California Revealed is a California State Library initiative that helps heritage organizations digitize, preserve, and provide online access to materials documenting the state’s history, art, and cultures. We also provide free access and preservation services for existing digital collections, including technical advice and guidance, for partner organizations with in-house digitization programs.
Since first launching in 2010 as a digitization initiative focused on audiovisual recordings, California Revealed has brought special focus to educating and empowering regional organizations to make the most of their collections. To date, California Revealed includes more than 95,000 objects from over 350 partner organizations representing a diverse array of constituencies and collections. The objects themselves are similarly eclectic: motion picture film, video tapes, audio recordings, newspapers, scrapbooks, photographs, microfilm, manuscripts, and more.
By providing online access to digitized materials, California Revealed is working to aggregate California’s digital collections into a single resource available at californiarevealed.org. California Revealed records are also accessible through the Internet Archive, the Digital Public Library of America, Calisphere, and the Home Movie Registry, affording multiple potential access points to the public, including teachers, librarians, genealogists, artists, scholars, journalists, and others. The kaleidoscopic view of California culture and history represented by the California Revealed collection offers countless opportunities for educators and students looking to integrate sources into their course of study.
Our team of digital services librarians are based at the California State Library in Sacramento. Whether you are looking to partner with us or make use of our collections, please feel free to contact us.
More information about partner services and opportunities is available here.
Our Mission
California Revealed strives to engage in memory work that is reparative and reflexive, acting as a bridge between heritage organizations and the communities they serve.
We seek to expand the historical narrative of California by collaborating with regional organizations, including public libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and community groups, to digitize, preserve, and provide online access to their archival materials.
We aim to lower the barriers to digitization by providing equitable access to free services and training. Our work serves as a model to empower communities and individuals within and beyond California to preserve and share their own stories using approachable digital tools and archival practices.