How digitizing the past helps shape the institutional shared future. The case of digitizing the Students' Publications of the American University in Bulgaria

Abstract

The poster presents a local institutional project of building an AUBG Students' Publications Digital Archive. The aim is to share with the audience the gained experience and the valuable outcomes, as well as to give practical advice of how to use similar strategies to create, manage, and most importantly involve other community constituencies in such project. Unlike any other library digital collections project, this one was initiated following a strong students'/alumni interest. It was a natural bond, as Panitza Library has always been a valued partner by the students' organizations.

Over the years, AUBG students have shown active engagement in various university, local community, national/international matters, expressed in numerous print publications. These publications represent the students' views on important political and social issues, especially during the first years of the democracy in Bulgaria (when the rise and the development of the civil society, the protests for rights and freedom of speech were of vital importance), and served the diverse community of students as a legitimate source of information, and an illustration of their fights against injustice and discrimination. The Students' Publications are part of the University's history and memory and the Library is determined to preserve and open the access to them.