Digital Library of Tennessee Adds Records to the Digital Public Library of America

The Digital Library of Tennessee (DLTN) has deposited its first batch of records with the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).

The DLTN became Tennessee’s DPLA Service Hub in February 2015. As a Service Hub, DLTN identifies digital collections of cultural treasures in the state’s libraries, archives, and museums; harvests metadata and thumbnails; and contributes records to the DPLA.

The DLTN’s first batch of 154,929 records document important material on the Civil Rights Movement, Appalachia, and the Great Smoky Mountains, including 121,876 digitized texts, 27,518 images, 783 sound recordings, and 177 moving images.

“By adding records to the Digital Public Library of America, our Service Hub enhances the visibility and impact of Tennessee’s digitized treasures,” said Holly Mercer, associate dean for research and scholarly communication at the University of Tennessee Libraries.

The DPLA’s millions of collected digital objects — including online texts, photographs, manuscripts, and artwork — reside on the websites of contributing institutions. But the DPLA interface (http://dp.la) offers innovative new ways for researchers to discover and use those objects. Researchers can, for instance, locate objects along a historical timeline or locate the contributing institution on an interactive map.

The DLTN is governed by Tenn-Share, the Tennessee library consortium, with support from the University of Tennessee Libraries and the Tennessee State Library and Archives. The following repositories have successfully contributed their digital cultural heritage content to the DPLA by partnering with the DLTN: Knox County Public Library Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection Digital Collection; Memphis Public Library & Information Center Dig Memphis; Middle Tennessee State University Digital Collections; Nashville Public Library Digital Collections; Rhodes College Crossroads to Freedom; Rhodes College Lynx; Tennessee State Library & Archives Tennessee Virtual Archive; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Digital Collections; University of Tennessee Digital Collections.