Dear colleagues, I am pleased to announce the release of the UCLA Library Special Collections Digital Project Toolkit, available here: https://www.library.ucla.edu/special-collections/programs-projects/digital-projects-special-collections

Please share widely with your colleagues interested in digitization and digital scholarship projects! The DPTK is designed to support digitization projects and digital scholarship projects that are initiated and managed in archives and special collections repositories, large and small. It includes detailed templates, workflows, and examples for all stages of digital projects, including:

• Project planning (charters, selection, prioritization, cost estimate)
• Risk assessment (guidelines and workflow, templates for risk reports and fair use statements)
• Implementation planning (metadata guidelines and specifications, scanning specifications and procedures, metadata worksheet)
• Web development planning (example of RFP, and templates for vendor decisions, design/aesthetic/functionality decisions, user profile templates)
• Quality control workflow and guidelines for metadata and scanning
• Communication/documentation tool for technical specifications
• Assessment and evaluation tools and templates

The DPTK was created with the awareness that digitization/digital projects are collaborative efforts between archivists, digital librarians, metadata specialists, technical staff, faculty, and students, and that transparency, cooperation, and good project management are key to their ultimate success. I would like to acknowledge and thank the many people who wrote, tested, critiqued, and revised the DPTK over its 2-year development, particularly the following staff from UCLA Library Special Collections:

• Jasmine Jones, former Project Manager for the Los Angeles Aqueduct Digital Platform at UCLA, now the Metadata and Technical Services Archivist at Smith College
• Gloria Gonzalez, former Digital Archivist at UCLA, now Library Strategist at Zepheira
• Heather Briston, University Archivist at UCLA
• Kylie Harris, former scholar at the Center for Primary Research & Training, now Assistant Information Management Officer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
• Amrey Mathurin, former scholar at the Center for Primary Research & Training, now Digital Projects Assistant at UCLA Library Special Collections
• Numerous scholars in the Center for Primary Research & Training at UCLA Library Special Collections

Special thanks to the staff at the Archives of American Art—they may not know it but their Technical Documentation (available at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/documentation) provided the inspiration for the DPTK. The DPTK is a work in progress and we welcome your comments and questions! Please direct them to me at jcuellar@library.ucla.edu. Best, Jillian …………………… Jillian Cuellar Head, Center for Primary Research & Training and Digital Initiatives UCLA Library Special Collections A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library Box 951575 Los Angeles, CA  90095-1575 310.206.3266 jcuellar@library.ucla.edu