Share these talks and lectures with your colleagues
Invite colleaguesCase study
Building the Black History and Visual Culture collection at Penn State University Libraries
Journal of Digital Media Management,
12
(3),
259-270
(2024)
Abstract
The Penn State University Libraries recently published the Black History and Visual Culture digital collection — a curated selection of photographs, poster art, pamphlets and audiovisual materials documenting Black student life at Penn State, as well as Black political and social movements throughout the 20th century. The conception and development of the collection is highly collaborative, involving contributions from Special Collections Library curators, technical service specialists and the digital collections development team. Public programming in support of the collection and use of the collection in outreach and instruction are key parts of its ongoing stewardship. This paper analyses the initial development of the collection, the digitisation process and future plans for collection development.
Keywords: Black history; collection development; digital collections; digitisation; instruction; outreach; stewardship
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Bethann Rea is the Digital Collections Management Librarian at Penn State University Libraries. In this role, she coordinates the development of new digital collections, monitors remediation projects, designs workflows, implements new imaging equipment and organises digitisation projects. Ms Rea is Co-Chair of the Digitization Managers Interest Group for the Big Ten Academic Alliance, and represents Penn State University Libraries as part of the Google Books Library Partnership programme.
Patrice R. Green is the curator for African American and African Diasporic Collections at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. In 2022, she was selected as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow for Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Heritage based at the Rare Book School. Her interests include archival representation, knowledge justice and Black history and culture. Her work has allowed her to develop and steward collections that centre Black life, enhance teaching and learning experiences and cultivate Black memory.
Kevin Clair is the Digital Collections Librarian in the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State University. In this role he manages digitised and born-digital archival materials, coordinates selection of digital content among curators and promotes the use of digital collections for research and instruction. He has previously held digital collections curation positions at the University of Denver.
