Adventist Digital Library
The Adventist Digital Library is a consortial project founded in 2015 by several funding partners. The Adventist Digital Library (ADL) provides a free platform for researching Adventist history, and an affordable solution for Adventist institutions to digitize and share historical or scholarly material online. By pooling resources into a single digitization center and shared repository software, Adventists can achieve these goals.
In 2021, I took over management of the project. Since my arrival, we’ve accomplished a lot, grown significantly, and launched a new site and several new and vital services that are making a difference for our consortium member institutions.
Major Accomplishments
These are my biggest contributions to the Adventist Digital Library so far.
Strategic Planning
I authored ADL’s first strategic plan (2023-2026), which began in May 2023. At the close of Year One (April 2024), I gave the first annual report to ADL’s board, and I reported success on twenty-one out of twenty-nine KPIs.
New & Exciting Content
When ADL launched in 2015, the website held 80,734 works. By 2021, the website held 88,881 works, demonstrating collection growth of about 1.4% per year. Between my arrival in 2021 and today (October 2024), we’ve added 35,000 new and never-before-seen works. This is collection growth of more than 10% a year.
Financial Strategizing
Under my leadership, we’ve been blessed to attract new members to ADL’s consortium, adding over $10,000 of revenue to support our nonprofit operations in 2023-24 while also saving over $4,000 on contractor fees by accomplishing work in-house.
The new Adventist Digital Library site is on Hyku, an open-source software that I actively support as part of a collaborative community of librarians and developers.
We meet regularly to work on the Hyku roadmap. I’ve served on several committees dedicated to improving this software for all. Other adopters include the British Library, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, the University of Louisville, Georgetown University, and library consortiums PALNI and PALCI.
One of the benefits of the Hyku platform is the ability to spin off “tenant” sites, which allows ADL to provide affordable, fully-hosted institutional repositories for Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities. I provide technical support and training for my colleagues at participating schools, which include Walla Walla University, Washington Adventist University, AdventHealth University, and Pacific Union College, among others.
Partnership Flyer
In 2024, we implemented a new pricing structure that allows institutions to join the ADL consortium at price points that meet their needs and budgets. I led the team that created the pricing structure, and I designed the flyer. New partners are in the process of joining, thanks to the flexibility of the plan outlined here.
Tri-fold ADL brochure
ADL’s last brochures were created in 2015 by an outside marketing firm who charged $750 for the design. By 2021, the brochure was badly out-dated. The original PDF was lost so new copies couldn’t be printed, even with updates. I designed and printed a new brochure in-house for $300, including printing costs and design software licensing.
