Digital Services Training Scheduled

The Northern New York Library Network, through a grant provided by the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) program, has added a Digital Services Training component to its educational program. We hope this will assist libraries and other repositories in understanding and participating in creating and providing digital access to unique collections. The curriculum will teach staff to use contemporary technology to create digital collections, provide electronic access to materials, and add electronic content to web sites. Staff of the members of the public and school library systems in the region are also eligible to participate.

The program will begin in January with a Digitization Seminar offered in three locations. The purpose of the seminars is to provide participants with contemporary information on the basics of digitization and how digitization can be applied to individual libraries’ situations.

In the morning, participants will discuss the questions institutions must ask themselves in order to determine if their digitization project is viable and sustainable. When pursuing a digitization project, areas that must be considered include, but are not limited to, connection to the institution’s mission statement, significance of the materials, adherence to standards, image access, and ownership issues.

In the afternoon, participants will "walk through" a mock digitization project in order to see all of the steps involved. Participants will also spend time assessing their readiness to digitize and plan their own next steps.

At the end of the session, attendees will have an understanding of the broad areas that will need to be addressed before undertaking a digitization project and the questions funding agencies will want answered; and will have an overview of the entire digitization process from deciding to embark on such an endeavor to having users access the images.

Schedule: All workshops will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Monday, January 13 - Potsdam, NNYLN office
Tuesday, January 14 - Plattsburgh, Holiday Inn
Tuesday, January 21 - Oswego, SUNY Oswego Library

Flyers for the workshops will be mailed in December.