Community-Based Digital Archives to Support Diversifying Campuses and Enhance Community Involvement

Abstract

This installment of "Reports from the Field" demonstrates how the building of communitybased digital archives in academic libraries can support campus diversity initiatives and spur greater engagement with community concerns. As college campuses rapidly become more diverse along racial and ethnic lines, social issues concerning race and ethnicity arise frequently both on campus and in the surrounding communities. These issues create an opportunity for academic libraries to build digital archives that reflect the voices of community members and for students and professors to engage with these materials in their learning and research. As a result, the curriculum and research possibilities of educational institutions can more clearly reflect the diversity in and around them. This report describes a multiyear, multi-institutional effort to build community-based digital archives. Through the creation of such archives, the academic library becomes pivotal in helping colleges and communities engage with one another in reciprocally beneficial ways.Public libraries have much to teach academic libraries regarding community involvement and inclusion.