Clemson’s IR Content To Be Harvested in the DPLA: Find Out How You Can Do It Too!

Clemson’s IR, TigerPrints, is on a journey of increased discoverability through Digital Commons to the South Carolina Digital Library (SCDL) and on to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). In the words of Andrew Wesolek, Head of Digital Scholarship at Clemson University, they are “expanding the role of the repository and enhancing the discoverability of Cultural Heritage objects.” Andy told us the story of how he got content from his IR ready to be harvested by the DPLA with help from their bepress consultant, and we’re here to say that you can do it too!

Andy underlined the importance of partnering both with bepress and with his state’s Digital Library hub, the South Carolina Digital Library (SCDL), in his workflow. He also emphasized that “Digital Commons offers a constant branded environment for Clemson scholarship and cultural heritage items”—important when content is picked up later in so many different ways.

As the library staff were shifting efforts towards digitization of more and more of Clemson’s holdings, they looked to their new IR, TigerPrints, which holds unlimited objects.  They then asked, “Can we have content deposited in TigerPrints be found in the Digital Public Library of America?” The answer was a resounding yes!

Clemson’s timeline charts their progress:

  • 2010: Clemson pursued grants to fund the development of a digitization lab and in 2010 they were awarded a $775,000 IMLS grant to develop the Open Parks Network (OPN).
  • 2010: They partnered with Internet Archive to outsource digitization of both OPN and Clemson-held materials.
  • 2012: Awarded $150,000 grant from DPLA.
  •  August, 2013: Hired Head of Digital Scholarship.
  • October, 2013: Launched bepress Digital Commons institutional repository, TigerPrints.
  • 2014: CONTENTdm cap set at 10,000 items; Andy and his team turned to their new Digital Commons IR TigerPrints to solve the problem.
  • 2015: Andy worked with his bepress consultant and the SCDL to meet the SCDL’s metadata profile.
  • 2015: Clemson Cultural Heritage content harvested into SCDL, which will ultimately be in DPLA.

In terms of content, they looked for material that was at the intersection of the intellectual output they house in their IR with the Cultural Heritage material sought by the DPLA. The collections thus far include The Agrarian, The Bobbin & Beaker, the yearbook TAPS, and the history of football programs now in the DPLA.

Specifically, Clemson set out to make sure their metadata met the needs of SCDL, thus automatically meeting the needs of DPLA as well. Bepress leveraged the core capabilities of the DC system for them and thus allowed the content to be harvested by DPLA. Your bepress consultant will be happy to do this for you too—contact us anytime!

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