For immediate release:
April 6, 2009
For more information, contact:
Karla Hahn
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
karla@arl.org
Washington DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Working Group on Special Collections, formed in 2007, has released a discussion report that identifies key issues in the management and exposure of special collections material in the 21st century.
The report uses a broad definition of "special collections," which encompasses distinctive material in all media and attendant library services. The group's main focus was on 19th- and 20th-century materials, including emerging digital materials and media, but most of the report applies with equal force to collecting and caring for materials from previous centuries. While the report focuses on special collections in North American research libraries, it has potential application more broadly.
Working group members represent a range of constituencies, including directors of research libraries, heads of special collections departments, and other professional leaders with particular concern for traditional and digital special collections. To engage further constituencies, the chair of the working group, Alice Prochaska, University Librarian, Yale University, presented preliminary findings and recommendations in June 2008 at the annual conference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries, and subsequently circulated a draft of the report to representatives of both RBMS and the Society of American Archivists. This report reflects extensive comments received from those bodies.
The report includes overviews of and recommendations in three areas:
It highlights the need for research library leadership to support actions that will increase the visibility and use of special collections and promote both existing and developing best practices in the stewardship of special collections.
The working group also invites discussion among the many professionals who are charged with the perplexing challenges of handling rare, unique or unusual material about the extraordinary challenges they face as collectors and stewards of special collections in libraries and archives in the 21st century. This report provides a framework within which important discussions of policy may take place.
The report is also intended to promote an enhanced and extended understanding within research communities more generally of the unique and irreplaceable contribution that special collections make to scholarship and learning, and to the general public good.
The report is freely available on the ARL Web site at http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/scwg-report.pdf.
ARL will host a related forum on special collections in the 21st century, immediately following the fall ARL Membership Meeting in Washington DC, October 15–16, 2009. In addition to addressing emerging issues for traditional special collections, the forum will explore new kinds of born-digital resources that increasingly comprise the unique content collected by research libraries. The forum agenda and registration information will be released on the ARL Web site this summer.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.