About the Illinois Digital Heritage Hub

The IDHH is a portal to a wealth of digital primary source materials contributed by archives, historical societies, libraries, and museums from around the state of Illinois. The IDHH is also the organization whose infrastructure makes the portal possible. We are a service hub for the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and gather resources for the DPLA to share with people around the world. The IDHH has worked with the DPLA to build the portal to Illinois resources.

Supporting Learning

The IDHH provides educators, scholars, learners, genealogists, and others access to cultural heritage resources that speak to Illinois and U.S. history. The materials, dating from prehistory to the present day, are educational resources that provide evidence of the region’s past and offer clues into understanding the present. Explore the IDHH for items and collections from across Illinois and visit the DPLA for materials from around the country, including curated exhibits and primary source sets.

Growing Access and Visibility

The IDHH helps increase the visibility of Illinois cultural heritage institutions and their invaluable resources. It is a gateway to local institutions’ collections and links users to original digital content available from its contributors, broadening access and helping to share local materials to national and global audiences. Web analytics show that digital resources contributed through the IDHH on the whole received more than 20,000 views through the DPLA catalog, primary source sets, and exhibits in 2018 alone.

Empowering Illinois Cultural Heritage Institutions

The IDHH offers training and resources to help Illinois institutions and staff get started contributing their collections to the DPLA. IDHH staff frequently present programming at meetings and conferences like

  • Illinois State Library
  • Illinois Library Association
  • Reaching Across the Illinois Library System

Documents on metadata best practices and rights can help institutions prepare digital materials for contributions. To get started providing digital collections, see the guide for new contributors.