Building the Libraries of Oregon and lessons learned

Terry Reese, Associate ProfessorGray Family Chair for Innovative Library Services

April 10, 20232

• Oregon Digital Library• Resource that brings together all

(most) digital collections in Oregon from Universities, public libraries, museums through a single portal

• Project called for OSU to provide infrastructure to any institution needing hosting/technical help

• Exposed large digital collections to the public for the first time• Most digital collections were stored in

localized programs, like Past Perfect

• Currently serving ~1.5 million items

Precursor to the Libraries of Oregon

April 10, 20233

Focusing on the Underserved

• State Library notes that ~20% of Oregonians that don’t have adequate access to a library (and ~10% are without any library services)• These users are currently unable to access resources that they have a

legitimate right to access• State wide licenses of Gale, Learning Express, AnswerLand, etc.

• Statewide, most digital collections created in the past decade with LSTA funds are inaccessible outside of the local library• Meaning some truly exception collections documenting the people and

growth of Oregon are hidden from view

April 10, 20234

• Libraries of Oregon is a website that connects Oregon residents to statewide library resources and local public libraries. Website visitors can access databases that house articles, video clips, podcasts, and images from encyclopedias, newspapers, and magazines or use the 24/7 ask-a-librarian service to satisfy their information needs. These subscription databases, which are not freely available on the internet, and the ask-a-librarian service are paid for with federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds administered by the Oregon State Library.

Libraries of Oregon

April 10, 20235

Libraries of Oregon

• Designed as an organic library portal with the following goals:

• Help Oregonians Find Resources• Directing users to resources hosted by the state or state agencies• Directing or integrating digital projects like the Oregon Digital

Newspapers Project or the Oregon Digital Library project

April 10, 20236

Libraries of Oregon

• Help Oregonians Access Resources• Break down access barriers• State-wide resources have traditionally been managed through

the public library system• Users outside of public library districts or without library cards

cannot access resources purchased by the state on their behalf.• Provide widgets to streamline access for public libraries• Develop a location-base authentication infrastructure• Allows K-12 users direct access to content

April 10, 20237

Libraries of Oregon

• Help Oregonians Connect to Libraries• Help Oregon citizens find libraries that are near them and…• Help Oregon citizens find special libraries that might meet

special needs

• Help Oregonians Advocate for Libraries in their Communities.• Strength support for libraries in communities• Enable citizens to advocate for expanded library services in

their districts

April 10, 20238

Sharing Content

• This can be surprisingly difficult• University content is often created to meet the needs of their communities• Public Library content tents to be created and purchased exclusively for their

local patrons• Though this varies, a handful of large publics work more globally, but they represents a

small number of the publics within the state.

• Translating the language barrier• Public Library patrons and university patrons speak different languages• Shared content needs to be placed within specific contexts, which means

translating content to meet a wide variety of user groups

• Determine what you are willing to host• When working with digital collections, OSU often was asked to take over hosting

digital collections, and integrating them into our digital content platform, while have little to no curation rights.

April 10, 20239

Bridging gaps between Public Libraries and Universities

• Bridging the resources gap• Public libraries have passionate people resources with few infrastructure

resources• At universities, it’s often the opposite

• Public library funding is volatile• In the two years working with the State Library on access projects, two large

public library districts of been defunded (and then reformed in some capacity)

• Resources build for public libraries often-times have little application in the university context

April 10, 202310

What we learned

• All problems are local• The trickiest part of any project between public libraries at a state-wide

level is how it will impact local service• Because funding is needs based, any services that supplant a current

library function threaten current funding

• Advocacy was key• University needed to get something too• Getting hierarchies to play together is nearly impossible• Developing tools in neutral, cloud-based providers proved to be the only

way forward.

April 10, 202311

Questions/Comments