This report summarizes the results of a needs assessment and gap analysis of digitization activities by public libraries and state library agencies in the US.
For the assessment OCLC partnered with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), and two divisions of the American Library Association—the Public Library Association (PLA) and the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS).
The project was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through a National Leadership Grant. With the support of this grant, national surveys of public libraries and state library agencies were conducted to gauge the extent to which US public libraries are positioned to support the growth of the national digital platform (NDP), primarily through the digitization of their unique collections.
The report outlines key findings from the surveys and provides observations and recommendations for future exploration in the area of supporting digitization efforts in public libraries.
Report Highlights
Ninety-two percent of public libraries have locally significant, unique physical collections
More than 37.6% of libraries have engaged in digitization activities in the last three years
In addition to the common barriers of time and ongoing funding, 61.4% of libraries identified insufficient staff training/expertise as a major barrier to their digitization efforts
All state library agencies reported that digitizing and providing online access to local and unique digitized material aligns with their mission either explicitly (12.8%), or broadly (87.2%)
Public libraries identified training in imaging best practices (55.6%), copyright risk assessment (47.5%) and metadata best practices (47.0%) as the most potentially helpful to their efforts
Source: Advancing the National Digital Platform: The State of Digitization in US Public and State Libraries (OCLC Research; 2017)
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
This report summarizes the results of a needs assessment and gap analysis of digitization activities by public libraries and state library agencies in the US.
