2020 Poster Sessions
Sharing a bite: increasing global accessibility of digital collections

Intended Audience

Public Libraries, Academic Libraries, Pre-Service Librarians & Library School Students

Poster Summary and Objectives

The Miami-Dade Public Library System (MDPLS) Digital Collection was created in January 2018. In less than two years we have been able to create over 10,000 digital objects and the collection is growing on a daily basis. The Digital Collection has made it possible for materials from the Special and the Permanent Art Collections to have an online presence, making them accessible to a wide audience for the first time. To expand the collection’s visibility, we have been working to make it available through additional platforms and web services. We have joined the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and begun displaying our records in WorldCat in order to expose our collection to a wider audience. We have also installed the Mirador viewer on our website to enhance the usability of our website and allow our records to be compared with other institutions. We are currently working on additional developments such as social media, through the creation of our blog, as well as becoming contributors to Historypin. As a result of all these efforts, we have seen a significant increase in the usage of our site and a community awareness of the library resources, including their historical and cultural value.

Presenters

Grisel Choter- Miami-Dade Public Library System

Margarita Mirabal- Miami-Dade Public Library System

• Margarita Mirabal is the founder of the Digital Collections Department at Miami-Dade Public Library System. She led a 3-year LSTA grant to fund the implementation of the project. The main focus of her work is to maintain the digital collection as a living database constantly growing but lately she has been heavily invested in the promotion of the collection. In doing so, the Miami-Dade Public Library System has joined multiple collaborative initiatives and partnerships, local and global, and we are open for new opportunities to share our content.