Join MWDL

Mountain West Digital Library succeeds because of extensive collaboration throughout our network at varied levels of participation.

Collection Partners

Our Collections Partners manage digital collections that are hosted on the digital assets management systems (DAMS) of Member Repositories (hosting hubs). Collection Partners are welcome to contribute to the development and adoption of common standards and best practices in the Mountain West.

We can help match you to a Member Repository that can help you get started with creating your digital collections and sharing them online. If your institution already has a repository set up, contact us about becoming a Member Repository!

Interested in becoming a Partner?

Member Repositories

The Mountain West Digital Library currently has 12 Member Repositories:

  • Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library Digital Collections
  • Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library Finding Aids
  • Northwest Digital Archives / Archives West (UU-Marriott and USU finding aids)
  • Oregon Digital – University of Oregon and Oregon State University
  • Southern Utah University Sherratt Library Digital Collections
  • University of Nevada, Las Vegas Libraries Digital Collections
  • University of Nevada, Reno Libraries Digital Archive
  • University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Digital Library
  • Utah Government Digital Library at Utah State Library
  • Utah State University Digital Library
  • Utah Valley University Digital Archives
  • Weber State University Stewart Library Digital Collections

We welcome additional repositories to join our network and to take advantage of MWDL’s on-ramp to the Digital Public Library of America. MWDL expands access to your digital collections through harvesting and aggregation of metadata, via the MWDL portal and the DPLA portal.

MWDL’s membership structure went into effect July 1, 2015, in accordance with the recommendations of the MWDL Advisory Committee, which was charged by the Utah Academic Library Consortium Council to establish a plan for long-term sustainability and expanded governance of MWDL. Each Member Repository is asked to pay annual dues and a one-time set-up fee for establishing the metadata harvest. Collections Partners with collections on that server may choose to share metadata for harvest (at no additional fee) and participate in the collaborative.

Repository dues of $7500 are assessed annually. Twelve-month membership cycles start on either January 1 or July 1. The one-time harvesting set-up fee is $2000.

Interested in becoming a Member?

We look forward to sharing your digital collections for broader access! Please review these documents and contact us.

The Digital Public Library of America and MWDL

In 2012 the Mountain West Digital Library was selected to be one of the first six service hubs for the Digital Public Library of America. DPLA was launched in 2013 as the national digital library in the United States, offering a single point of public access to millions of items from memory organizations around the country. Digital collections from the Collection Partners of the Mountain West Digital Library are now discoverable nationally through dp.la as well as regionally through mwdl.org.

During the Public Library Partnerships Project, MWDL worked with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) to provide digital skills training to public librarians and help a number of public libraries get digital collections online in 2015.

What does this mean for you?

Partnership with MWDL and DPLA gives your institution’s digital collections broader visibility to a national audience.

  • See increased levels of discovery and use of your collections.
  • Expand the breadth of your collections by integrating your collections with other cultural heritage organizations.
  • Be part of a trusted, sustained partnership of libraries, archives and museums throughout the U.S.

More about DPLA

Key Information

No action is required on your part.
If you are a partner with MWDL, your metadata records are automatically harvested into DPLA.
Note: finding aids are not currently harvested into DPLA.

Timing:
DPLA harvests MWDL metadata quarterly.

Broad public access to your metadata:
Metadata records for your digital items are openly available and searchable on DPLA’s public website and through DPLA’s Open API. All metadata records available through MWDL (note: just the metadata, not the digital objects being described) are available under a Creative Commons “CC0” license. For more information about DPLA’s policies, see these pages: