Vassar College Digital Library

Video Introduction

(TRANSCRIPT)

Our goals

Vassar College Libraries are committed to supporting a framework of sustainable access to our digital collections and to participate locally, nationally, and globally with other cultural and professional organizations and institutions in efforts to preserve, augment, and disseminate our collective documentary heritage. We are actively improving existing infrastructure and developing new technologies to collect, manage, preserve, and make available our digital collections. The Vassar College Libraries assume responsibility for the long-term preservation and accessibility of the digital material in our care.

Vassar College Libraries are an active member of the Islandora Collaboration Group (ICG), founded in 2012. ICG is a consortium of primarily liberal arts colleges collaborating to support and extend the Islandora digital repository through direct development, resource pooling, and advocacy. Involvement in organizations such as ICG, the Digital Library Federation, and the Connect New York digitization committee is a testament to Vassar College Libraries’ commitment to the storage, preservation, and access of digital collections.

Through our digital collections, we aim to provide access to high-quality digital content generated by the Libraries for research and study, as open as possible; support the teaching, learning, and research needs of the College; preserve at-risk or fragile physical collections through digitization, or at-risk born-digital collections through reformatting; expose hidden, less-used physical collections through access to digital surrogates; and foster experimental, cutting-edge, and innovative projects through technology. 

We carefully select items based on a wide set of criteria.

Current and past digital library contributors

The digital library is made possible by work from members of the Archives & Special Collections Library, Dickinson Music Library, Digital Scholarship & Technology Services Department, library colleagues throughout the Vassar College Libraries, student assistants, Vassar College Biology Department, and the library technology community. Special thanks to:

  • Nicole H. Scalessa, Head of Digital Scholarship & Technology Services
  • Sharyn Cadogan, Digital Production Manager, DS&T
  • Arianna Schlegel, Systems Librarian, DS&T
  • Laura Streett, Digital Archivist & Access Librarian, DS&T
  • Isabel Bielat (VC 2020)
  • Ann Churukian, Music Cataloger
  • James Costopoulos
  • Kristen Diep (VC 2018)
  • Andrea Ditkoff (VC 2018)
  • Maxwell Hamilton (VC 2020)
  • Jessie Horn (VC 2023)
  • Beatrix Jones (VC 2020)
  • Tori Larson (VC 2014)
  • Aaron Mahr (VC 2022)
  • Gretchen Maslin (VC 2013)
  • Laila Bárcenas Meade (VC 2022)
  • Kristen Palasick (VC 2014)
  • Augene Park (VC 2016)
  • Madeline Pollis (VC 2016)
  • Celeste Pozderec (VC 2024)
  • Mi Rae Shin (VC 2016)
  • Maeve Smith (VC 2024)
  • Arick Wong (VC 2014)
  • Tracy Wright-Mauer

For more information

  • Contact us for more information about the digital library group, the technologies we use, and our projects.