Research Collections

Photo of Jack Kerouac manuscript, image © Thomas HawkARL and Ithaka S+R today released Appraising our Digital Investment: Sustainability of Digitized Special Collections in ARL Libraries, a report on findings from an ARL-Ithaka S+R survey of ARL libraries on the range of activities and expenses that libraries undertake to support their digitized special collections.

SPEC Kit 333 explores the scale and scope of art and artifact materials held by ARL member libraries, which tools and techniques they currently use to manage these collections, including those used by library staff only and those used to make information about these collections available to the public, and if there is evidence of a convergence of library, archive, and museum practices in the management of these collections. It includes collection development policies, guidelines for arranging materials, and examples of how art and artifact collections are described.

This publication is available for purchase in both online and print versions. Download the spec-kit-purchase-options-2013.pdf  for complete pricing and purchase options information.

Link to the online SPEC Kit 333 on the ARL Digital Publications website.

Poster presented at the LCDP Luminary Class, June 2012. In 2009, Stanford began an effort to scan its maps. Scanning large format items such as maps create a multitude of challenges. One of these challenges is to capture the map with specifications that meet all known repurposing needs. A prominent repurposing need is to ensure that the map can be consumed in a Geographic Information System (GIS). A team of Stanford University Library staff consisting of Patricia Carbajales, G. Salim Mohammed, Matt Pearson and Renzo Sanchez-Silva (noted here in alpha order) along with student assistants, conducted a detailed study of a Russian Topographic scanned map where details were visually inspected and checked for scanning errors.

lcdp-2012-poster-g-salim-mohammed.pdf

Poster presented at the LCDP Luminary Class, June 2012. The decisions that academic libraries and special collections make today, in a context of rapid technologicaland other change, will shape the research of historians of the future. Certain types of primary sources of special interest to historians of science and technology—including scientific texts, journal literature, archival documents of research institutions, and manuscript papers of scientists and engineers—are often stewarded by academic libraries, with particular responsibility assumed by science- and technology-focused institutions. Recent trends in collection development and management will have major implications for tomorrow's scholars. What does it mean for both current and future historians of science and technology that more and more sources are full-text searchable online, and that more and more print sources are stored off-site? Will scholars be affected by libraries licensing rather than owning digital content? Will today's born-digital counterparts to yesterday's paper publications, documents, and images be accessible? Are research libraries and special collections currently capturing and preserving the same kinds of primary sources that historians of science and technology have relied on, and are there other kinds of sources we should be preserving?

lcdp-2012-poster-baildon-michelle.pdf

Poster presented at the LCDP Luminary Class, June 2012.

lcdp-2012-poster-knott-martin.pdf

Poster presented at the LCDP Luminary Class, June 2012. How have research libraries chronicled the lives of African American students on campus? What are the subject headings and finding aids for student organizations, dissertations, sororities and fraternities, or oral histories? What factors (procedure, personnel, Alumni groups) have impacted the inclusion of materials in library collections?

lcdp-2012-poster-maxey-harris-charlene.pdf

Poster presented at the LCDP Luminary Class, June 2012. How do university faculty members in the music department use the library's online catalog (OPAC) to find music materials for themselves or for their students? Interviews, done in February 2012, of four performance faculty members from the University of Maryland School of Music reveal the wide range of materials they search for, and the limitations of the system in being able to find like items in different formats. Faculty members' assumptions of the capabilities of a search provide insight into possibilities for how OPACs can be re-designed or re-configured for more accurate hits and better discovery of similar items.

lcdp-2012-poster-shiota-lisa.pdf

Poster presented at the LCDP Luminary Class, June 2012. Like many other academic libraries, East Asian libraries face tough financial decisions on how they allocate their resources in this time of financial restraints, while fulfilling the library's ultimate mission of supporting teaching and researching. This study was conducted in light of escalating cost of electronic resources in East Asian languages. By analyzing 5-year (2007–2011) statistical data obtained from 32 East Asian libraries in North America, this study explores what portion of a library's total materials expenditures are dedicated to eresources and how fast its e-resources expenditures have been growing over the past five years.

lcdp-2012-poster-sung-yunah.pdf

Poster presented at the LCDP Luminary Class, June 2012. With rapidly changing technology, more and more libraries are building digital collections and shifting focus to online discovery environment. More and more resources are published in electronic format, which leaves libraries with less and less physical material to catalog and process. Cataloging practice is experiencing big changes as we respond to the new trends of digitization, multiple metadata standards, outsourcing, batch processing, next-generation catalogs, and new standards and concepts for information organization. This research intends to explore new trends and future outlooks and plans in the cataloging practice of libraries of all kinds.

lcdp-2012-poster-wu-annie.pdf