The Digital Library of Georgia, based at the UGA Libraries, is receiving $100,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Digital Public Library of America to provide digital skills training for public librarians to aid in exhibiting cultural heritage content.
This training is designed to reach public librarians in libraries with special collections who want to share their content with a broader audience but may not have the resources to do so.
UGA’s library is a regional “service hub” for the Digital Public Library of America. The funding will further support the project Georgia HomePLACE (Providing Library and Archives Collections Electronically). Since 2003, the project has encouraged Georgia public libraries and related institutions to participate in the digital library. It offers a collaborative model for digitizing primary source collections related to local history and genealogy.
Beginning in May, the Digital Library of Georgia will provide three daylong training sessions to public librarians designed to introduce the basics of digital projects. After the workshops, library staff will work with the attendees to identify suitable content for digitization, digitize the historical content, create metadata, host the files and create three online exhibits.