2017 MLA Annual Conference

Staffing digitization projects can be difficult, especially with limited funding and staff time. The University of Minnesota, Morris Briggs Library collaborated with a student organization to begin a digitization project suggested by the students: digitizing over 50 years of campus newspapers. With the exception of staff time spent organizing the project and quality checking the work, the student volunteers have done the bulk of the work digitizing and creating metadata for this project. This session will describe some of the processes used to organize and manage a digitization project staffed with student volunteers, as well as some of the outreach techniques we used to attract volunteers to the project. One of the student volunteers will discuss her insights on the project and we will discuss some of the problems we faced staffing a project with volunteers, along with the solutions we implemented to make the project a resounding success.