Dear Digital Library Colleagues,
You are invited to participate in a survey with the goal of discovering how digital library practitioners at various types of cultural heritage institutions and academic organizations promote their unique resources beyond simply placing content in an online repository for users to discover. Types of outreach may include integration of digital collections into teaching and instruction activities, partnerships with external campus units or community organizations, and social media promotion.
This study is being conducted by five librarians at the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, and University of Northern Colorado who have engaged in digital library and digital scholarship projects with a variety of audiences both regionally and nationally.
This survey should take 10-15 minutes to complete.
Below are some definitions of key concepts that may be helpful to have on hand while taking the survey.
Digital Libraries: Collections of items accessed in one online interface. This typically includes digital collections, institutional repositories, and aggregation projects. Often Digital Collections and Institutional Repositories are contained within a Digital Library.
Outreach: Engaging with potential users on the contents and value of a resource and developing partnerships through digital hosting services.
Instruction: Educating front-end users and back-end practitioners on how to use a resource, and/or integrating digital libraries into educational initiatives. For example, classroom instruction, staff training, and workshops.
Digital Scholarship: Use of digital tools and methods to research, design, and create digitally published outputs.
Digital Collections: A collection of digital resources with metadata collected and managed by an organization and made accessible via an online interface. Resources are typically digitized cultural heritage, primary-source material that would otherwise be inaccessible without physically visiting the local organization, or unique born-digital resource.
Thank you for your time,
Rebekah Cummings, Interim Head of Digital Matters, University of Utah
Jane Monson, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Northern Colorado University
Jeremy Myntti, Associate University Librarian for Metadata & IT, Brigham Young University
Anna Neatrour, Interim Head of Digital Library Services, University of Utah
Rachel Wittmann, DIgital Curation Librarian, University of Utah
The University of Utah's Institutional Review Board (IRB) has approved this study. Contact the IRB if you have questions regarding your rights as a research participant. Also, contact the IRB if you have questions, complaints or concerns which you do not feel you can discuss with the investigator. The University of Utah IRB may be reached by phone at (801) 581-3655 or by e-mail at irb@hsc.utah.edu.
