Submitting a Digital Collections Project Proposal

The UW Digital Collections Center welcomes project proposals from UW administration, faculty, staff, and students! Please review the information below prior to submitting your proposal.

In general, you should consider the following criteria *before* submitting a digital project proposal:

1. Who is the audience for this digital project?
2. How will users interact with this material?
3. Is the material already digitized and available online?
4. Do you have permission to digitize and publish online, this material?
5. What impact will digitization/metadata entry have on your daily work?

What makes a good digital project? Consider the following criteria and guidelines for selecting project materials. Projects that are most likely to be approved meet the following criteria:

1. Supports instruction or research needs
2. Does not circulate, e.g. rare books, materials from Special Collections
3. Enhances an existing digital collection
4. Is unique, e.g. not previously digitized nor available online in any format
5. High use materials, regularly requested by UW faculty or students
6. Is distinctive and has potential for academic use and general education interest (K-12)

Although some of our projects are grant-funded, it is not necessary to secure outside funding to complete a project with the UWDCC. There is funding provided by the UW-Madison General Library System for digital projects.

Process

1. Submit your project proposal using our simple Web form.
2. A project manager at UWDCC will contact you to follow up and, if UWDCC seems like a good fit for your project, will need your help to create a cost estimate and project brief that details project deliverables. Information needed for this is:
   • Brief description of the project which includes scope, types of materials, source of the material, extant of materials, relevant audience.
   • Name of some faculty members or departments on UW campuses (at least one UW-Madison faculty member is preferred) who would support the digitization of this collection
   • Copyright information of the content.
   • Any timeline requirements, if any.
3. The UWDCC Digital Collections Development Committee (DCDC) will review the proposal and may ask for additional information.
4. DCDC will respond to the proposal.
   • It will accept the proposal.
   • Or, it will decline the proposal and may suggest other alternatives for funding.
5. If approved, UWDCC staff will work with you to create a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that fully describes the project and its deliverables.
6. When completed, the UWDCC will send you a copy of the MOU for signing.
7. When MOU is returned, you will start work with the UWDC Center on the project.

Questions? Please feel free to contact the UWDCC.