Does Content plus Access equal Use? Revealing la Révolution at the UMD Libraries

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Date
2015-06-05Author
Archer, Joanne
Corlett-Rivera, Kelsey
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This poster traces two years of the University of Maryland (UMD) Libraries’ efforts to Reveal la
Révolution by cataloging and digitizing their 18th-century French Pamphlet collection. Follow their
steps as a cross-departmental team waded through some 12,000 pamphlets with the support of
French graduate students, fine tuning workflows and communication channels along the way. While
an internally-funded pilot got the project off the ground, national and international collaboration
allowed them to leverage funding support from the UMD Libraries to exceed original targets for
both scanning and cataloging. The result was a significant increase in digitally-available content and
improved access through Worldcat and the Internet Archive.
When that content and access did not turn into documented use, however, the UMD Pamphlets
team pressed on, delving further into digital scholarship. Their outreach efforts culminated in a
stand-alone digital history site with a crowdsourcing component that has seen some 5,500 visits
since going live in September 2014 http://colonyincrisis.lib.umd.edu). Challenges, such as a perpetual lack of dedicated staff time, and lessons learned (digital history sites
require Twitter hashtags) are featured on the poster, along with a vision for a sustainable way
forward.