The Mountain West Digital Library (MWDL) is pleased to announce a free training and partnership opportunity starting this summer for Utah public librarians in “Digitization and Digital Exhibits at Your Library.” Utah public librarians and other public library staff are invited to participate in training in a workshop setting with a small group of their peers, where they will learn valuable skills in setting up digital collections and online exhibits.

• Selecting appropriate materials for digitization and sharing
• Digitizing materials according to widely-accepted guidelines
• Describing the content with metadata and assigning appropriate rights for access and reuse
• Uploading digital materials to a digital asset management system for online sharing
• Creating digital exhibits among themes of national and regional intertest

The training has been tailored for librarians and other staff in Utah public libraries that hold special collections of historical, cultural heritage, and/or genealogical materials about their communities or region. Following a one-day workshop, each participant will be paired with an experienced hosting hub, whose staff will provide digitization services and technical support to help participants to share their materials via digital collections and online exhibits. Alternatively, digitization may be done at the participant’s library, with assistance from MWDL staff and partners.

The digital materials will be shared for public use under Creative Commons license via the Mountain West Digital Library portal at https://mwdl.org and via the Digital Public Library of America portal at http://dp.la. The exhibits will be included with DPLA Exhibitions at http://dp.la/exhibitions.

The Public Library Partnership is made possible by generous funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through a Global Libraries project managed by the Digital Public Library of America, the nation’s first digital library. The Mountain West Digital Library is one of four digital collaboratives around the country that are working with DPLA in this pilot project to develop and implement public library training curricula for digital skills training, which will be shared publicly as models for future use.

Participants may choose from a workshop in May, July, or August 2014. The ideal candidates for this training and support will be public librarians or other public library staff who work with locally held materials about history, genealogy, and similar unique content. One staff member per library will be given priority, and approval from the library director is required. Travel stipends are available. For more information and to apply, go to https://mwdl.org/events/plp2014/workshop.php.

MWDL staff and hubs representatives will be at the UALC Booth, #108, during the upcoming ULA conference, so please stop by! Also, feel free to email or call Anna Neatrour ((801)587-8883, anna.neatrour@utah.edu) or Rebekah Cummings ((801)58708893, rebekah.cummings@utah.edu) if you have any questions about this training opportunity.