Creating Digital Cultural Heritage Collections in an Urban Academic Library Setting

Abstract

As libraries develop digital cultural heritage collections the relationship with the organizations that own the collection are vital to the success of the process. This is ground that libraries have typically not operated. Organizations external to libraries that own collections have many needs beyond the simple digitization process. IUPUI University Library is an urban academic library that has worked on developing relationships with external organizations for almost ten years. During this time there have been many hurdles and lessons learned. This paper highlights some of the trends in relationship building with community organizations and offers two unique case studies that demonstrate the challenges libraries are likely to face. Other academic, research, and public libraries can benefit from developing relationships similar to those described and enhance the creation of cultural heritage collections.