What is the New York Digital Collection Initiative?

The New York Digital Collection Initiative proposes a multi-phase state-funded effort to expand access to the state’s important documents and artifacts.  A collaboration of partners from over ten thousand cultural education institutions in New York,  it will energize education and research in New York State and enhance the state’s economic competitiveness in a global economy.

A Digital Collection will provide quick, easy and free digital access to rare and unique historical treasures and documents, to a vast internet library of authoritative research resources, to a huge collection of educational video titles and clips, and to related online teaching tools for teachers and parents.

It will ensure a procedure and practice for preserving the content, and supporting its proper migration as technology advances.
                                                                                                                          
What is a Digital Collection?

A digital collection consists of information stored in formats that can be accessed through the use of computers instead of having to access the documents or artifacts by viewing the original paper, object or film. It is possible to access the information remotely using a computer often eliminating the need to travel to an onsite collection. The additional benefits of such an approach include the ability to perform fast, comprehensive searches and enable widely distributed access to the materials.  Searchers can readily evaluate the appropriateness and strength of an institution’s collection for the topic at hand without the added burdens of travel.  It would also permit the identification of distributed collections that collectively provide new and related opportunities to create knowledge.

Who would use the Digital Collection?

The Digital Collection Initiative envisions a rich resource of information that will benefit both professionals and the general public. Librarians, archivists, museum curators, local historians, and public broadcasting staff will benefit from high-quality consultation services, training, standards, and best practices, and will acquire the collaborative tools they need to digitize and share local collections.  

Additional beneficiaries of such a collection would be teachers, students of all ages, and parents, college faculty, scholars, businesses, government officials, health care professionals, historians, genealogists, authors, community planners and all New Yorkers.

Why is the New York Digital Collection Initiative important?

There are many examples of successful digital collections throughout the state that have been thriving over the past few years. The Digital Collection Initiative will focus on creating standards and best practices for all these materials to enhance their effectiveness and reach to the public. Coordination of project information and presentation of that information through a single portal or directory page means improved free digital access to rare and unique historical treasures and documents. New Yorkers will benefit from 24/7 access to quality, state-of-the-art digital collections and resources in New York State’s cultural institutions. The Initiative includes the organization of procedures to assist the sustainability of the collections into the future.

What are the core concepts of the New York Digital Collection Initiative?

Core concepts include establishing a system for long-term preservation of digital collections assuring access to New York State’s history in digital form and to serve as the platform for State Library, State Archives, State Museum, and Public Broadcasting digitization projects and training. Also as a collaborative project it will serve to help cooperating institutions to create online content; prepare online finding aids; establish partnerships; incorporate Web cataloging or metadata into digitization projects; develop curricula related to digital collections; and showcase projects for replication.

What resources are needed to make the New York Digital Collection Initiative a reality?

The Digital Collection Initiative is planned to be rolled out in several phases to ensure its overall effectiveness. Phase one of the project will focus on planning and designing a thoroughly modern collaborative framework that would support multiple text, graphic and video formats to guarantee long term feasibility of the project. The first phase will also make sure that best practices and statewide standards will be set with the help of national experts and a statewide advisory group.

Future phases will include funding for grants to local and regional entities to add additional digital content, funding for statewide licenses for additional authoritative content, funding for the development of online teaching tools tied to the state learning standards and funding for web archiving.

Go to http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/adviscns/rac/dgtlinit.htm for more information.