California Revealed
California Revealed is a statewide initiative that helps public libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other heritage groups digitize, preserve, and provide online access to materials documenting the state’s history, art, and cultures. The program also provides free access and preservation services for existing digital collections, and for organizations with in-house digitization programs.
Since its launch in 2010 as a digitization initiative focused on audiovisual recordings, California Revealed has brought special focus to educating and empowering regional organizations to make the most of their collections with approachable digital tools and archival practices. Responding to a growing need from community heritage groups, California Revealed broadened its scope to provide free digitization and preservation assistance for print-based media in 2016.
To date, California Revealed has preserved more than 130,000 objects from over 400 partner organizations representing a diverse array of constituencies and collections from all over the state. The objects themselves are similarly eclectic: motion picture film, video tapes, audio recordings, newspapers, scrapbooks, photographs, microfilm, manuscripts, digital files, and more.
By providing the public with online access to digitized materials, California Revealed is able to aggregate and connect the diverse collections of California’s heritage institutions into a single digital resource, available at californiarevealed.org.
California Revealed records are also accessible through the Internet Archive, the Digital Public Library of America, WorldCat, and Calisphere, ensuring multiple access points for public discovery. Offering a kaleidoscopic view of California culture and history, California Revealed’s collections are an important and unique resource for a variety of users, including educators and students looking to integrate primary sources into their course of study.
Opportunities for Assistance
Each year, California Revealed issues an open call for libraries and other memory organizations to nominate their collections related to California history for digitization and preservation assistance. California Revealed also offers targeted support for cataloging, community archiving, and K-12 curriculum development, and is also working with the State Library to establish Memory Labs at libraries across the state.
Please visit the Partner with Us page of California Revealed for more detailed information about how to participate in the program.
Digitization and Digital Preservation Resources
California Revealed has compiled a comprehensive list of resources to assist libraries and other California Revealed has compiled a detailed list of resources to assist libraries and other organizations with collections care, description, digitization, and preservation. Visit the California Revealed Resources page to discover these, as well as information about copyright and permissions, disaster readiness, and training and funding opportunities.
Contact Us
Want to participate? Contact the California Revealed team. Questions about LSTA support for this project? Contact the State Library.