Digital Renewal: Exposing Local Urban Planning Publications to a New Audience

In late 2015 the Art & Architecture librarian contacted the Digital Publishing Librarian about expanding access to a high-demand local book. This was a HUD report on the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project in St. Louis. Our university had the only print copy in circulation in the region, and the report was in high demand among design and urban planning students. Following consultation with the Copyright and Digital Access Librarian, it was decided to digitize the report and publish it in the repository. Since then at least five additional publications have been published online and have become part of the St. Louis Reports and Case Studies collection. This project is an example of an “easy” way to make works about underrepresented or highly topical subjects and issues freely available to a larger audience. This talk will discuss the workflow, including copyright considerations, and the impact of this project.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/lib_present/1025/thumbnail.jp