New Report: The Impact of Digitizing Special Collections on Teaching and Scholarship, by Merrilee Proffitt and Jennifer Schaffner

DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 18 July 2008-Subtitled, "Reflections on a Symposium about Digitization and the Humanities," the report consists of an overview and interpretation of perspecives provided at the RLG Programs symposium that was held in Philadelphia at the Chemical Heritage Foundation on 4 June 2008.

 

This is the famous Greene-Meissner article:

A call to archivists to stop being perfectionists in processing collections, and just get more done.

From p. 2 "How, then, do we break these chains of unhelpful practice that holds us to inadequate productivity? We need to articulate a new set of arrangement, preservation and description guidelines the (1) expedites getting collection materials into the hands of users, (2) that assures arrangement of materials /adequate/ to user needs, (3) that takes the /minimal/ steps necessary to physically preserve the collection materials, and (4) that describes materials /sufficient/ to promote use. In other words, it is time that we focused on what we absolutely need to do instead of on all the things that we might do in a world of unbounded resources."

RLG Programs releases "Seeking Sustainability," a casual report on RLG's exploration of ways to make access to digitized special collections self-supporting

Images of Fore-Edge Paintings from Boston Public Library

Providing Access to Uncataloged Special Collections with In - Process Records, by Lundy, M. W .

"With generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Council on Library and Information Resources is creating a national program to identify and catalog hidden special collections and archives. The records and descriptions obtained through this effort will be accessible through the Internet and the Web, enabling the federation of disparate, local cataloging entries with tools to aggregate this information by topic and theme."

This opinion piece urges moving forward more quickly on digitization of special collections. The authors suggest that we move to an access (rather than preservation ) model; that we incorporate digization as part of processing a collection; that we scan the 'tip of the iceberg' and follow-up with further scanning when usage patterns develop; that we focus on quantity over quality; and that we expose our collections in the common search tools.

"Mission

The Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) encourages diverse audiences to explore and engage with member libraries' uniquely rich holdings and, through collaboration, strengthens these collections and the institutions that preserve them.

Vision

PACSCL is the most extensive and diverse collaboration among a region's libraries and archives in the United States. Its collections, in their depth and variety, comprise an internationally important body of unique and rare materials for students, scholars, and life-long learners of every background."

"ARL Publishes Celebrating Research: Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries

ARL has published a book and Web site profiling selected rare and special collections in major research libraries of North America, Celebrating Research: Rare and Special Collections from the Membership of the Association of Research Libraries.Celebrating Research book cover

The compendium is a sampling of the abundance and variety of collections available for use. Special collections have been broadly construed to encompass distinctive, rare and unique, emerging media, born-digital, digitized, uncommon, non-standard, primary, and heritage materials.

Celebrating Research includes 118 collection profiles, each from a different ARL member library."

Special Collections in ARL Libraries: Results of the 1998 Survey Sponsored by the ARL Research Collections Committee
by Judith M. Panitch, 2001

The Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) Consortial Survey Initiative is a 30-month project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to assess backlogged archival collections at 22 Philadelphia area libraries, archives, and museums.

"Adopted by the ARL Board of Directors in February 2003. This document underscores the individual and collective responsibility of ARL institutions to collect, preserve, and provide access to primary source materials."