Oversized birthday cake replica in front of the Desert Inn, Las Vegas, Nevada, April 1951 (From Toni and Wilbur Clark Collection, University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
2001
Rio Grande Depot, October 1910. (From Shipler Commercial Photographers collection, Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement.)
2001
Early Days
A joint project between University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library and Utah State Historical Society to digitize a collection of glass plate negatives (Shipler Commercial Photographers) proved the concept of a multi-institution digital library. Initial members of MWDL included Brigham Young University, Southern Utah University, University of Utah, and Utah State University.
2002
Olympic Speed Skater by Chris Lewis, 2002. (From Governor’s Olympic Collection, Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement)
2002
Initial Launch
Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC) awarded $100,000 of funding in January 2002 and the first MWDL site was up and running by September. The funding was used to set up digitization centers at the four founding universities and for software licenses to use CONTENTdm Multi-Site Server in support of the project’s goals: 1) build a digital collection reflecting the history of the region; 2) include resources from regional cultural and educational institutions; 3) offer local control and low-cost digitization to partners; and 4) make content accessible to all internet users (Arlitsch & Jonsson 2005).
Also in 2002, Salt Lake City and the surrounding area hosted the 2002 Winter Olympic & Paralymic Games. The Governor’s Olympic Collection was created during this time, an early example of a born-digital collection containing photographs taken by Utah Governor’s Office interns.
2003
Screenshot of MWDL’s first website (From Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
2003
Regional Growth
University of Nevada, Las Vegas and University of Nevada, Reno both joined MWDL, expanding it into a regional digital library. UNLV and UNR are also members of the UALC.
2007
Men in Utah State University Computer Center, 1950s (From Utah State University Historical Photo Collection, Utah State University)
2007
Tech Changes
MWDL switched platforms for metadata aggregation and indexing to Public Knowledge Project’s Open Archives Harvester. This allowed for harvesting from non-CONTENTdm repositories and the use of Open Archives Initiative-Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to exchange data (Neatrour, et al 2016).
2010
Trevor Petersen drafting conceptual art for the Roots of Knowledge stained glass project storyboard. Richard McLean, 2016. (From Roots of Knowledge Behind-the-Scenes, Utah Valley University Library)
2010
Increasing Standardization
The UALC Digitization Committee’s Metadata Task Force completed Version 1 of the MWDL Dublin Core Application Profile (MAP). This marked the first independent metadata standard adopted by MWDL, which had previously adhered to the Western States/Collaborative Digitization Program’s Dublin Core Metadata Best Practices (Hebron, 2025).
2011
FIND AN IMAGE
2011
New Discovery Platforms
MWDL turned 10 years old! As MWDL participation increased, it outgrew PKP Harvester’s indexing capability and MWDL moved to Ex Libris Primo for aggregation & discovery. The MWDL Dublin Core Application Profile V2 was adopted in 2011. The MWDL profile has been used by other institutions such as Montana Memory Project and Consortium of Church Libraries and Archives for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the basis for their own metadata standards (Neatrour, et al 2016).
2013
DPLA’s website as of April 23, 2013 (From Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
2013
A National Presence
MWDL was one of Digital Public Library of America’s original partners along with Minnesota Digital Library, Digital Commonwealth (Massachusetts), Digital Library of Georgia, Kentucky Digital Library, and South Carolina Digital Library.
Participation in DPLA extends MWDL’s goals of providing free access to unique regional cultural heritage materials to a national audience. Subsequent work such as the 2013-15 Public Library Partnerships Project to “design, prepare, and present training modules about digital skills training” (McIntyre 2015, MWDL News blog) helped disseminate digitization best practices and digital library management knowledge to regional public libraries.
2015
Scott Eldredge and Russ Taylor promote MWDL at Brigham Young University Family History Conference, 2018. Catherine McIntyre, 2018.
2015
Membership makeover
MWDL launches membership model to ensure sustainability. Regional and national promo-a-go-go!