SALEM, Ore., and OLYMPIA, Wash. — A new partnership in Oregon and Washington is helping local cultural institutions make their digital archives more visible and accessible nationwide.
Northwest Digital Heritage (NWDH), a Washington State Library, State Library of Oregon, and Oregon Heritage Commission collaboration, is now a Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) “service hub.” This gives local galleries, libraries, museums, research institutions, historical societies, and others in both states the opportunity to upload their digitized collections onto DPLA’s extensive library of online archives.
DPLA is a large-scale public digital library of copyrighted, public-domain, and openly licensed digital content featuring cultural heritage items from around the United States. Visitors can search and browse among millions of items at https://dp.la/browse-by-partner.
Oregon and Washington content can be viewed here: https://dp.la/search?partner=%22Northwest%20Digital%20Heritage%22
Primary Source Sets , which include lesson plans created by educators for educators, are also available.
As a DPLA “service hub,” NWDH provides cultural institutions the following services
- Metadata “Harvesting.” Records are copied from their home systems, standardized, and then transferred to DPLA.
- Digital Collection Hosting offers smaller institutions an online platform to host their digitized items including historical documents, photographs, oral-history recordings, and more.
- Training and Support. Service hub staff, composed of teams at both state libraries and the Oregon Heritage Commission, train cultural heritage organizations to digitize collections, edit, and preserve digital files, and catalog material to archival standards.
“Cultural heritage organizations have been digitizing archival and special collections for more than two decades, but many of these collections are dispersed across the internet in multiple locations,” said Washington State Librarian Sara Jones. “The Northwest Digital Heritage initiative combines state and local resources to give historians, researchers, teachers, journalists, and the general public across the country easier and more convenient access to our historical treasures.”
Northwest Digital Heritage’s inaugural dataset includes archives from over 70 contributing institutions, with more expected to join later this year and in 2022. Many of these materials were digitized through Washington State Library’s Washington Rural Heritage program, a community digitization model that will be expanded to Oregon through this partnership.
Northwest Digital Heritage Partners
- Asotin County Library
- Asotin County Museum
- Asotin County Public Utility District
- Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community
- Battle Days Museum
- Blue Sky Gallery
- Canyon Birders
- City of Clarkston, Wash.
- City of Colfax, Wash.
- City of Ellensburg, Wash.
- City of Portland Archives
- City of Sumas, Wash.
- Colfax Fire Department
- Colfax High School
- Denny Ashby Library
- Densho
- Eastern California Museum
- Eastern Washington Agricultural Museum
- Elijah Hasan
- Ellensburg Public Library
- Friends of Minidoka
- Garfield County Museum
- Guy Albion Historical Society & Museum
- Holy Family Parish (Clarkston, Wash.)
- Hooper Store, The McGregor Company
- Hoover Institution
- Inyo County Free Library
- Japanese American National Museum
- Kaiser Permanente, Heritage Resources
- Library of Congress
- Manzanar National Historic Site
- McCoy Valley Museum, Oakesdale Historical Society
- Multnomah County Archives
- Multnomah County Library
- Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI)
- National Archives and Records Administration
- Nooksack Valley Nostalgia
- Oregon Heritage Commission
- Oregon Historical Society Research Library
- Oregon State University, Oregon Multicultural Archives
- Palouse Empire Fair
- Pend Oreille County Library District
- Pine City Historical Society
- Portland State University
- Rosalia Visitors Resource and Interpretive Center
- Roy Chatters Newspaper and Printing Museum
- Seattle Buddhist Temple Archives
- Seattle Japanese Language School
- Seattle Nisei Veterans Committee
- The Seattle Public Library
- Spokane Public Library
- Staley Museum
- State Library of Oregon
- Sumas Historical Society Museum
- Sumas Senior Center, Sumas, Wash.
- Sumas, Wash., City Hall
- Tekoa Museum
- Town of Farmington
- United States. Natural Resources Conservation Service. Washington
- UW Nikkei Alumni Association (UWNAA)
- Vineland Cemetery (Clarkston, Wash.)
- Washington State Library
- Whatcom County Library System
- Whitman County Library
- Whitman Hospital and Medical Center
- Wing Luke Asian Museum
- Yakima Valley Libraries
- Yakima Valley Museum
Northwest Digital Heritage is funded by Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The Oregon and Washington state libraries administer this funding to enhance library services throughout the region, including providing grant opportunities for libraries. Additional funding is provided through the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, Oregon Heritage Commission, and Oregon Cultural Trust.
To find out more about the Northwest Digital Heritage project, visit northwestdigitalheritage.org/
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