A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats: Building A Collaborative Workflow for Digital Collections

In preparation for a migration to a new digital asset management system, the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) Library revamped their workflow for digital collections, taking a fresh look at how either born-digital content or physical content that was chosen for digitization were preserved and described. The old workflow that was used was ad hoc and varied from project to project. It was also unclear who should be involved at each step, making collaboration difficult. The new workflow instead laid out clear guidelines and established step by step procedures that made content available to the public more quickly. Stakeholders from the Digital Programs & Services, Resource Acquisition & Management, and the Special Collections & University Archives departments collaborated on the workflow, being sure to incorporate the needs, strengths and perspectives of each department. This poster will showcase the old vs the new workflows and highlight collections that show the results of the new workflow.