Creative Libraries Utah Podcast on the Mountain West Digital Library

The Creative Libraries Utah Podcast visited the Mountain West Digital Library today! You can hear Sandra McIntyre, Rebekah Cummings, and Anna Neatrour chat with Dustin Fife about the Mountain West Digital Library. Listen in to hear about some of our current favorite MWDL collections.

Creative Libraries Utah Podcast #019-The Mountain West Digital Library

Big thank you to our DPLA Community Reps!

Last week MWDL put out a call for DPLA Community Reps and with a single email blast signed up seven new volunteers! It is a testament both to the amazing library community that we have here in the Mountain West and to DPLA that so many people are excited to promote the Digital Public Library of America in our region.

DPLA Community Volunteers  http://dp.la/info/get-involved/reps/

A big thanks to the following people for volunteering your time and energy to raising awareness for the Digital Public Library of America in your areas:

Jennifer Birnel, Montana Memory Project
Jessica Breiman, Special Collections, University of Utah
Xiaolian Deng, Senior Librarian, Salt Lake County Library System
Dustin Fife, Library Director at the San Juan County Library
Cory Lampert, UNLV Digital Collections
Sam Passey, Director, Uintah County Library
Robert Shupe, Director, Logan Public Library

I know you will all do a fantastic job spreading the word! 

For those of you who are still interested in becoming DPLA Community Reps, contact me at rebekah.cummings@utah.edu or sign up directly on the DPLA website.

Become a Digital Public Library of America Rep!

The Digital Public Library of America is looking for volunteers to help spread the word about DPLA in their local communities.  If you are enthusiastic about open access, digital collections, and the potential of a national digital library, get involved in outreach for the DPLA by volunteering as a DPLA Community Rep.

DPLA Community Reps will:

• Organize activities that promote the DPLA as a service, tool, or platform using DPLA materials;
• Share outputs (blog posts, group notes, Storify stories, images, video, etc.);
• Check in with DPLA staff about progress and share experiences via the DPLA Reps listserv;
• Be willing to participate in speaking or event opportunities; and
• Represent the DPLA formally as an acknowledged Rep on our website and informally through various networks.

Reps will receive a “box” containing DPLA slidedecks, event ideas, one-pagers, and swag to use in their efforts. The DPLA staff will also offer periodic webinars to share updates, new activities, and new resources. We anticipate that being a community rep will require only a small commitment of time. For more information visit http://dp.la/info/get-involved/reps/

Highlighting Collections from BYU

My first big project since coming aboard to the Mountain West Digital Library was working on the Arizona Memory Project. It was very gratifying seeing our list of partners from Arizona grow as we added these valuable collections.

I never have to worry about being busy with ingesting new collections for MWDL because I have quite a long to-do list! I'm now working on ingesting some new and existing collections from BYU, and it was fun for me to be able to take a look at all the collections they offer! Some of the ones that piqued my interest personally were the John Donne Sermons (as an English major back in the day I read many John Donne poems), German Topographic Maps, French Political Pamphlets, Letters of Philip II, King of Spain, Mormon Missionary Diaries, and the Eisenhower Communiques.

Consolidating Expertise in MWDL's Winter Webinar Series

Today, I started the process of recruiting speakers for MWDL's Winter Webinar Series. What is even more astounding than the level of cooperation between all these digital library managers is the level of cumulative talent and expertise spread among them.

Want to know about Digital Asset Management System options? Kinza Masood and her team at the U have been studying DAM options for months.

Want to know about geospatial metadata? Liz Woolcott and Kristen Jensen are already heading up a Geospatial Discovery Task Force.

Curious about cultural heritage initiatives? Richard Prouty and Jennifer Birnel from Arizona Memory Project and Montana Memory Project probably have some key insights.

The list truly goes on and on. Putting together this speaker series really emphasizes one of the often forgotten benefits of MWDL: the ability to consolidate and share expertise in a networked environment. My point, digital library friends, is never despair if you are less than knowledgeable about OAI streams, linked open data, and rights metadata because someone, somewhere in our MWDL network is an expert. And they are happy to share their expertise with you!

Have a digital library training topics you would like to see? Take our survey or add it to the comments section below!

DPLA Boosts MWDL Usage

Since the launch of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) in April, nearly twice as many people on average are visiting the Mountain West Digital Library every day.  We have seen a 114% increase in the number of visits over the same time period last year and have noticed an 88% increase in pageviews.  You can view more detailed usage information, including a quick report on MWDL's visitor increase since DPLA at mwdl.org/about/usage.php. Thanks again to DPLA and all of our partners for making this possible!