Coherent Digital provides students, educators, policymakers, and librarians with wide-ranging resources for research, learning, and discussion. LJ talked with Eileen Lawrence, Coherent’s cofounder and senior adviser, to discuss Coherent’s materials, selection process, and commitment to finding, preserving, and making endangered content accessible.

How do you select materials? Is there an ongoing process for reviewing new and established content?

We’re guided by our editorial boards, and we listen closely to customers. Whenever a librarian or scholar asks us to add a resource, we check it out. Does it meet our quality criteria? Does the organization do solid research? Is the creator trustworthy? Then we go about getting permissions. If our bibliographies could talk, each would tell a story. Years ago, a bibliographer explained the onerous task of keeping up with dozens of small Central American human rights organizations; the groups often moved or changed names, their websites were up and down, and following them was nearly impossible. Our team located them, verified their identities, and added them to Policy Commons. We continue to track them and send the librarian an alert whenever they publish new reports.

We pursue content that’s needed by scholars, difficult to access, or in danger of disappearing—and of the highest quality. The previously unpublished documents and secret files from the National Archives, UK, and the well-respected collections from Accessible Archives are at the core of our History Commons European and North American collections. We regularly check our links, and the editors review the content for currency. Our Commons are ever-growing, so new content comes in continually. At this writing, there are 282,000 reports in Policy Commons dated 2023 or 2024 alone.

Can you speak about how your databases reflect Coherent Digital’s commitment to digital repatriation and the preservation of endangered materials?

Africa Commons is a collaborative project to preserve and disseminate Africa’s cultural heritage. We make African History and Culture free to HBCUs and libraries throughout Africa. Collections like Southern African Films and Documentaries and Black South African Magazines deliver content rarely seen outside Africa and often so fragile that digitization must be on-site with extreme care. After the family of the legendary Kenyan journalist Hilary Ng’weno donated his archive to Moi University, there was still the question: thousands of pages of priceless publications and hundreds of reels of film were now together, but how many people would ever see them? Our partnership to create East African Newspapers, Magazines, and Films: The Hilary Ng’weno Archive ensures ongoing digital preservation and access globally. We’ve approached South Asia with the same mission. South Asia History and Culture has created centralized access to millions of pages of primary-source materials previously scattered across the internet, and we give free subscriptions to five countries in the region least able to pay. For both Africa Commons and South Asia Commons, we’re contributing a portion of sales to further digitization of rare content, creating preservation archives of 50,000 newly digitized pages.

Can you discuss your editorial boards and their role in supporting your mission?

We feel enormous appreciation for our editorial advisers. They’re distinguished scholars who approach the role with passion—shaping the bibliographies, directing us to content, and connecting us with partners in our mission. The boards are global. For South Asia Commons, advisers are in India, the U.S., and the UK. For Africa Commons, they’re in Africa. We call on the advisers regularly. Our editor for South Asia Commons recently told me that she speaks with Aruna Magier, the associate editor of the Bibliography of Asian Studies, every few weeks for guidance.

In what direction do you see Coherent Digital heading in the future?

We’ve stretched into STEM with Public Health and Social Care. Geographically, we’ve expanded by adding Policy Commons: Oceania; and in development is a project preserving at-risk Latin American and Latino materials around the world. We’re developing a Social Justice and Culture collection, preserving endangered new media content, starting with a focus on LGBTQIA+ materials. And, of course, we’ll continue to build on what we’ve created—for example, Africa Commons will grow with a new West African Magazines collection, and Canada Commons is expanding with a “Canadian History and Culture” series.