ARL Releases Working Group Discussion Report on Special Collections  

Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 4/8/2009

• Extraordinary challenges, opportunities for modern libraries
• Broad definition of special collections
• Forum to follow ARL membership meeting

(This article first appeared in the April 7 issue of the LJ Academic Newswire.)

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released a “discussion report” that urges library leaders to take action to increase access to and visibility of special collections, as well as to consider “best practices” for their stewardship. 

Although intended primarily for directors of ARL member libraries and administrators, Yale University Librarian Alice Prochaska, Chair of the ARL Working Group on Special Collections, noted in the report introduction, its findings clearly reflect a broad reading of the special collections landscape. 

“Special collections departments are often very small and sometimes isolated, and they compete for attention and resources within their own institutions,” Prochaska wrote. “One aim of this report, therefore, is to draw the attention of the research library community as a whole to the exceptional opportunities that special collections present.”  

Extraordinary challenges
While the report uses “a broad definition of special collections,” including all “distinctive material in all media and attendant library services,” the group’s main focus was on 19th- and 20th-century materials. Most of the report, however, “applies with equal force” to collecting, and caring for materials from previous centuries' including born-digital objects, as well as books, video, and other formats.

The report addresses three areas: 

• Collecting carefully, with regard to costs, and ethical and legal concerns
• Ensuring discovery and access
• The challenge of born-digital collections

Special collections management, according to the report, offers extraordinary challenges for modern libraries. “Contemporary research libraries face limited resources, existing backlogs of under-described material, complicated legal issues, and a swiftly evolving technological landscape.”
 
There are also “abundant opportunities to expose truly unique research materials,” but difficult “professional and management choices,” as well as questions of ethics relating to the “proper stewardship” of materials and making them available to the public.

Meanwhile, the “continuing proliferation of public audiences” for special collections is a significant aspect addressed in the report. Blogs, email lists, social networking sites, and “interactive presentation tools,” the report notes, “all generate an appetite for access to special collections."

Discussion starter  
The report reflects the efforts to date of a Working Group formed by ARL’s Research, Teaching, and Learning Steering Committee in 2007. Group members, who met in person four times in 2007–2008, and conducted “extensive e-mail correspondence,” include directors of research libraries, heads of special collections departments, as well as “visitors and observers,” including Donald Waters of the Mellon Foundation and Charles Henry of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).

While the current document offers much food for thought, the real work is just getting started. ARL officials stressed that the report is designed to offer “a framework within which important discussions of policy may take place."

In addition, 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. The forum agenda and registration information will be released on the ARL web site this summer. The report is freely available on the ARL Web site.

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