Digital Special Collections Program

Director: Rosalie Lack
Technical Lead: Brian Tingle

The Digital Special Collections Program creates and manages a diverse range of curated collections that embody the CDL’s commitment to public service. These digitized images and documents — including photographs, artwork, maps, books, newspaper clippings, transcribed oral histories, political cartoons, and much more — are drawn from the collections of the libraries and museums of the 10 UC campuses, and from other cultural heritage organizations and government sources.

These free onsite collections allow scholars, students, educators, and the general public to easily discover primary sources and other information once accessible only by scholars able to visit the physical collections.

The sites managed by the Digital Special Collections Program include:

• Calisphere: The University of California’s free public gateway to more than 200,000 digitized primary sources. Selected from the libraries and museums of the UC campuses and cultural heritage organizations across California, these images, documents, and works of art reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history. This site serves scholars and the general public, and is also tailored to meet the needs of K-12 educators. It includes three important primary source image and document collections that are contextualized with historical essays: Themed Collections, California Cultures, and the Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives.
• Online Archive of California (OAC): A single, searchable database of finding aids to thousands of primary source materials (such as manuscripts, photographs, and art) and their digital facsimiles held in a variety of California institutions, including libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives.
• Counting California: "One-stop shopping" for a variety of data and statistics about California from local, state, and federal government agencies. UPDATE: Counting California is shutting down, June 1, 2008. Learn more.
• UC Image Service: Digital images and search and presentation tools that support teaching, learning, and research for faculty and students at UC. This service provides access to licensed collections and images from UC archives, museums, and libraries, and covers a range of topics, including the arts, history, architecture, design, anthropology, and geography.