Update! Your Digital Collections and the Digital Public Library of America

The Colorado State Library is excited to announce that Colorado and Wyoming are now a new Service Hub of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).  The Plains to Peaks Collective (PPC), our new name, is one way to share your unique digital collections with a wider audience. The DPLA website is a portal that allows visitors to discover and then go directly to the digital collections in your home institution.

Courtesy History Colorado

The PPC will:

  • Create and share hub standards and supporting documents
  • Aggregate your chosen digital collections for inclusion in the DPLA
  • Grow your online collections by establishing partnerships with other similar agencies and collections.
  • Create resources for shared education and training

Your Participation

We hope that every institution in Colorado and Wyoming has the opportunity to participate in the DPLA through the PPC.  The PPC has designed four levels of participation.  

Content Hubs

Content Hubs are institutions that have unique digital collections online and share that content with the PPC and the DPLA. They also support the participation of other institutions that may not have the ability to do so on their own.  

They will:

  • Support the PPC participation of other institutions in one or more of the following ways:
    • Collection hosting and storage
    • Digitization services
    • Education and training
    • Metadata remediation
  • Act as the primary liaison between the PPC and their contributors

Community Support Hubs

Community Support Hubs are organizations or associations that represent and support institutions that are part of their membership or community.  It is anticipated that these partners are not direct content providers but provide support services to their communities in the form of communication, facilitation and education.

For the organizations they support they will:

  • Act as the primary liaison between the PPC and each organization
  • Provide PPC communication and outreach
  • Provide educational support and training

Content Nodes

Content Nodes are institutions that have unique digital collections online and will only share their own content with the PPC.  

Contributors

Contributors are institutions that may not have the ability to participate in the PPC on their own.  They can share content with the PPC through a partnership with a Content Hub.  

Basic Requirements

The DPLA and the PPC have many suggestions and recommendations to help make your digital collections more discoverable.  However, the basic requirements for sharing your items are:

  • A content management system with openly accessible content (not behind a paywall)
  • URL back to the object on your online database
  • Title of your object
  • Thumbnail image
  • Rights Statement

PPC Timeline

The PPC is working with seven pilot institutions to gather the initial collections to be shared with the DPLA.  During phase one, we will test our technology and establish workflows and processes. In phase two, we will work with other institutions that have digital ready collections. During this time the PPC will also be planning for phase three which will entail working with institutions that need support to participate in the PPC and the DPLA.

We want to hear from you!

To learn more about the PPC or if you would like to participate, please contact Leigh Jeremias at ljeremias@coloradovirtuallibrary.org or 720-483-4261.  We are currently gathering information about all institutions that would like to participate in the future so please reach out.