Collaborate

Digital Materials

The Digital Library of Rhode Island aims to be a gateway to as many digital collections as possible hosted by local institutions. 
Because we need to point users to the source of the materials, items must not only be digitized but also already available online and linked using a stable URL. 

As for items’ metadata, the more the merrier. That said, we need at least a title to identify the object within all other items. If your item includes subjects, dates, creators, etc., we will try to use as much of that data to make those items discoverable and help users find related information across the many collections we hope to integrate.

In other words, we need at least the following information per item:

• Title: The item’s title
• Collection Title: The name of the collection to which that item belongs to
• Repository Name: The institution/organization providing access to this item
• Permanent URL: The link to the item online. 
• Thumbnail URL: Since the item is digitized and online, there should be a visual representation for it. For non-image content (e.g., audio), we can use a placeholder icon to replace the thumbnail if one does not exist. 
• Rights Statement: What is the copyright status of the materials? Use one of the statements included in Rights Statements. (Note: CC0 is an attribution statement, not copyright.)

Currently, we are working only with collections that are already digitized, described, and available online. We hope to expand this project to other situations in the future.