Community digitization partnerships: Leveraging our strengths for local groups

Tuesday May 12, 2026

From 12:45pm to 1:00pm

Digital Heritage

McGill Libraries is a local leader in digitization with a lab comprising eight machines, including large format scanning and the capacity to scan thousands of objects each year. While the lab traditionally focused on only digitizing materials in McGill Libraries’ collections, it consistently received inquiries from groups within and outside McGill to assist in digitization efforts.  At the same time, McGill Libraries had set a strategic goal to “further embed McGill into the fabric of Quebec society”.  

With this goal in mind, in 2025 we proposed two new services for community groups: in-kind digitization services and training in digitization, metadata, and copyright. These services build upon past successes with local groups that had previously been undertaken on an ad-hoc basis. These services would allow us to share our local expertise and resources to benefit the Quebec community, alleviating resource inequity for local groups and providing in-kind services to often underrepresented and under-resourced groups. 

Launched in early 2026, this presentation will discuss the rationale and scope for the service as well as highlight past efforts that inspired us to formalize this offering to the local community.  