A look at the health of special collections and archives

While earning my MLIS, I was a Project Archivist at the Minnesota Historical Society. Since then--and for the last couple years especially--I've been very interested in the challenges of creating metadata for unique local collections. I was excited, then, to learn that my OCLC colleague, Jackie Dooley, assisted by research intern Katherine Luce, had assembled a landmark survey [pdf] of special collections and archives in academic research libraries in the U.S. and Canada. Following 12 years after a similar ARL survey [pdf], the results and analysis Dooley and Luce have assembled will likely be used to help guide planning and implementation over a period of several years.

The report will inform OCLC activities in several areas. In addition to OCLC Research's work with the RLG Partnership, OCLC's Metadata Services and End User Services divisions will use the report to guide strategy for enhancing discovery and utilization of special collections and archives. Several trends identified in the survey are of great import to the broader community engaged in using and promoting the use of special collections and archives. Among them:

• Only 44% of archival finding aids are available online.

• Special collections are growing quickly: ARL libraries show a 50% increase in the last decade in print materials, more than 300% in audio-visual formats.

• 67% of institutions use off-site storage for rare and unique materials, yet space was the most-cited challenging issue.
  
  
• The ability to deal with born-digital archival materials continues to be low.
  

Jackie has presented preliminary results of the survey at professional events over the last few months, to great interest in the special collections, archives, and rare book communities. The survey and its report should also be of interest to the broader library community as it seeks to maximize the visibility of the materials that help distinguish and define its institutions.

You can find the study here: Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives [pdf]. Watch the OCLC Research blog, hangingtogether.org, for Jackie's forthcoming postings on particular aspects of the survey.