A Handful of Things

How do large digital libraries transform collections intended for university-level research and teaching into accessible resources for multiple audiences? How do universities leverage their collections to fulfill their public service missions? The University of California, California Digital Library (CDL) is developing and implementing strategies that will modify its university- and research-oriented digital collections to make them available to non-university audiences in an attractive and usable format.Within CDL's work in this area, theCalisphere Themed Collection Project(CTC) had the specific charge of transforming selections from the University of California's (UC's) systemwide digital materials to make them useful for K-12 teachers. The goal of the CTC Project was to create a modest number of online collections of a distinct type:themed collections. Athemed collectionis an easy-to-use, flexible set of digital primary resources organized around a specific theme