The “core values” for Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives are statements that affirm the program’s broad objectives. These statements are provided to guide applicants in developing their projects, and to guide reviewers in assessing applicants’ proposals. CLIR’s review panel and officers of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation advise program staff in reassessing the program’s priorities and the relevance of the core values to these priorities on an annual basis, making adjustments as needed.

The five core values are: public knowledge, broad representation, authentic partnerships, sustainable infrastructures, and community-centered access. Additional information on the program’s core values can be found on the program’s homepage.

CLIR’s program seeks to serve the “public good” in two senses: first, to emphasize that access to cultural and historical knowledge by the general public is necessary for the healthy functioning of any democratic society; and, second, to recognize that a coordinated and collaborative approach to managing that knowledge as a shared resource and responsibility is the fairest and most effective strategy for preserving human knowledge for future generations. The emerging global digital learning environment affords many opportunities to create broad access to knowledge and to collaborate on decisions about how that access is created and maintained, but only when collecting organizations prioritize the broader public good will it become possible to build a learning environment that is equally representative of and beneficial to all.

CLIR’s program supports digitization projects that will thoughtfully capture and share the untapped stories of people, communities, and populations who are underrepresented in digital collections in ways that contribute to a more complete understanding of human history. This program’s theme and core values focus on often “hidden” histories that include, but are not necessarily limited to, those of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other People of Color; Women; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Non-binary, and other Genderqueer people and communities; Immigrants; Displaced populations; Blind, Deaf, and Disabled people and communities; and Colonized, Disenfranchised, Enslaved, and Incarcerated people. This value is inclusive in nature rather than exclusive, and applications are welcomed that can make a compelling case for the collection(s) nominated for digitization. The use of “voices” and “stories” does not limit collections to narrative or oral history materials as diversification of the historical record can be accomplished through digitization of a variety of materials.

Authentic partnerships foreground meaningful engagement with the communities and organizations whose materials the source materials tell and build inclusive teams across organizational and geographic boundaries. Each partner’s needs and goals should be acknowledged in the project planning stages, working to design the project together. Throughout the process, each partner should be clear on the goals and deliverables and have a voice in any decisions about fulfilling them. 

Partnerships might also be with community organizations and groups represented in collections. Community members should have avenues to give feedback on the project and recipient organizations should commit to soliciting and integrating that feedback into their approach in a way that honors community members’ lived experiences, especially in cases where organizations are led and staffed by individuals who are not members of the represented communities themselves.

Building authentic partnerships takes thoughtfulness and time. If you are seeking a collaborator to work with you formally on a Digitizing Hidden Collections project, we recommend reaching out to your known network of organizations, especially targeting organizations that may have expertise or resources that complement your own. Listservs, message boards, and social media may offer ways to make connections or gather potential contacts within an organization that may be unfamiliar to you.

Digitization is only the first step when considering expanding access to materials; organizations should be prepared to sustain the digital resources over time. The DLF Digitizing Special Formats wiki provides a number of resources to consider when planning for a digitization project. Exploring the standards established by associations and organizations, such as Digital Preservation at the Library of Congress, could also help you consider important questions in the planning stages of your project. Consider the viability of providing access through digital collection aggregators or other platforms outside your own organization and implementing technical and description standards that will help your collection live within the increasingly interconnected landscape of digital collections.

Rather than exclusively valuing broad open access, this program advocated for approaches to access, description, and outreach that make digitized content as widely available and useful as possible within legal and ethical constraints. Applicants should consider differentiated access, empowering the communities and peoples represented in collections with their own knowledge to filter access through appropriate lenses as defined by their own values and concerns. While the program does require that metadata created during the course of project work be dedicated to the public domain, ethical exceptions are permitted.