National Women's Party Digital Collection

The National Women's Party Digital Collection is a digital archive of records and artifacts documenting women's struggle to gain full citizenship throughout the 20th century. The digital collection currently makes over 400 images available online, but the project plans on digitizing the remainder of the National Women's Party's holdings (approximately 10,000 items).


1) Selection Decisions

There is no stated selection method on the website, but they do discuss the importance of making a broad selection of material available through the digitization project. It is implied that the selected materials are a representative sample of the larger collection (newspapers, photographs, historical artifacts, etc.). It is also stated that images are regularly being added to the website, with the goal of digitizing all items in the collection.

2) Metadata

There is sufficient descriptive metadata provided, allowing for a full appreciation of what each item entails (title, image/item description, material type, as well as item specific notes). Also, structural metadata is included, including a call number, digital ID number, and subject listings. All items in the collection are categorized into 4 areas: suffrage, equal rights, international, and contemporary. This allows for easy searching. As well, administrative metadata is provided, including publication date and where the item was originally published.

3) Object Characteristics

Items are scanned as uncompressed TIFF images, and made available on the web as JPEG files. These images are either 24-bit color TIFF images or 8- or 12-bit monochrome images. A thumbnail appears next to the metadata, and clicking on the images pulls up the full-size version of the image. When searching for an item a list is returned with the thumbnail and the title of the item. It is easy to maneuver between items in the collection.

4) Intended Audience

The people most likely to use this collection are students of all levels. The organization provides lesson plans and online exhibits to encourage teachers to use the collection as a teaching aid. The collection could also be used by advanced students looking for research materials.