Integration: Why and How to Address Integration with National Digital Collections Initiatives?

Host Institution: New York University

This fourth and final forum of the Diversifying the Digital Historical Record project will be hosted by the History Department of New York University. Entitled “Integration: Why and how to address integration with national digital collections initiatives,” this forum aims to discuss strategies and recommended practices for community archives to integrate with national digital initiatives. Community archives are traditionally and understandably very independent entities, generally serving single communities and growing out of necessity because of exclusion. How do we begin to think about integrating community archives collections, organizations, and projects with national digital initiatives while allowing for the individuality and independence of those entities to continue to flourish? Additionally, the forum will address how larger institutions of cultural heritage and community archives are interrelated to one another and at the heart of intersecting social justice and historical documentation.

The one and a half-day conference begins on Friday, October 20th with a full day of panel discussions which will include speakers from libraries, museums and community archives. The forum will conclude on Saturday, October 21st with a series of roundtable discussions on tools and strategies to address the challenges facing community archives and avenues of support for institutional sustainability.

Diversifying the Digital Historical Record (http://diversifyingthedigital.org/index.html) is a collaborative project whose partners include the Amistad Research Center, Mukurtu, Shorefront Legacy, South Asian American Digital Project, and the Inland Memories Project of the University of California - Riverside.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.