Ayla Stein, University of Illinois Metadata Librarian and Assistant Professor, is part of a Digital Library Federation working group that has been awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant that will allow the team to research the use cases and ideal functionality of a future toolkit for assessing the reuse of digital library objects in cultural heritage institutions. The grant period begins in July 2017 and will last for a year as the team conducts an extensive needs assessment.

The other group members include Genya O’Gara (Virtual Library of Virginia), Elizabeth Kelly (Loyola University New Orleans), Caroline Muglia (University of Southern California), and Liz Woolcott (Utah State University). Santi Thompson (University of Houston) is the Principal Investigator.

The working group is the Reuse subgroup of the larger Digital Library Federation Assessment Interest Group. The researchers hope that through their needs assessment, the foundation can be laid for a future toolkit to assess digital library reuse in cultural heritage organizations. This work is valuable because current methods for assessing digital object reuse are fragmented and often track statistics for access only–this does not provide enough detail about how different communities utilize unique materials from digital repository collections. A wiki website is maintained by the subgroup and includes more details about their current projects.

Stein joined the University of Illinois Library faculty in 2014, after working as the Web Services fellow at the University of Houston Libraries in Houston, Texas. Stein earned her degree in library science from the University of Michigan in 2012. Her research interests focus on the assessment and use of digital repository systems, collections, and descriptive data, as well as metadata issues around research data curation and scholarly communication. Stein’s recent publications have centered around the DataCite Metadata Schema and metadata design for the Illinois Data Bank, as well as the migration of digital repository content systems.

For more about the project, visit the Digital Library Foundation’s Blog.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and approximately 35,000 museums. Its mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement. Its grant making, policy development, and research help libraries and museums deliver valuable services that make it possible for communities and individuals to thrive. To learn more, visit www.imls.gov and follow IMLS on Facebook and Twitter.