Prepared by James Van Mil and Sidney Gao - Adopted January 2021

Values

To develop this document, we drew from the University of Cincinnati mission:

We are committed to excellence and diversity in our students, faculty, staff, and all of our activities. We provide an inclusive environment where innovation and freedom of intellectual inquiry flourish.

The UC Libraries Tenets:

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – We value, celebrate and promote diversity, equity & inclusion in our workforce and in the communities we serve. Our services, resources and collections reflect the diversity of the world and highlight marginalized and previously unseen communities.

And inspiration from the article: Why Do We Digitize? The Case for Slow Digitization

If digital libraries merely reiterate and reinforce long-standing cultural narratives and stereotypes, rather than enabling the exploration of forgotten and neglected collections, then they can become agents of cultural exclusion.

Collection Strategy

The University of Cincinnati Libraries Digital Collections Team prioritizes the selection and digitization of collections that amplify the voices of marginalized and unseen communities. We value the creation of digital collections that exist at the intersection of diversity, inclusion, and accessibility – both the content and delivery of our collections reflects these values.

Our work highlights rare and unique collections at the University of Cincinnati Libraries, and reifies the libraries’ commitment to representing the diverse community it serves.

In Practice

Selection

Digital collection development capacity is scarce. To balance priority and risk, and to ensure sustainable, suitable collections, the Digital Content Team has developed guidance to support the selection of materials for digitization. The guidance promotes the selection of curated special collections materials while considering priorities and restrictions that will be balanced through project planning.

To encourage the development of collections that support UC Libraries’ commitment to diversity, we maintain a priority project queue for collections that amplify the voices of marginalized and unseen communities.

Format Content Standards

Infrastructure is also scarce. To meet users at their point of need, we have adopted the PDF/UA format as our preferred output for public access. PDF/UA format is user-focused, flexible, portable, and aligns with our focus on document-based digitization. It uses widely available tools, does not depend on a platform-based infrastructure for dissemination or reuse, and meets the accessibility goals of the University of Cincinnati.

We also support other file formats, as appropriate to the project, with a focus on text and image digitization.