Community Digitization Program
VCU Libraries seeks community partners interested in digitizing and exposing their special collections, archival records, photographs, publications and other documents. VCU Libraries has the professional infrastructure and experience to support the full digitization lifecycle, including capture, description, online presentation and preservation. VCU Libraries has more than 20 years of experience with digital collections and currently houses more than 41,000 digital objects in all formats available for worldwide research.
VCU Libraries has successfully partnered with the following organizations and individuals in building some of our existing Digital Collections.
- Historic Richmond: Broad Street Old and Historic District, Richmond
- Kay Seidenberg: Nursing Postcard Collection
- Lyrasis Digitization Collaborative: VCU Yearbooks
- Museum of the Confederacy: Robertson Hospital Register
- Individual Donors: Farmville 1963 Civil Rights Protests, Rarely Seen Richmond
- U. S. Army: PS Magazine
- Valentine Museum: Through the Lens of Time, Historic Fulton Oral History Project
- Dr. John Kneebone, VCU History: Mapping the Second Ku Klux Klan, 1915-1940
- Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and the VCU Rice Rivers Center: The Ancarrow Wildflower Digital Archive
Let us help you
Together we can preserve and promote your materials while contributing to VCU Libraries' research and educational. Preview a sample digitization agreement used with our community partners and to learn more or to find out if your collection qualifies. Consult our Digital Collections Development Guidelines to learn about how we select projects.
Our archivists can also discuss with you how even greater protection for your valuable assets are possible when physical collections that are within the scope of our mission are accepted into the library to become a permanent part of its Special Collections and Archives.
Potential grant possibilities
While many collections can be digitized using the VCU Libraries’ own resources, sometimes the scale of a collection may require additional assistance. The following organizations provide ongoing grant opportunities that could also be pursued in partnership with VCU Libraries.