UTA Libraries Celebrates Launch of Digital Image Repository

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries is excited to announce the launch of an expansive, enhanced Digital Gallery.

This repository of 76,000+ images is designed to broaden access to the rich materials in UTA Special Collections. The simplified and intuitive web interface is supplemented by rich metadata that allows users to browse by collections, date range, or search specific subject terms.

“Special Collections is a jewel—our photographs are used for school papers, genealogy research, club programs, instruction; theses and dissertations, news broadcasts, documentaries, books, and more,” said Brenda McClurkin, department head of Special Collections. “We want to share the extraordinary collections that have been built and nurtured over the past 50 plus years with our community, and will continue to expand the Digital Gallery for years to come.”

The Gallery’s previous iteration had been built using the Omeka platform, which the Libraries’ extensive collections outgrew. Work on the new website, which is powered by Drupal for design flexibility and stability, has been in progress for about a year.

Some of the upgrades that users can expect include:

• The items are now arranged in user friendly categories, such as Labor and Politics, Sports and Recreation, and World Events.
• There are more, larger thumbnail images provided for categories and collections to give users an immediate sense of what they might find.
• Each item contains links to related categories and subjects so that users can easily discover similar images and documents.

Jeff Downing, Digital Projects Librarian and lead on the Digital Gallery upgrade, says the goals of the site remain the same.

“By placing these images online, we're giving global access,” Downing said. “Anyone can access the Gallery from anywhere in the world, and at a time convenient for them.”

In addition, the new Director of Open Archives and Discovery Somaly Kim Wu says she hopes the Digital Gallery provides opportunities for course integration.

“Special Collections already works alongside researchers and faculty to incorporate archival materials into the classroom—I would like to expand this effort further and meet the users at their point of need,” Kim Wu said. “To achieve this, the team will work to engage researchers and scholars this academic year to increase awareness and use of the Digital Gallery and how technology can eliminate barriers to discovery.”

Users can explore the Digital Gallery or one of the Libraries’ other digital collections today.