DUBLIN, Ohio, 7 September 2023—OCLC has been awarded an IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant to support library learning in digital collections stewardship through a new on-demand course and facilitated group learning.

OCLC's WebJunction will partner with five state libraries—Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, and Wyoming—to co-design and pilot training based on the Digital Collections Stewardship course series, using a facilitated peer-learning group model. This effort will support up to 200 staff at libraries, archives, and museums in creating, sharing, and stewarding digital collections. The project will also create a new course for WebJunction's Digital Collections Stewardship course series on how to build more diverse digital collections.

"This grant will foster a more comprehensive, equitable, and inclusive approach to the communities these cultural heritage institutions serve, resulting in collections that better reflect their local and regional histories," said Andrew Harbison, Director, WebJunction.

The project will equip state library agencies with strategies and resources to successfully adopt the facilitated peer-learning group training model to increase the reach of their training. The initiative will also raise awareness of state and regional repositories, help states to create or strengthen the networks of learners at cultural heritage institutions, and support increased participation in available digital memory projects and related technical training.

"Digital collections stewardship can be a tough subject, and it can be overwhelming trying to work through training on this on your own," said Biz Gallo, Statewide Digitization Initiatives Coordinator at the Library of Michigan and co-founder of the Digital Initiatives Staff at State Library Agencies (DISSLA). "We see the need to work together as a community of learners. We know that using a cohort model works and is more effective than trying to learn all by yourself."

The new WebJunction course will add to the existing Digital Collections Stewardship course series that is currently available on-demand. The new course on diversifying digital collections will be published in 2024. Outcomes from the state library partner-facilitated learning program, including a freely available group learning guide, will be available in 2026.