New self-guided curriculum for digitization

As part of the Public Library Partnerships Project over the last year and a half, Mountain West Digital Library staff and partners helped design, prepare, and present training modules about digital skills training. MWDL was one of four Service Hubs in the Digital Public Library of America to participate in this national project. 

First we presented the trainings at three workshops for public librarians, two in Utah and one in Montana, as part of the MWDL network's assistance to public libraries in digitizing and sharing their collections online. Then, along with staff from the other Service Hubs, we recorded the best-of-the-best of the training modules for online distribution nationally. 

Many thanks go to Anna Neatrour, who as MWDL Metadata Librarian created a wonderful metadata section and contributed to much of the rest of the curriculum as well. We are also grateful to Jennifer Birnel, the project director of the Montana Memory Project, who helped make the workshop in Montana a great success and participated in the recording round. Thanks also go to Rebekah Cummings, who helped create and present many sections of the curriculum during her service as MWDL Assistant Director/Outreach Librarian. Key contributions to the digital reformatting module came from Matt Brunsvik from University of Utah Marriott Library and Catherine McIntyre and Brent Seavers from Utah Valley University. Together we are very proud to have been part of this important project and to now be able to share these training resources!

For more information about the new curriculum materials, or about the Public Library Partnerships Project, see the announcement from DPLA at http://dp.la/info/2015/10/07/new-self-guided-curriculum-for-digitization/.  Please use, re-use, and distribute these materials freely!

Recently Added Public Library Partnerships Project collections from Montana Memory Project

Working with Digital Public Library of America and Mountain West Digital Library service hubs to develop a curriculum and support for new collections from public libraries was a large focus of MWDL work for the past several months. It is great to celebrate the work that went in to creating these wonderful new collections, now available in the MWDL!

Here are new collections from the Montana Memory Project cohort of the Public Library Partnerships Project.

From the Hobson Community Library, Early Agriculture and Homesteading in Judith Basin County (MT)

As you would expect from the name of the collection, there are some great photos of agricultural work and homesteading families in this collection. Here is my favorite photo from the collection, because the description on the back of it is so wonderful:

Child Riding On Calf

 The description for the photo is,  "Jamie rides every calf we have regardless of how many times they throw him."

The Roundup School-Community Library partnered with the Musselshell Valley Historical Museum to curate a collection of historic photos that cover the range of activities for people living in the Musselshell Valley area. Browse photos of mining, ranching, and farming, as well as photos of local schools and events in the Musselshell Valley Historical Museum Photographs collection.

Oxen drawn Wagon in Parade on Main Street

The third collection from Montana that we have to highlight is from the Judith Basin County Free Library. This collection focuses on sheep ranching in the Judith Basin area.

Lambs Grazing in the Little Belt Mountains

January Harvesting Update

We've been adding a bunch of new collections in January and have a few more on track to be added this week! Here's what we've added recently:


From Salt Lake Community College:

Salt Lake Community College Culinary Arts Program Archives - There are over 800 menus in this impressive archive!

From the Montana Memory Project:

Books, Pamphlets and Ephemera from the University of Montana 
Bud Moore Photographs and Sound Recordings - experience the Montana landscape
Char-Koosta News - Local newspaper from the Flathead Indian Reservation
Chipppewa Cree Tribe Water Rights Settlement Record
Diaries, Letters and Ledgers from the University of Montana
Charles M. Russell Research Materials from the James B. Rankin Collection
Justice Under the Big Sky
Bozeman and Gallatin Valley (MT) Photographs 
Northern Montana College (Montana State University Northern) Yearbooks 
Missoula County High School - The Bitterroot Yearbooks 
John J. Powers Safety Poster Collection - Great examples of graphic design in this collection!

From the Arizona Memory Project:

Town of Carefree, Arizona - Check out the photos of their landmark sundial!

From the American Fork City Public Library, working with Utah Valley University, we have our first PLPP collection:

American Fork City (UT) Royalty

As always, if you are curious about what we've been working on, you can check out our ingestion status page. Feel free to submit any new collections you have to add to MWDL too!

MWDL Ingestion Update

Things have been busy here on the metadata side of MWDL! We recently hit a nice milestone and are now harvesting 701 collections!

MWDL got a big numbers bump when we added over 14,000 items in the Montana State Publications collection. We are also actively working on adding government publications from Idaho through the Idaho Commission for Libraries.

From the Arizona Memory Project, our recently added collections include historic photographs from the Petrified Forest (tip: look for Albert Einstein)  and photographs documenting the Merci Train of 1949.


We've recently added 11 new collections from the University of Idaho Library. They have wonderfully eclectic collections. I greatly enjoy the fact that in one batch I was able to ingest items as varied as a sweater from the Dizzy Gillespie collection:

Sweater, from the University of Idaho Library Dizzy Gillespie Collection

Reports from the Intermountain Forest Tree Nutrition Cooperative.

The Kooskia Internment Camp Scrapbook, which complements many other existing collections in the MWDL that document Japanese-American Internment during World War II. 

Men Walking Outside Building, Kooskia (Idaho) from the Kooskia Internment Camp Scrapbook collection

And the Taylor Ranch Log Books, which capture daily life at the Taylor Wilderness Research Station.

I'm working on testing additional repositories as well, so look forward to even more collections in the coming months! As always if you want a snapshot of what is happening with the ingestion process, you can take a look at the Ingestion Status page. If you have a new collection to add, you can let me know through the New Collection Form.

Welcome aboard, Montana!

The Mountain West Digital Library is growing like crazy, and we are so happy to announce the addition of a brand new state. Montana has become the sixth state to be represented in MWDL along with Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, and Hawaii.



Montana Historical Society Research Center Image

Thanks to the diligent efforts of our Metadata Librarian, Anna Neatrour, we have ingested 40 collections from over 15 different partners via the Montana Memory Project.

Another huge thank you to Jennifer Birnel at the Montana Memory Project for opening up MMP's wonderful collections to MWDL! Our staff is thrilled to make these historic collections more visible on a regional and national level.


15 new partners harvested via the Montana Memory Project

I've only just started looking at the collections and have already discovered these wonderful items:



Archival photograph from the University of Montana

 Ninth Annual Smoker, Montana Club. 1905

Her majesty Montana has a "come-hither" look. 1937 tourist advertisement



Come explore MMP's wonderful new collections in the Mountain West Digital Library and learn more about the history of "Big Sky Country".

The addition of Montana to the Mountain West Digital Library also means that our collections now cover a major swath of the Western United States from Canada to Mexico. Our updated partners map shows MWDL's geographic coverage with the addition of the Montana Memory Project's collections.

 

MWDL Partner Map 

Welcome aboard, Montana!