Beyond the Bookshelf
Explore success stories from other libraries and how they are using our tools in their communities. #beyondthebookshelf
Collected Lady Eagle Oral History Project Training Research Acumen (CLEOPATRA)
North Carolina Central University
Service Area: : Durham, NC
Population Served: 10,000+
01 Opportunity
North Carolina Central University (NCCU) was awarded a prestigious five-year, $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish CLEOPATRA (Collected Lady Eagle Oral History Project Training Research Acumen)—an ambitious oral history archive dedicated to documenting the lives, legacies, and leadership of Black women who are NCCU alumnae. The project aims to create a lasting digital record of these important narratives, serving as a research resource and a point of institutional pride. With plans to continue building this archive each year, NCCU sought a digital platform to support a wide range of multimedia formats, offer long-term accessibility, and integrate easily with existing campus systems.
02 Innovation
After evaluating numerous digital archive and content hosting solutions, NCCU selected BiblioBoard as the foundation for the CLEOPATRA Project. The platform stood out for its ability to handle mixed media, including video, audio, and PDFs, and for its user-friendly curation tool, Creator, that allows faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students to collaboratively upload, organize, and manage content. BiblioBoard’s secure, library-friendly infrastructure met stringent IT requirements following a campus security breach. As Dr. Rachelle Gold, project lead and faculty member at NCCU, explains:
“BiblioBoard was the perfect fit—it ensures our alumnae archive exists in perpetuity, offers multimedia support, and is accessible for research and campus pride. With NCCU already subscribing, it provided a seamless, secure solution for preserving these invaluable stories.”
03 Engagement
The CLEOPATRA Project is already becoming a dynamic and growing record of Black women’s contributions to making history, seeking justice, and building community. With profiles added each semester, the archive not only amplifies the voices of individual alumnae but also creates a living resource for researchers, educators, and the broader NCCU community. By leveraging BiblioBoard’s open-access capabilities, the university ensures the project’s visibility and impact extend well beyond campus, strengthening community connections and inspiring future generations of scholars and students alike.
LOCAL HISTORY OF SAGINAW
Public Libraries of Saginaw
Service Area: : Saginaw, MI
Population Served: 125,000
01 Opportunity
The Public Libraries of Saginaw has long been a dedicated steward of their community’s rich history. Over time, with the help of grants, donations, and generous volunteers, the library has amassed a number of robust local history collections. As these collections continued to grow, the library wanted to make sure they were easily accessible to the public on an intuitive and user-friendly platform.
02 Innovation
The Saginaw team partnered with BiblioBoard to automate the ingestion of all of their digital local history content— including their former CONTENTdm materials— into thematic collections on the BiblioBoard Library mobile and web platform. As the library continues to host more digitization drives, and further cultivate their local history resources, they can grow their current collections on BiblioBoard, and add new ones as well.
03 Engagement
In order to minimize barriers to access and maximize exposure to their local history collections on BiblioBoard, The Public Libraries of Saginaw team leveraged multiple authentication methods and discovery points. Beyond the direct links to each collection featured on the library’s website, Saginaw also opted to make their collections available on the Open Access side of BiblioBoard as well. This means that anyone worldwide can explore Saginaw’s unique and expansive past on their preferred browser or mobile device with just one click of a button.
WILLI WINKELS
The Blue Mountains Public Library
Service Area: : The Blue Mountains, Ontario [Canada]
Population Served: 6,500+
01 Opportunity
The late Willi Winkels was a transformative force in the fields of skateboarding and snowboarding, with fans spanning around the world and a legacy sure to endure for decades to come. For the Blue Mountains community, Winkels was also a local legend who holds a special place in the town’s history, so in recent years, the Blue Mountains Public Library started looking for a way to celebrate and honor this beloved hometown innovator.
02 Innovation
Through the use of a Custom Submission Page, the Blue Mountains Public Library invited community members to share stories, pictures, and memories of Willi in an effort to shine a spotlight on his life, his inventions, and his impact far and wide.
03 Engagement
The local affection for Willi Winkels did not disappoint, and the Blue Mountains Public Library saw a flood of submissions capturing all kinds of touching memories of the homegrown trailblazer. “It has been exciting and humbling to hear memories of Willi from former pro skaters like Doug Teramoto and the first female snowboarder, Judy Winkels,” explains Allison Brown, Museum Assistant at the Blue Mountains Craigleith Heritage Depot. The effort shows no sign of slowing down as the library continues to accept submissions and expand the Willi Winkels collection long after its initial launch.
ARTS FOR INCARCERATED YOUTH NETWORK
LA County Library
Service Area: : LA County, CA
Population Served: 3,300,000+
01 Opportunity
Since 2017, LA County Library has been a proud partner of the Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network (AIYN), an interdisciplinary collaborative that provides exceptional arts programming in order to build resiliency and wellness, eliminate recidivism, and transform the juvenile justice system. Librarians participating in the program wanted to not only educate the youth on the resources available at the library to support their artistic endeavors; they also wanted to be able to actively showcase the work created in these AIYN workshops.
02 Innovation
By using the Creator tool and a Custom Submission Page, LA County Library has been able to create and maintain a growing collection of the artistic works being produced through the AIYN workshops. From poetry to paintings to original music and beyond, the Arts for Incarcerated Youth Network Publications collection features a wide variety of the incredible creations coming out of this innovative program.
03 Engagement
As the AIYN programming continues to expand and succeed, so does its collection of work on BiblioBoard. Since the collection can be updated as frequently as new works are produced, the team at LA County Library continues to capture and catalog the entire archive of creations from these young artists. The library further promotes AIYN’s mission by having this dynamic collection available with BiblioBoard’s geolocation authentication, giving anyone in LA County instant, unlimited access to these creative works.
50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE APOLLO MOON LANDING
Slover Library (Norfolk Public Library)
Service Area: : Norfolk, VA
Population Served: 246,000+
01 Opportunity
Approaching the summer of 2019, with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing on the horizon, Norfolk’s Slover Library saw a unique opportunity to bring its community members of all ages together to reflect on the significance of space exploration.
02 Innovation
In partnership with Old Dominion University and the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, Slover Library decided to host a contest challenging community members to have a cross-generational discussion on the subject of the Moon Landing and submit a creative work reflective of their thoughts. Through their BiblioBoard subscription, Slover Library utilized Custom Submission Pages to field submissions to the contest and published the works in a very unique collection on BiblioBoard Library.
03 Engagement
This project bridged the divide between the Apollo and digital generations by providing an outlet for younger and older community members to engage with each other and learn from one another. Slover Library ensured that this notion will continue to live on long after the contest ended by making the entries openly available on BiblioBoard for patrons of all libraries to enjoy.
MANLIUS INFORMED SERIES
Manlius Public Library
Service Area: : Manlius, NY
Population Served: 11,000+
01 Opportunity
In collaboration with the Manlius Senior Center, the Manlius Public Library regularly hosts the Manlius Informed Series, a prestigious (and free!) lecture series for the people of Manlius. With the popularity of this engaging series increasing over the years, the Manlius Public Library wanted to find a way to preserve and share these speakers with those unable to attend in person.
02 Innovation
Using their BiblioBoard Creator subscription, the Manlius Public Library was able to upload and organize recordings of the past six years of the Manlius Informed Series into a collection on BiblioBoard Library. Going forward, since the collection can be updated at any time, Manlius will be able to continuously add additional recordings as more installments of the speaker series are held.
03 Engagement
In addition to making these recordings available digitally for the first time to local Manlius patrons, the library also decided to expand its audience by providing the collection as Open Access on BiblioBoard, inviting the greater public to appreciate the series as well. By opening up this level of access and preserving these events for digital consumption, Manlius is able to simultaneously promote the collections, as well as the live programming itself.
GRAPHIC NOVEL MAKING CONTEST
San Jose Public Library
Service Area: : San Jose, CA
Population Served: 1,000,000+
01 Opportunity
Since 2009, San Jose Public Library has been hosting their annual Graphic Novel Making Contest to support and encourage the creative interests of their community’s artists and storytellers of all ages. With each year, the contest has grown and the number of submissions continued to multiply. With this increase in popularity, the SJPL team started looking for a way to make handling the entries more manageable for the judges, and more accessible to the general public.
02 Innovation
Using a Custom Submission Page, SJPL was able to streamline their submission process, making it easier for them to collect work from their community. Because of this process, judges now had immediate accessibility to the submissions which in turn allowed them to quickly create a readily-available collection for the community to enjoy with unlimited, multi-user access on BiblioBoard Library.
03 Engagement
The 10th anniversary of the Graphic Novel Making Contest marked the largest number of submissions to date and culminated in an awards ceremony with over 350 community members in attendance. This new approach to facilitating and hosting the contest submissions also means that with every contest going forward, the archive of submissions on BiblioBoard Library will continue to grow and preserve the talents of the local creatives participating for years to come.
300th ANNIVERSARY ARCHIVE
BiblioTech / Bexar County
Service Area: : Bexar County, TX
Population Served: 80,000+
01 Opportunity
2018 marked the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Presidio de Béjar and the city of San Antonio. To commemorate the occasion, BiblioTech, the nation’s first all-digital public library, wanted to partner with towns and community members throughout the county to preserve and share accounts of the area’s rich cultural history.
02 Innovation
Using a Custom Submission Page, BiblioTech invited local residents to submit photos, documents, oral histories, videos, and other digital ephemera to celebrate the area’s storied past, recognize progress, and prepare for a bright future. In collaboration with these public contributions, city managers and librarians curated multimedia digital collections reflective of the various towns’ unique stories.
03 Engagement
In addition to making the project a community-owned initiative by incorporating public contributions in the collections, BiblioTech also opted to have the Bexar County 300th Anniversary Digital Archives included in the Open Access side of BiblioBoard Library. By doing so, BiblioTech ensured that these collaborative collections were made available to anyone with internet access, worldwide. Together, these instant-access collections that comprise the 300th Anniversary Digital Archives will celebrate, preserve, and promote the diverse histories of Bexar County for years to come.
LISTEN UP STL
St. Louis County
Service Area: : Greater St. Louis
Population Served: 319,000+
01 Opportunity
St. Louis County Library wanted to tap into the community’s large, eclectic music scene to help celebrate and promote local creatives. With Listen Up STL the library saw an opportunity to not only introduce patrons to the abundant local talent but also to help the musicians gain a wider audience of listeners and generate new interest in their shows at local venues.
02 Innovation
Through their BiblioBoard subscription, SLCL created a Custom Submission Page to solicit music from local artists and make it available for unlimited, multi-user access in a collection on BiblioBoard Library that they aptly named, Listen Up STL.
03 Engagement
Beyond the ever-growing digital collection of over 130 albums from local artists of a wide variety of genres, the library has also gone on to host a series of free, outdoor concerts called “Listen Up STL Live” featuring artists that also participate in the collection. As this creative programming continues to expand its engagement, it also continues to bring in new library patrons as well.
RAP CLUB
New Hanover County
Service Area: Greater Wilmington, NC
Population Served: 220,000+
01 Opportunity
In 2012, youth services librarian, Scooter Hayes, used a grant from the Friends of the New Hanover County Public Library to introduce a new children’s program called The Rap Club. Meeting once a week to write and record songs, this program aimed to provide younger patrons with a fun opportunity to play with language and express themselves, all while developing critical literacy skills. As the program continued to generate more and more interest, Hayes and his team wanted to showcase the group’s talent and hard work with the greater community.
02 Innovation
Using the Creator tool, Hayes was able to easily upload and organize the Rap Club’s songs, music videos, interviews, and performances into a collection on BiblioBoard Library for unlimited, multi-user access.
03 Engagement
Since New Hanover County Public Library utilizes BiblioBoard’s geolocation authentication, anyone in their service area is able to access the Rap Club collection with just a click of a button, no login or library card needed. This instant access allows for members of the community to learn about the program and enjoy the Rap Club’s talents with ease, while also creating new digital library users. With the success of the Rap Club collection, New Hanover plans to continue to use the Creator tool to build additional collections showcasing other creative programming like their Fiction to Fashion Show.