Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach, SPEC Kit 341 (August 2014)

Ochoa, Marilyn N.; Taylor, Laurie N.; Sullivan, Mark V.

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SPEC Kit 341: Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach · 11
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
The 2014 Ithaka S+R report, Sustaining the Digital
Humanities: Host Institution Support beyond the Start-Up
Phase found a critical need for more assessment for
digital projects led by faculty or library staff because
many do not regularly review or assess statistics even
when statistics are available, and “only one in five cre-
ators or managers of digital projects [...]indicated that
they regularly track impact metrics.” The report noted
the importance of assessment for informing the project
and the overall digital life cycle, which becomes all the
more critical when considering current and expected
needs for data curation:
“And yet, the key piece missing from the “digital
life cycle” in nearly all the campuses we examined
was an active attempt to explicitly drive impact,
in whatever the most relevant form would be—
Larger audiences? Broader user engagement? More
citations? Deep integration with other related proj-
ects? Value to scholars? Value to the public? Few
campus faculty or units seem to be regularly mea-
suring usage of DH projects and few are undertak-
ing activities to increase the impact of the works
they have taken on.”1
Such limited assessment activities for digital proj-
ects indicate an opportunity for research libraries to
leverage existing digital collection assessment prac-
tices to establish institution-wide supports for digital
scholarship, data curation, and related areas.
This survey focused on digital collections where
at least 90% of the total resources are locally curated
and are open access (but may have some restrictions
to select materials, ETD embargoes, etc., with all or
the vast majority open access). One impetus for the
survey was to investigate whether these collections—
and related assessment, outreach, and other activi-
ties—are treated as entirely separate from physical
collections, even for those based on local physical
collections where there could be advantages to and
opportunities with an integrated approach. Another
impetus was to provide a snapshot of assessment
and outreach activities and methods for digital col-
lections, especially as they relate to emerging trends
for collections-based practices and new opportunities
for broader public outreach and impact.
Given current trends with Digital Humanities,
digital scholarship, and digital publishing initiatives
that create and enhance digital library collections,
the survey also was interested in identifying oppor-
tunities for integrating the collections into research
and teaching, as well as possible opportunities for re-
search libraries to foster cultures of assessment within
their larger institutions.
This survey was distributed to the 125 ARL mem-
ber libraries in March 2014. Seventy-one libraries (57%)
responded to the survey by the April 14 deadline. The
survey results provide an overview of existing assess-
ment practices and potential internal opportunities
for improved practices as they point towards opportu-
nities for transformational roles by research libraries.
Policies and Platforms
The survey began with questions about what formal
and informal policies member libraries have that sup-
port digitization, assessment, and continuing outreach
for their digital collections, and the software platforms
used to provide access to digitized content.
Nearly every library has a formal collection poli-
cy or informal guidelines in place for digitization of

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SPEC Kit 341: Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach (August 2014) resources

SURVEY RESULTS

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Page 9Survey Results click to expand contents

Page 71Representative Documents click to expand contents

Page 73Digital Collections Homepages click to expand contents

Page 85Digital Project Selection Criteria click to expand contents

Page 95Outreach and Assessment Guides click to expand contents

Page 107Assessment Reports and Instruments click to expand contents

Page 147Marketing Plans click to expand contents

Page 155Promoting Digital Collections click to expand contents

Page 169Lesson Plans and Classroom Resources click to expand contents

Page 177Works Created from Digital Collections click to expand contents

Page 185Job Descriptions click to expand contents

Page 195Selected Resources click to expand contents

SPEC Kit 341: Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach (August 2014) resources

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