CURIOSity at Houghton
- Dorothy Berry (Unlicensed)
CURIOSity is a Harvard Library service that provides a solution for building digital collections and exhibits, based on the wealth of materials on Digital Collections at Harvard Library.
For detailed description of the tool itself, visit the main CURIOSity, Digital Collections Services site.
As Houghton's structure is somewhat unique within Harvard Libraries, internal processes and guidelines for the submission and creation of CURIOSity sites have been created by the Digital Collections Program Manager, in collaboration with Vanessa Venti, Library Analyst for Stewardship of Digital Assets. The guidelines and processes were also edited and reviewed by Anne-Marie Eze, Director of Scholarly & Public Programs, Kate Donovan, Associate Librarian for Public Services, Susan Pyzynski, Associate Librarian of Houghton Library for Technical Services, and Tom Hyry, Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton Library.
GOALS
“Promote intellectual coherence and sustainability” within a “reasonably controlled environment:" Goals articulated by Tom Hyry in call for guidelines
Showcase Houghton’s digital collections in a manner that highlights the diversity of media, format, and content in our holdings.
STRATEGIC APPROACH
CURIOsity sites can be divided into levels of complexity, requiring different levels of technical involvement and staff-time. The lightest weight site is a digital collection made by copying in text and images from a physical exhibit, and providing a list of digitized items that fit the exhibit’s theme. The most effort-intensive sites are completely new digital exhibits, requiring amounts of time and effort somewhat analogous to a physical exhibit or fully-fleshed out digital collection classroom guides.
Achieve intellectual coherence by instituting a review process, similar to Digital Collections Submission Process, where complex CURIOSity site proposals can be submitted and reviewed on a rolling schedule by a small standing review committee made of the Digital Collections Program Manager, the Director of Scholarly & Public Programs, and the Head of Teaching and Learning. A scheduled review process will assist with both intellectual coherence (reviews based on technical and content requirements), and with sustainability (additional staff time needed to create display-worthy digital collections).