Back to The Land, Back to the Library
Encore is a modern tool for easy discovery of anything your library wants to offer, and, by extension, it is an easy way to promote aspects of the collections that are truly local. An particularly “earthy” example is St. Lawrence University Library’s (NY) pilot project to build, digitize and then harvest a special collection into Encore called Back to the Land Movement in St. Lawrence County (1960-Present). The Dublin Core metadata that will be harvested is an ideal format for easy discovery by users and deployment into a variety of contexts such as OAIster and Innovative’s Encore discovery platform.
Starting four decades ago, St. Lawrence County was one of dozens of rural destinations in the US to attract the attention of “back-to-the-landers,” a broad movement of mostly young people seeking anti-materialistic lifestyles in rural settings. The back-to-the-landers established communes and individual homesteads, experimented with alternatives to the cash economy, and tried to sustain themselves through farming and other land-based ventures. Over the years, they also became engaged citizens of the county, greatly influencing public life in the region.
Three key components of the digital archival project are to search the published record for citations; conduct fieldwork in St. Lawrence County; and invite those associated with the back-to-the-land community to submit copies of their own photographs, journals, and newsletters for inclusion into the collection. The collection will consist of 3,000-4,000 items such as journals, books, newsletters, ephemera, recorded interviews, and photographs created by back-to-the-landers in the county and by those who have documented this movement.
Says Bart Harloe, University Librarian: “Despite the great significance of back-to-the-landers to the history and culture of St. Lawrence County, no systematic effort has ever been made to assemble a research collection on the subject. The partners in this project aim to amass as complete a record of this population as possible.”
The collection is just one of three harvesting projects that also include the Dwight P. Church Photography Collection and Nsukka Artists and Contemporary Nigerian Art Collection. The latter fits perfectly with the curricula offered through St. Lawrence University’s African Studies program and Kenya Study Abroad program. Each entails bringing OAI-compliant metadata into the Encore catalog, side by side with e-journals and book titles.
Harloe continues: “An Encore search will provide a very good picture of what kinds of resources are available, their history and strengths, and a one-step search for articles across the various disciplines. The addition of these three collections, including Back to the Land, is going to blend in as a bellwether of our contribution to the campus and integral to teaching and research.”
Encore quite simply offers up the best from the world of information, plus the ability to bring local collections in the mix that bring folks back to the library, literally and figuratively. In the case of St. Lawrence University…Back to the Land and back to the library!
Find out more about Encore Harvesting Services.