“There is no more powerful source of freedom and human growth than an open society with an educated populace, which is what open access is working to support. Reveal Digital is a critical partner in the furtherance of this mission. It provides a model by which libraries make collections available to the public effectively and efficiently at a modest investment level that aligns with the non-commercial economy in which libraries exist.”
— Reveal Digital Executive Committee
WHAT WE DO
Reveal Digital provides a library crowd-publishing model where libraries pool funds from their acquisitions budgets to develop open access curated primary source collections. Reveal Digital’s collections bring together fragmented documentary material from under-represented 20th century voices of dissent.
Reveal Digital sources content from a wide array of libraries, museums, historical societies and individual collectors. The results are diverse thematic collections of scholarly value available to everyone everywhere.
HOW WE DO IT
There are two publishing models in which libraries participate; a one-time contribution model and a multi-year strategic development model.
One-Time Contribution Model
Using the one-time contribution model, Reveal Digital defines the scope and cost of a collection up front and seeks one-time contributions from libraries to meet the project’s cost-recovery threshold.
The cost recovery threshold includes all costs associated with producing and hosting the new digital collection. We make these costs transparent through cost graphs on project web pages. Funding libraries receive early access to the collection while it is being developed. The collection is opened to everyone in perpetuity once the cost recovery threshold is reached.
Benefits to Funding Libraries
Early access
Usage reports
MARC records
Regular progress reports
Projects
Independent Voices – Open to everyone
Understanding Hate in America – In Development – Funding library-only access
Strategic Development Model
With our strategic development model, libraries make a five-year commitment to contribute annually (or as a lump sum) to a Fund that supports the development of new collections around a broad theme. Each year we establish a focused thematic emphasis under the broader theme for that year’s collection. We seek thematic ideas from funding libraries. The Fund’s editorial board and funding libraries help determine the final project selection.
Once a project is identified and scoped, Reveal Digital manages the entire publishing process by acquiring source material, clearing copyright (if required), digitizing the content, and hosting it (on Veridian for now but moving to the JSTOR platform later in 2020).
Benefits to Funding Libraries
Early access while collections are under development
Usage reports
MARC records
Regular updates on the project’s progress
Eligibility to participate in governance through our Executive Committee, Editorial Boards and working groups
Fund #1: Diversity & Dissent: Civil Society in 20th Century America
Projects
Student Activism on Campus
SOURCE LIBRARIES
Source libraries and rights holders receive digital copies (images and metadata) of all of the material they provide to a collection. REVEAL DIGITAL makes no ownership claims to the digitized content. All rights to the content reside with the original rights holders or with the source institutions for out-of-copyright material. To facilitate communication with the end users we provide links from the content pages in our collections to the rights holders and/or source institutions.
Interested in learning more? Contact Peggy Glahn at peggy.glahn@ithaka.org or call 734-887-7040.