Participation
The ESDN team is currently working with collection managers from around the state to contribute collection records to DPLA.
How to prepare
We are often asked what a library or archive should do to prepare to share their collections with DPLA through ESDN. Here are some tips:
- If you currently contribute collections to New York Heritage, Hudson River Valley Heritage or METRO’s Digital Culture, please contact your regional liaison to get started!
- If you host collections locally, make sure you have OAI-PMH or other sharing/export settings configured in your digital asset management tool. If you’re not sure how to do this, we’ll work with you when the time comes.
- Review and/or add rights statements in your object-level metadata records.
- Get familiar with shareable metadata practices and review your collection metadata for quality and consistency.
- Think about how you can include both a link to a ‘preview’ or ‘thumbnail’ of each digital object as well as a link back to the metadata record in your local context. If you have questions about this process, we’re here to help!
Sharing your metadata under a Creative Commons CC0 license
Contributing partners will all be asked to sign a letter of agreement with ESDN. This letter specifies your willingness to contribute your metadata to DPLA under a Creative Commons CC0 license which effectively places your metadata in the public domain. All metadata contributed to DPLA is available for download and reuse by anyone for any purpose. One of DPLA’s goals is to promote innovation and development within the cultural heritage community. Their commitment to open access goes beyond just making metadata available and searchable through their interface, it also includes making it available to developers and programmers to create new and transformative uses of our collective cultural heritage. This can only work if the metadata contributed to DPLA is unencumbered by copyright restrictions. Read more about what it means to share your metadata with DPLA: