The Lewis Walpole Library Digital Collection was recently added to FindIt. All of Walpole Library’s digital content was migrated from their former stand-alone system and integrated into the Yale University Library’s Digital Collection. The migration included approximately 14,000 prints, the core of their graphics collection, which encompasses both satirical and non-satirical prints, portraits, theatrical, and topographical prints, as well as several of the library’s extra-illustrated volumes and manuscripts.

When originally digitized fifteen years ago, the Walpole Collection was described with only minimal metadata. Lewis Walpole Library staff has worked diligently over the years to enrich the metadata using current standards for describing graphic materials. Even the drawings and prints mounted in extra-illustrated volumes are cataloged at the item level. The level of metadata that Walpole has created will provide an opportunity for Library IT to add this to future enhancements of FindIt. This enhancement will potentially enable staff to match records to images that are part of complex objects.

The FindIt interface lends itself perfectly to the exploration of the extra-illustrated volumes with the ability to zoom in and providing a page-turning experience for researchers. Another FindIt benefit is its faceted searching, allowing researchers to refine a search by applying multiple filters. By incorporating this collection into FindIt, researchers can now locate the Lewis Walpole Library’s digitized material along with other Yale libraries’ content, in a single search.

The Lewis Walpole Library is working with Library IT to devise a workflow that will enable staff to continue to add new assets and enhanced metadata to FindIt on a regular basis.