-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Primary Research Group has published Trends in Rare Book &
Documents Special Collections Management (ISBN: 1-57440-095-9).
Date:   Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:47:30 -0500
From:   James Moses <[log in to unmask]>
To:     [log in to unmask]


Primary Research Group has published Trends in Rare Book & Documents
Special Collections Management (ISBN: 1-57440-095-9).

This special report examines the management practices and business
decisions of special collections libraries with a focus on rare books,
manuscripts, maps, and other historical documents. The report profiles the
John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections at Boston
College, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, the L. Tom Perry
Special Collections at Brigham Young University-Provo, the Huntington
Library, the Newberry Library, the San Antonio Public Library, the
Watkinson Library at Trinity College, the Special Collections Research
Center at the University of Southern Illinois-Carbondale, and the Bancroft
Library at the University of California-Berkeley. Interviews were conducted
in November and December of 2007.  Additional information through an online
form was provided by San Jose State University Kent State University Map
Library AGS Libraries, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and California
State University-Chico.

Some of the main findings of the report were that:

• Trends in special collections libraries management are relatively
stable in terms of acquisitions, staff, and preservation strategy but are
in a transition with newer issues such as choosing new technologies and
growing an online presence with more searchable, browsable features.

• Consortiums and, to a lesser degree, relationships with commercial
vendors have played a large role in bringing digitization projects, catalog
availability, and general publicity to special collections libraries that
otherwise might lack the resources to work on such projects. Similarly,
many smaller libraries simply lack the resources to develop complex
applications to manage data or streamline workflows, and are dependent on
larger libraries to provide the programming expertise and developmental
leadership to offer solutions, open source or otherwise.

• Relationships with commercial vendors to provide limited edition
materials and other items for sale seem to be on the upswing.

• Nearly all librarians we spoke to mentioned an interest in
digitizing their patron tracking system, for instance, but no vendors had
provided a way to effectively address the needs of a special collections
library. Most currently use entirely paper records, and the very few who
used any kind of digital tracking had not progressed beyond simple
Microsoft Excel sheets.

• We found that digitization generally has a dual purpose but is
currently more effective in piquing interest and drawing Web traffic than
it is in preservation. Digitization may also help with making available
collections that are normally stored offsite, but a certain amount of
technological infrastructure needs to be in place before any of this can
happen.

• Online exhibits with metadata-tagged images and text also bring in
significant additional traffic and publicity. These exhibits do not have to
be large or comprehensive of the collection itself in order to draw in
viewers and researchers, but lack of infrastructure and staff resources
often blocks libraries from doing such projects. In these cases,
consortiums can play a significant role in digitizing exhibits when the
home institution is not equipped to work on such projects alone.

• In general, great productivity gains may be accrued if smaller,
less well financed special collections could tap into the economies of
scale and expertise of the larger, or better financed collections.

For further information view our website at www.PrimaryResearch.com