BCR’s CDP Celebrates 10th Anniversary

BCR News Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Brandie Baumann – bcrpress@bcr.org or 303.751.6277 x110
October 20, 2008

AURORA, Colo. — BCR’s CDP, the nationally recognized digitization collaborative, celebrates 10 years of access, training and service to the cultural heritage community. From its origins as the state-based Colorado Digitization Project, BCR’s Collaborative Digitization Program (CDP) has become a model for creating digital access to the cultural, historical and scientific heritage collections of the West by building collaboration between archives, historical societies, libraries and museums.

During the last 10 years, the foundation of BCR’s CDP evolved from the premise that Colorado’s archives, libraries, museums and historical societies could collaborate to share their unique resources and special collections through digitization. This type of cultural heritage collaboration had never been attempted in the U.S.  

In 1999-2001 CDP received the first of many state and federal grants. This initial IMLS grant allowed the CDP to establish regional scan centers, develop a robust training program, consulting services and a grant program that supported digitization of cultural heritage holdings. In 2001, the CDP was expanded beyond Colorado through the Western Trails project, bringing Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Utah cultural heritage institutions into the collaborative.

In April 2007, the CDP merged into BCR. “The merger of the CDP and BCR has resulted in new initiatives such as collaboration with the Colorado Wyoming Association of Museums on a 2008 IMLS Connecting to Collections grant proposal,” noted Brenda Bailey-Hainer, BCR President and CEO.

Today, the CDP is part of BCR’s Digital and Preservation Services unit, offering training and consulting services along with products and services that support libraries’ and cultural heritage institutions’ digital programs. New content is being added to Heritage West on a regular basis, and BCR is partnering to submit grants that will advance digital and preservation programs in member organizations. Continuing with the CDP’s tradition of collaboration and outreach services, BCR’s CDP program offers best practices and resources for anyone developing their institution’s digital collections. 

Access to the resources created by the CDP members and participants is sustained through the expanding Heritage West database. In addition to increasing access to these unique resources, the CDP also has explored opportunities for incorporating digital primary source materials into classroom instruction. Today, there are more than 130 lesson plans for K-12 teachers available through the BCR CDP website. 

“After more than a decade, the CDP continues to offer libraries and other cultural heritage institutions across the West and the nation access to tools that support their work in creating digital content, as well as examples for how to incorporate digital content into teaching and learning,” commented Liz Bishoff, Director, Digital and Preservation Services, BCR.

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