CDL receives LSTA grant funding to expand access to more collections through Calisphere

CDL is pleased to announce that we have received funding to expand our metadata harvesting operations for Calisphere, enabling us to aggregate and provide even more comprehensive access to unique digital resources from across the state of California.

The initiative is supported by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (http://www.library.ca.gov/grants/lsta/), administered in California by the State Librarian. The funds will enable the CDL’s Digital Special Collections team to add a temporary (15-month) programmer/analyst position to work directly on tasks related to staging and conducting metadata harvests of  hundreds of additional collections from libraries, archives, and museums in California.

The collections range from at-risk audio-visual recordings contributed by UC Libraries and other organizations as part of the California Audio-Visual Preservation Project (CAVPP) — to early stereographs from the California State Library, and local history resources from institutions such as the Oakland Public Library and Sonoma County Library. Once harvested, the collections will be made available through Calisphere, adding to over half a million unique research resources that are now broadly available to UC users and the broader public. The metadata for these collections will also subsequently be made available through the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).

While these collections are currently available online through local websites, many are not readily or easily discoverable at statewide and national network levels. Aggregating these disperse digital resources will ensure they are findable, and will undoubtedly reveal new connections for researchers.