The PPC strives to give every cultural heritage organization within Colorado and Wyoming the opportunity to share their unique collections with each other and the rest of the world through the Plains to Peaks portal.
Is your organization ready to contribute metadata records to the Plains to Peaks Collective (PPC) and the Digital Public Library of American (DPLA)? Review the steps below to begin the process. Contact us, PPC-Support@coloradovirtuallibrary.org, if you have any questions along the way.
PPC Digital Readiness Checklist
Review the PPC Digital Readiness Checklist below to determine if you meet the guidelines. [Adapted from PA Digital Readiness Checklist].
- Do you have digital collections that are publicly available? If not, see the Digital Collection Toolkit for digitization project planning and implementation.
- Is your institution willing and able to sign the PPC Service Hub Participation Agreement, agreeing to contribute your metadata to the DPLA under a CC0 license?
- Are your digital collections (images, texts, audio, video, etc.) available on a publicly accessible collections management system?
- Do the digital collections that you wish to share meet the DPLA’s current Collection Development Guidelines? The DPLA currently does not accept the following:
- Most scholarly material (e.g., electronic theses, dissertations, and journal articles).
- Finding aids or archival collection guides (e.g., EAD files)
- Items that do not resolve to a publicly accessible URL (e.g., embargoed, hidden, or restricted files)
- Datasets
- Does your Content Management System (CMS) have a way of sharing your collection metadata, for example through an OAI-PMH feed, API, xml export, or CSV file? (If you are unsure, please contact us.)
- Do each of the records in your collection include a unique title field and a valid rights statement? See the PPC Metadata Guidelines for further information on the DPLA requirements.
- Does your system store preview/thumbnail images of the objects in your collection?
- Are you able to provide, for each of your records, a link back to the record on your local site? (This link allows the DPLA portal to point back to each object in its local context.)
- Do you have a staff member who can work with PPC staff to address any issues related to sharing your collection metadata with the DPLA?
If you have any questions about the above considerations and/or are unsure if you meet the requirements for contributing to the PPC and the DPLA, please contact us. We are very willing to work with potential partners to fulfill the requirements listed above.
CVL Collections
CVL Collections is a program that uses the Omeka open source content management system to create and host an online digital repository for smaller and less resourced cultural heritage organizations in Colorado AND Wyoming. Colorado State Library staff will work with you to create an online database branded like your institutional website, and help you exhibit your digital collection. Through this online database, your digital objects will be included in the quarterly PPC harvests and available in the PPC and DPLA search platforms. CSL provides free hosting and maintenance for the Omeka software, as well as a free storage tier that is appropriate for smaller collections. Please note that this program is meant for sharing digital collections and is not intended as an archival solution for the long-term storage of digital objects.
CSL Digital Creation Kits
Colorado State Library (CSL) offers Digital Creation Kits to Colorado libraries and cultural heritage organizations in Colorado that wish to participate in the PPC, and by extension the DPLA, but don’t have the funds to purchase digitization equipment, and/or don’t have a long-term need for it. Kit contents are designed to make archive creation more accessible, and give our communities the resources they need to begin sharing their stories digitally.
Wyoming Digitization Toolkits
Considering a digitization project or community scanning event but need equipment? Is there a member of your community who has extensive knowledge that you want to capture as an oral history? We are here to help! These toolkits are provided by the Wyoming State Records Advisory Board (SHRAB) and Wyoming State Archives to Wyoming cultural heritage institutions. Kits may be loaned for 3 months at a time, with the option to extend for another 3 months if the kit is not spoken for.
Wyoming Roving Archivist Program (RAP)
The Roving Archivist Program (RAP) serves as a connection point between Wyoming’s cultural heritage institutions to trained archival professionals who provide advice on policies, procedures, preservation planning, emergency preparedness, connection to resources, and more.