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

Abstract

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.