What are the best library services for managing digital collections?

The best library service for managing digital collections is OCLC's WorldShare Management Services (WMS). It offers comprehensive tools for cataloging, acquisition, and management, integrating digital resources seamlessly. Its robust platform supports efficient workflows, enhances user access, and provides extensive support for metadata and interoperability.

Metadata matters. Creating digital collections is more that uploading lots of content, in the same way that library catalog cards from years ago would have less research value if scattered throughout a room, out of order. Cataloging should follow generally accepted standards. Dublin Core and other criteria (such as Dewey/Library of Congress subject headings) ensure that if records of one institution are available through another platform, such as the Digital Public Library of America, they will generally be accessible to researchers without any difficulty. Cataloging may happen behind the scenes or as a solitary effort of a lone-arranger, but it should take into account patron research behavior and the best practices in the profession.

Similar to the way that an archivist creating a paper finding aid years ago had to determine whether to catalog at the item, folder, series, or collection level, the creation of a digital archive requires thought and collaboration at an institutional level. Are item records created for each photo in a collection, or at a series level due to the quantity of the images? Are collections handled as discrete items, separate from one another, or with linkages between them? How are sensitive collections handled if some content is closed for a period of time or portrays things that are distasteful? Are high-res images available for download, or only low-res images or watermarked ones due to copyright restrictions that remain in effect?

Another step in the preservation process is to ensure that deeds of gift or donor forms are also preserved within a digital platform. Whether you use DSpace, CONTENTdm, or another platform, be sure that you have the ability to embed digitized records about the item within the bitstreams. The content is usually maintained on a non-public screen because it includes sensitive information. For example, if you have a photographic collection with multiple images, you may have a record for the overall collection, as well as ones for each image. At the collection level, embed in a non-public area (available to staff) all donor forms, deeds of gift, restrictions, appraisal docs, etc. That way, if anything happens to paper copies, you have backup.

Most online digital archive platforms have the ability to interact with servers and other web-based tools to track incoming traffic, downloads, and uploads (by staff who are adding content). This allows library management to determine traffic and work with technical support if certain areas/regions are having difficulty accessing content. Analytics are also important as library leaders make the case that their repositories are serving populations, even if the physcial traffic and circulation of books and media are flat or declining at that time. Unfortunately, some policymakers look at circ stats and make generalizations that fail to take into account the way libraries serve their tax base and other patrons outside of the library's walls.

A digital archive run by a single person is not sustainable. If anything happens to the individual who maintains it, will it be continued? Collaboration can occur within the library, or in a network or consortium. For example, if a college decides to add a digital archive, different library staff may have varying roles. The special collections librarian may have responsibilities for digitizing rare books or college archives. Collection development or reference librarians may interact with faculty to create an archive of their publications (with copyright clearance, of course). Others may serve as advocates to digitize other items to ensure Open Access. An arrangement like this ensures continuity of the digital collections into the future.

Sites like the Digital Public Library of America and many state and local "memory" sites (Florida Memory, Ohio Memory, New Jersey Digital Highway, etc.) have allowed for researchers to search across multiple platforms and archives. Colleges and universities and their state systems have also created digital "union catalogs" that allow for holdings of muliple institutions to be searched on a single platform. Some commercial services, such as Ancestry and other databases, also have way to link to various sources in other platforms, such as a genealogist using Ancestry also getting info from Find A Grave. When developing a local digital content managment system, it may be helpful to see if linkages with other sources are possible.