New OCLC report: The State of Digitization in US Public and State Libraries

Advancing the National Digital Platform: The State of Digitization in US Public and State Libraries

Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, OCLC partnered with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) and two divisions of the American Library Association--the Public Library Association (PLA) and the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS)--to conduct a needs assessment and gap analysis of public library digitization activities. Here are a few of the highlights listed in the executive summary of the report:

• Ninety-two percent of public libraries have locally significant, unique physical collections
• More than 37.6% of libraries have engaged in digitization activities in the last three years
• In addition to the common barriers of time and ongoing funding, 61.4% of libraries identified insufficient staff training/expertise as a major barrier to their digitization efforts
• All state library agencies reported that digitizing and providing online access to local and unique digitized material aligns with their mission either explicitly (12.8%), or broadly (87.2%)
• Public libraries identified training in imaging best practices (55.6%), copyright risk assessment (47.5%) and metadata best practices (47.0%) as the most potentially helpful to their efforts

The findings in this report will inform planning around participation in the National Digital Platform (NDP), and also includes recommendations by project partners that could strengthen the public library role in the NDP.

Learn more and read the full report