Connecticut State Library

Through the Connecticut's Archival Community project, the Connecticut State Library will work to provide access to hidden collections in small and mid-sized cultural heritage organizations. The project addresses challenges in providing online, searchable access to archives at these organizations. During workshops and site visits, forty institutions will learn to create DACS- and EAD-compliant finding aids for their five most important collections, resulting in increased visibility for 200 hidden collections. The project will then create an advisory committee to recommend the best means of making these finding aids available online and propose solutions for organizations without a web presence, so that their finding aids will be reachable through a host site. The project will demonstrate how training and support for small and mid-sized cultural heritage organizations can make their undocumented and hidden archival collections available to a broader audience.