This document discusses various strategies for increasing awareness and use of digital collections, including: 1) Creating print materials like bookmarks and press releases to promote collections. 2) Scheduling in-person events such as presentations and open houses. 3) Contacting media sources like newspapers, magazines, and blogs. 4) Sharing metadata through tools like OCLC WorldCat to increase global discovery. 5) Leveraging the web through a library's website, search engine registration, and social media platforms.

1. CONTENTdm®
digital collections:
Increasing awareness and use
Suzanne Butte
OCLC Digital Services Consultant
AzLA
November 2010

2. • Your special collections—online!
• Special collections
• Archival and library materials
distinguished from other materials by
their physical form, content, depth or
subject coverage
• Historic, rare, valuable, hard to access,
fragile
• Now you want everyone to know they
are available online
CONTENTdm digital collections:
Increasing awareness and use

3. • Increasing awareness of your digital collections to
• Your library users (students, faculty and staff)
• Your community (campus, geographic, library and subject)
• And beyond!
• Regional to global
Digital collections

4. Top 6 ways to increase awareness
1. Create print materials
2. Schedule in-person events
3. Contact the media
4. Share your metadata
5. Leverage the Web
6. Wield those Web 2.0 tools

5. • Print materials may be considered old-fashioned,
but they are effective
• Write a description, include images
• Develop brochures, flyers, bookmarks, table tents and/or posters
• Consider student and local newspapers
• Work with press or marketing departments
• Send full article to a range of publications,
especially subject specific
Increasing awareness and use:
1. Create print materials

6. Increasing awareness and use:
• Create print materials
Hudson River Valley Heritage
• Bookmarks
• Customizable press release
http://www.hrvh.org/

7. Increasing awareness and use:
• Create print materials
Montana Memory Project
• Bookmarks

8. Increasing awareness and use:
2. Schedule in-person events
• Participate in faculty informational meetings
• Present at conferences and special events
• Speak at community events and meetings
• Interviews (public radio, newspapers, etc.)
• Host a special event, such as an open house
• [Remember to provide related brochures, flyers, etc.!]

9. Increasing awareness and use:
• Schedule in-person events

10. Increasing awareness and use:
3. Contact the Media
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• eNewsletters
• External blogs

11. Western
Soundscape
Archive,
University of Utah
Marriott Libraries
http://westernsoundscap

12. Increasing awareness and use:
• American Library Association

13. Increasing awareness and use:
• American Library Association
• American Libraries Direct, an eNewsletter that
features a Digital Library of the Week
• Do you know of a digital library collection that they
can mention in this AL Direct feature?
aldirect@ala.org
• Browse previous Digital Libraries of the Week at
www.ilovelibraries.ala.org/diglibweekly/

14. Increasing awareness and use:
4. Increase discovery of your digital collections
with WorldCat
The WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway
• Offers self-service tools to upload the metadata of your unique
digital collections to WorldCat
• Enables you to set your OCLC holdings symbol for each record
uploaded to WorldCat, which helps to optimize search results
• End users can click through to your local digital content
• Freely available for use with any OAI-compliant repository,
including CONTENTdm

15. WorldCat.org

16. WorldCat for global discovery
Thumbnail
View the item

17. Providing access to your digital items
http://digitum.washingtonhistory.org/index.php

18. Benefits of the WorldCat Gateway
• Harvesting schedule. You control
your harvesting schedule—monthly,
quarterly, semi-annually or annually
• Customization of metadata. You
customize the appearance of your
metadata in the WorldCat.org display
• Local identity of your records. Your
metadata records maintain their
local identity
• OCLC holdings symbol. Set your
symbol for each record uploaded to
WorldCat, to help optimize search
results in WorldCat Local

19. Increasing discovery through WorldCat.org

20. Growing usage, growing features
Since July 2009 …
• More than 300 institutions registered
• More than 1,000,000 metadata records added to WorldCat

21. Collection visibility
Photographs, theses, museum objects, audio clips,
oral histories, historical documents & manuscripts,
yearbooks, newspapers
Milestone record program
• Recognizes contributions via the Gateway on
significant milestones
• Awardees receive professional development grant

22. Milestone record – 450,000th record
www.worldcat.org/oclc/631384920
University of
Michigan

23. Milestone record – 1,000,000th record
www.worldcat.org/oclc/654988417
Virginia Tech Digital Library and Archives

24. Penny Baker, Clark Art Institute
“The Gateway is an important tool for The Clark to broaden
the visibility of its collections, from there we have created
WorldCat lists and have also tied in online interactive
communities such as Facebook and other Web 2.0 tools.”
Penny Baker, Collections Management Librarian
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
http://www.worldcat.org/profiles/tompinch/lists/772561

25. Register with search engines
• Yahoo! – Getting started promoting your site
• http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/webhosting/prom
ote/promote-07.html
• Google – How to register with Google
• www.google.com/addurl/
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
Increasing awareness and use:
5. Leverage the Web

26. Utilize your library’s Web site
• Add to the OPAC (collection and/or item level)
• Link from your Library’s Home Page
• Showcase your collections online
• Feature “What’s New” or “Image of the Month” to increase appeal
• Online “slideshows” – images change every X seconds
Increasing awareness and use:
• Leverage the Web

27. Increasing awareness and use:
• Link from your Library’s Home Page
http://digital.lib.uh.edu/

28. Increasing awareness and use:
• Showcase your digital collections
http://www.wnylegacy.org/

29. • Listservs (announcements on professional listservs)
• Blogs
Increasing awareness and use:
• Listservs, blogs, RSS Feeds

30. • Go to where your users are…
• Wikipedia
• Flickr
• Facebook
• YouTube
• SlideShare
Increasing awareness and use:
6. Web 2.0 tools

31. • Wikipedia
• “Using Wikipedia to Extend Digital Collections,”
Ann Lally and Carolyn Dunford, University of Washington
Libraries (www.dlib.org/dlib/may07/lally/05lally.html)
• Brigham Young University
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_C._Jessee
Increasing awareness and use:
• Wikipedia

32. Brigham Young University,
Digital Collections

33. Increasing awareness and use:
• Web 2.0 tools
• “CONTENTdm, Wikipedia and Flickr: What Happens When They
Play Together?” Anne Graham, University of Washington Libraries
(www.oclc.org/western/info/contentdmug/presentations/Graham_CONTEN
Tdm_Wikipedia_and_Flickr.pdf)
• Results of using Wikipedia

34. Increasing awareness and use:
• Flickr
Flickr
• Miami University
• www.flickr.com/photos/muohio_digital_collections/
• Exported images from CONTENTdm using XML
and into Flickr via the API
• Linked back to their CONTENTdm digital collections

37. Increasing awareness and use:
• Facebook
Facebook
• Binghamton University Libraries' Special Collections
• “We hope to reach a whole new audience with our page.
The page will include hours, contact information, announcements
of exhibits and events, photos, and more.”
• Denver Public Library Western History and Genealogy Dept.

38. Increasing awareness and use:
• Facebook

39. Increasing awareness and use:
• YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46nRrUa7nk8

40. • Help users share your collections by adding buttons for
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Delicious
Increasing awareness and use:
• Encourage sharing
http://digital.library.louisville.edu/collections/music/

41. • Create a place for visitors to share stories and photos
Increasing awareness and use:
• Encourage sharing
http://creatingcommunities-denverlibrary.org/mydenver

42. CONTENTdm Collection of Collections
• www.oclc.org/contentdm/
• www.oclc.org/contentdm/collections/
Increasing awareness and use:
• With OCLC

43. For those that use CONTENTdm
• CONTENTdm Featured Collections
• www.oclc.org/contentdm/
• www.oclc.org/contentdm/collections/
• Project Client’s Home Tab
• Posting on CONTENTdm USC blog
• Twitter
Increasing awareness and use:
• With OCLC

44. Summary
• There are many strategies to help promote digital
collections and increase awareness and use:
• Your library’s Web site
• Print/PR materials
• OCLC and WorldCat
• Sharing metadata
• Leveraging the Internet
• Web 2.0 tools
• In-person engagements/events

45. Questions?
• OCLC contact
Suzanne Butte
Phone: 800-848-5878, ext. 5130
E-mail: buttes@oclc.org