Upper Peninsula Digital Network (UPLINK)
The mission of the Upper Peninsula Digital Network, or UPLINK, is to manage and sustain a low-cost, secure, and geographically distributed digital preservation and access service for locally created digital primary source material documenting the history of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
UPLINK is funded by a grant from the NHPRC (National Historical Publications and Records Commission).
UPLINK Board of Directors
UPLINK’s Board of Directors is composed of members of the heritage organizations as well as members of the “service hubs” who will be digitizing records (Northern Michigan University, Michigan Tech University, and Lake Superior State University).
The current members of the Board of Directors are:
- Sharon Dorrity (Chippewa County Historical Society)
- Cathy Egerer (Grand Marais Historical Society)
- Dillon Geshel (Superiorland Library Cooperative)
- Lindsay Hiltunen (Michigan Tech University) - Secretary
- Bruce MacDonald (Peter White Public Library)
- Marcus Robyns (Northern Michigan University) - Board Chair
- Alexandra VanDoren (Lake Superior State University)
- Erin Vanier (Michilimackinac Historical Society) - Vice Chair
Bylaws and Policies
Links to bylaws, governance documents, and policies approved by the UPLINK Board of Directors:
Links to internal policies and procedures used by UPLINK staff:
- Appraisal and Acquisition Policy
- Digitization Policy
- Digital Preservation Policy
- Metadata Policy
- Takedown Policy
Other Materials:
Membership Benefits
- Inclusion on the UPLINK website as a member organization: promotes awareness of your organization and encourages people to visit your website and perhaps visit your organization in-person
- Finding aids and/or descriptions and inventories of your collections: gets the word out about your digital and your analog collections
- Free access to digitization equipment: Borrow text and photo scanners, digital cameras, and audio recorders for one month at a time. Or, come to Marquette to use an oversized book scanner and AV equipment.
- Training on digitization, metadata, copyright, and other topics: UPLINK staff can provide in-person or Zoom training to help you with your projects
- Continued maintenance of your digital collections: UPLINK maintains two back-up copies of each digital collection as well as the copy on our web server
How to Join
To join, all your organization has to do is:
- Fill out the Membership Agreement form and email or mail it to UPLINK (email and address are on the form).
- Pay a small annual membership fee. The fee is based on your organization’s annual budget so that every organization can afford to be part of UPLINK.
- Annual budget up to $1,000 = $25 annual fee
- Annual budget $1,000 - $5,000 = $50 annual fee
- Annual budget $5,000 - $50,000 = $75 annual fee
- Annual budget $50,000 and up = $100 annual fee
Making Your Collections Accessible Online
UPLINK endeavors to keep services as cheap as possible, but members do have to pay one-time fees if they want UPLINK staff to digitize their collections, create metadata, or ingest collections to the UPLINK database. See the fees page here for details.
Members can do their own digitization and metadata if desired and only pay UPLINK for ingesting collections. UPLINK staff are happy to provide any necessary training and advice! UPLINK also offers free mobile digitization equipment, and members are welcome to come and use digitization equipment at the NMU archives.
Need help funding a project? See our Training and Resources section below for information about grant opportunities. Marcus Robyns (mrobyns@nmu.edu) can also provide assistance with grant applications.
Want to Get Involved?
UPLINK needs volunteers for the following committees:
- Educational Outreach Committee: is responsible for developing a publicity program designed to raise public awareness of the UPLINK, its services, and collection contents. The Committee will also work with educators in the region to develop lesson plans and educational activities for the region’s public schools.
Training and Resources for Heritage Organizations
UPLINK Reference Materials:
- Appraisal: tips for deciding on digitization priorities
- Arrangement and Description: suggestions for how to organize your collections and create descriptions that will help users to find and interpret your collections
- Privacy and Copyright: how to determine whether your collection can be digitized under privacy and copyright law
- Choosing a Rights Statement: learn about the standard rights statements that UPLINK uses and decide which you want to/can use for your collections
- Digitization: what each UPLINK service hub can digitize and tips for doing your own digitization projects
- Digital Preservation: why digital preservation matters, what UPLINK is doing to preserve your digital files, and what you can do to preserve your own digital files
Grant Opportunites:
Looking for ways to fund projects with UPLINK?
Check out the great resources at the Library of Michigan website! In addition to grant opportunities, they also offer consultations, training, digitization equipment, and resources on digitization and digital preservation.
The Save Michigan History grant program is another great option. It can provide up up to $2,500 for care, management, and access to archival collections as well as a consultation with a visiting archivist to help you prioritize and plan projects.
Digitization Resources from the Library of Michigan:
- Digitization Equipment Selection Matrix: if you're looking to buy your own digitization equipment, this guide can help you to choose which scanner is right for your organization
- Digitization Project Planning Guide: a guide to help you think through what to digitize next and create a step-by-step list of what you'll need to do to complete the project
- Digitization Webinars: webinars on every aspect of digitization, from choosing what to digitize, how to digitize, copyright, and metadata
- Digitization Office Hours: pick the brain of digitization and digital preservation experts from across the state! The Zoom call is held on the first Wednesday of each month at 2:30 PM.
- Other Library of Michigan programs and resources can be found here.
Training Videos:
- OUTDATED: Introduction to UPLINK: the purpose of UPLINK, what services it offers, and how to join. Part of the Fall 2021 workshops. This video contains some information about UPLINK's procedures that is no longer accurate. We have kept it online because it is part of an NHPRC grant and because it still offers a good introduction to the general goals of UPLINK.
- OUTDATED: Preparing Collections for UPLINK: how to decide what to digitize, determining copyright status, privacy issues, digitization and description, transfer protocols. Part of the Fall 2021 workshops. This video contains some information about UPLINK's procedures that is no longer accurate. We have kept it online because it is part of an NHPRC grant and because it still offers a good introduction to the general goals of UPLINK.
- The UPLINK Website: introduction to the UPLINK website and how to search and browse the site