The OCLC Research Survey of
Special Collections and Archives
Jackie Dooley
Program Officer
OCLC Research
The report “Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives” reveals a variety of problems in the technology realm across the target population. The report summarizes the findings from OCLC’s survey of 275 academic and research libraries across the U.S. and Canada. Executed as a follow up to a similar 1998 Association of Research Libraries survey that proved catalytic, this work has determined norms across the community, and the data will support decision-making and priority setting across the community. Findings include:
- management of born-digital archival records is in its infancy across this population
- digitization is a major challenge, both due to the need for better technology skills in special collections and because the demand for content is insatiable
- software solutions for archival work are inadequate
- far too many rare and unique materials remain undiscoverable, possibly due to insufficient adoption of sustainable methodologies for cataloging and archival processing.
http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/hiddencollections/default.htm
http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2010/2010-11.pdf
Handout (MS Word)
Presentation (PowerPoint)
