Digital Library Platform connects history, science, and community

The Virginia Tech Digital Library Platform, developed by University Libraries, offers centralized access to diverse digital collections, from 19th century manuscripts to 3D-scanned scientific specimens.

The platform supports both scholarly research and public discovery by consolidating materials previously scattered across separate systems.

"What makes this platform unique is that it not only houses collections but connects them across disciplines and national databases while also bringing together people from the community to engage with knowledge in new and meaningful ways," said Wen Nie Ng, digital collections librarian and metadata expert.

A multidisciplinary team collaborated to develop the digital library, integrating diverse expertise and technologies:

• Jennifer Goyne, digital libraries product manager
• Alex Kinnaman, assistant director for digital libraries and preservation
• Wen Nie Ng, digital collections librarian
• Lee Hunter, software engineer
• Yangkai Lin, software engineer
• Padma Carstens, digital library application developer
• Kelly Mills, UI/UX developer
• Steve Tatum, digital collections curator
• Bipasha Banerjee, artificial intelligence (AI) research scientist
• Eva Deisa, 3D technical artist
• Julia Westblade, digital imaging coordinator

More than digitization

The digital library aims to unify Virginia Tech’s digital collections and those of regional collaborators into a publicly accessible platform. 

“We’re bringing together a vast number of digital collections from Virginia Tech as well as local and regional collaborators across formats and disciplines into a mature platform that is publicly accessible,” said Goyne, digital libraries product manager who leads the initiative.

The digital library goes far beyond traditional digitization efforts. Built on Amazon Web Services with custom features, the platform serves as a public interface and robust system supporting preservation standards, refined workflows, and enhanced user experience. The aim is to ensure long-term access to digital materials and provide meaningful user engagement. 

"We get to work every day making information available to the entire world for free," said Hunter. "And Virginia Tech has a very wide reach, so hopefully we can leverage that to help people that we'd never connect with otherwise. Making information available to the public is hugely important. It pushes everyone forward."

Built to last

Behind the user interface lies an infrastructure that includes redundant storage, metadata services, and preservation workflows, ensuring long-term access.

"The platform is more than a user interface,” said Goyne. “It encompasses the infrastructure, workflows, and policy framework required to sustain long-term access to the university’s digital collections.

"It supports preservation planning, staff-curated metadata, and repository services designed to ensure the ongoing usability of digital assets over time."

Community at the core

University Libraries at Virginia Tech values partnerships with regional organizations. The platform hosts collections from regional historical societies, churches, schools, museums, theatres, local government offices, and cultural heritage organizations throughout Southwest Virginia.

"These collections amplify otherwise unseen items by increasing accessibility and discoverability," said Kinnaman. "In doing so, we can bring more attention to our valued cultural heritage organizations and build strong relationships with the community without incurring any financial cost or risk for them."

The platform supports a wide range of collections, including both community-based historical archives and highly specialized scientific data sets. 

“For example, the Barter Theatre archives document the history of a renowned theater in Southwest Virginia through digitized posters, playbills, and ephemera, materials that were previously accessible only on site,” said Bill Ingram, associate dean and executive director of information technology for University Libraries. “In contrast, the Prader-Willi Syndrome Research Collection offers an interactive biomedical resource focused on the neurogenetic basis of a rare and complex disease. This small but growing collection includes guided visualizations of multiplexed tissue images, such as mRNA colocalization in brain sections, presented using the MINERVA suite of visualization tools. These tools enable researchers and students to navigate high-resolution image data in the context of structured narrative explanations, supporting teaching and research in fields such as digital pathology and neurogenetics.”

Innovation in 3D and AI

Banerjee is developing automated workflows to extract text from handwritten materials, such as Civil War–era letters, and to classify geographic and semantic metadata from digitized topographic maps. This will increase the searchability and accessibility of historical collections that have traditionally required manual transcription and description.

Deisa leads a photogrammetry-based lab that creates high-fidelity digital models of physical objects. Current projects include digitizing butterfly specimens from the Department of Entomology and horse teeth from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. These 3D models can be viewed and manipulated online, giving students and researchers remote access to delicate materials that would otherwise be difficult to handle or examine in detail.

The platform also incorporates storytelling technologies such as Minerva Stories. “This creates more interactive and inclusive experiences that invite broader discovery and learning transforming static collections into engaging narratives that connect with diverse audiences,” said Ng. 

Setting the standard

“We are incredibly fortunate to have a library and university willing to invest in services like the Virginia Tech Digital Library, and investing to the degree that we can do it right,” said Kinnaman. “We can bring in collections of the most interest to our users, and we have the freedom to experiment with new features and services to enhance usability and research. The use of cutting-edge tools like AI and Textract will allow for enhanced data mining and exploration of these digital collections, and the strategy to incorporate technologies into more traditional digital libraries will set a new precedent."

Goyne said the platform represents more than a technological achievement. “It's about sustainable impact,” said Goyne. "Each collection we build is unique, varying in both the volume of metadata and the size of digital objects it contains. Whether it's a 19th century Civil War letter, a 3D model, or a 1759 plan of New Orleans, all these items carry stories that deserve to be shared with the public and preserved."

A living laboratory

The digital library acts as a testing ground for emerging technologies and approaches that other institutions can adopt and adapt. The team actively contributes open-source software back to the library community, raising awareness of their innovations while supporting broader technological advancement.

Westblade finds particular satisfaction in the platform's ability to demonstrate impact on students. "When things are posted online, I can show the students who work in the lab that the work they do matters,” said Westblade. “They can point to something tangible and say, 'We did that.'” 

Students working on components in the digital library add their projects and materials to their professional portfolio to demonstrate tangible experience in the field.