Tag: Digital Public Library of America

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The Public Library Partnerships Project

Public Library Partnerships Project

In April 2014 the Public Library Partnership Project (PLPP) launched its first one-day workshop. Since then the project has continued to mature and affect public libraries across the country.

Four Digital Public Library hubs are spearheading this project for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). These hubs include Digital Commonwealth, Digital Library of Georgia (DLG), Minnesota Digital Library, and Mountain West Digital Library. All four of these hubs have hosted multiple one-day workshops to teach public librarians the fundamentals of digitization and to connect participants to resources for further assistance.

The goal of the PLPP, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is to train public librarians in digital technologies, and to digitize their content so that more people can have access to their archival materials. Ultimately the PLPP will produce two online exhibits per hub. The digitized content from public libraries in the area will provide visual context for these exhibits. This will be a way to globally showcase the materials kept in public libraries around the country.

The Role of the Digital Library of Georgia

As a DPLA hub, the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) plays a major role in training librarians around the state and digitizing their local content.

The DLG has already hosted three workshops for librarians. The first workshop was held in Macon, the second in Savannah, and the third in Augusta, Georgia. A total of 45 librarians attended these conferences where they learned digitization techniques and best practices.

Since these trainings the DLG has been planning and performing site-visits to libraries around the state. At these visits staff from the DLG pick up suitable materials for the PLPP project and bring them back to be digitized at the DLG office. So far, the DLG has completed 7 site-visits and come away with a total of 1715 objects to be digitized. Additionally, digitization has just begun on the first collection.

What’s Next…

The DLG will continue site-visits through early 2015 and digitization will continue through the spring of next year.  Once the digitization has been completed the DLG will begin collaborating with public librarians to create two online exhibits that showcase the materials. These exhibits will be completed by October of 2015. The DPLA will host these online exhibits, which librarians can link to from their own public library website. The ultimate goal of this project is to publicize the valuable archival collections held by public librarians around the country through these online exhibits.

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WSB Radio Log Books

The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) is pleased to announce the addition of the WSB radio logs to the DLG and to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).

View collection: http://bit.ly/U7312q

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WSB program log, September 1937

The radio logs document programming in the early years of WSB Radio, Atlanta’s first radio broadcast station. The logs, which span 1922 to 1949, document WSB programming during the “Golden Age of Radio.” They contain a combination of program listings, technical information, and transcriptions of radio “conversations” between engineers at WSB and ham radio operators. The shows included market reports, weather forecasts, news, old-time and gospel music performed by regional musicians, game shows, variety acts, and soap operas.  Many programs and performers included in the logs are recognizable today, such as Guiding Light, Dick Tracy, Eddie Cantor, and the Ziegfeld Follies.

WSB (“Welcome South, Brother”) Radio, was created on March 15, 1922, when it broadcast “Light Cavalry Orchestra” at a power of 100 watts. Originally owned by The Atlanta Journal, the station was first located in a makeshift studio on the fifth floor of The Journal building on Forsyth Street in downtown Atlanta.  Hailed as the “Voice of the South,” WSB Radio was a pioneer, being the first station to adopt a slogan, broadcast a complete church service, and employ radio as an educational medium by establishing “WSB’s University of the Air.” These were daily broadcasts conducted by the faculties of Georgia Tech, Emory University, Agnes Scott College, and Cox College. WSB was also the first station to use a musical signature, a practice later adopted by NBC. When the station became an affiliate of NBC in 1927, its programming expanded to include commercials. The logs are a rich resource for those interested in radio broadcasting history, early 20th century radio advertising, and Georgia’s cultural and technological contributions to the “Golden Age of Radio.”

As a service hub for the DPLA, the Digital Library of Georgia provides digitization and metadata assistance for its partner institutions around the state. The DLG also aggregates and shares metadata about digital items with the DPLA, allowing the DPLA to act as a portal to these collections. Thanks to grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Arcadia Fund, the Digital Library of Georgia has digitized and described these items for inclusion in both the DLG and the DPLA.

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