tools and effective policy setting can allow user subject experts to participate in exposing collections. Libraries will need to more effectively use existing tools and infrastructure and innovate new solutions where necessary. Greenberg encouraged libraries to “write for Google” and “write for referral” to surface collections in researchers’ pathways. Tracy Seneca offered a different twist, reporting on a repurposable method of creating digital archives by harvesting openly accessible Web sites. Speakers gave a wide variety of examples demonstrating how repurposing the context of use provides meaning in a way that is at the heart of the research enterprise. Anne Kenny discussed how special collections can be used to build or enrich digital communities and how passionate those communities become about the digital collaborative space. Yet to enable this knowledge building, libraries must move away from one-off, boutique, digital projects to solidify digital programs. As special collections face the challenges of sustaining digital surrogates and born-digital materials, permanent funding and infrastructure must be allocated to ensure that those collections are accessible and authentic for the long run. Digitization and digital curation are no longer specialized activities they are a part of the life-cycle management of special collections. The challenging but critical tasks for success are the policy setting, infrastructure building, and training. Speakers acknowledged that while this work must take place in each library, this work will not be successfully undertaken by libraries acting alone. Throughout the forum, speakers provided concrete examples of successful and innovative collaborations within and across institutions and between institutions and collections users. Kenney advocated for collaborative strategies that bind research libraries together as we work with commercial partners on large-scale digitization of special collections. Greenberg agreed that we must work as a broader, online ecosystem. Waters called for new and reliable ways to link collections across institutional boundaries. Reflecting on the successes of the MetaArchive Cooperative, Katherine Skinner noted that we need to create durable associations of autonomous entities collaborating to achieve common or compatible goals while maintaining RLI 267 15 Moving Special Collections Forward in an Age of Discovery: Themes from the ARL-CNI Forum ( C O N T I N U E D ) DECEMBER 2009 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC Listen to Katherine Skinner on the need to engage in strong collaborative networks to preserve and expose the digital cultural record. [4 min.] http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/rli-267-skinner.mp3