Digital Collections is supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, #RE-85-17-0127-17.
