Activities and Strategies for the Inclusion of a K-12 Educational Component in Digitization Grant Projects of Academic Libraries

Abstract

This article seeks to explore and discuss activities and strategies for including a K-12 educational component in digitization grant projects in academic libraries. The article is based on cases studying the K-12 educational component of the three following grants awarded to East Carolina University Joyner Library by North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online (NC ECHO) grant program: Digitizing Eastern North Carolina History, Fiction and Artifacts: The Eastern North Carolina Digital Library (http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/), Seeds of Change: The Daily Reflector Image Collection (http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/reflector/), and Ensuring Democracy Through Digital Access: North Carolina Government Publications Collection (beta testing). Planning, budgeting, implementation, promotion and lessons learned are discussed offering first-hand experiences in effective methods to integrate activities and strategies into digitization projects providing access to useful resources for all users with a focus on K-12 educators and students. The author‘s interest in this topic is based on cumulative experiences of involvement in the listed digitization grant projects as a private investigator and as an educational consultant of the above grants. Lessons learned are highlighted providing readers with specific, valuable details for consideration to improve future digitization projects.