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 · 21
SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES
The SPEC Survey on Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach was designed by Marilyn N. Ochoa,
Associate Director at SUNY Oswego Penfield Library, Mark V. Sullivan, Head, Digital Development &
Web Services, and Laurie N. Taylor, Digital Humanities Librarian, at the University of Florida George
A. Smathers Libraries. These results are based on data submitted by 71 of the 125 ARL member libraries
(57%) by the deadline of April 14, 2014. The survey’s introductory text and questions are reproduced below,
followed by the response data and selected comments from the respondents.
Many ARL institutions with robust and long-standing digitization programs are now grappling with the issues of ongoing curation
of their digital collections in support of scholarship. What often started as small, locally digitized collections of materials have grown
into significant and substantive resources that are now both related to physical collections and have self-standing identities of their
own. Enormous effort and cost are often exerted to bring these digital collections to birth. However, once born they can languish
without continued effort. A recent Ithaka S+R and ARL report, Appraising Our Digital Investment, focused on financial difficulties
involved with ongoing support for digital collections and shows a need for continuing support for them to survive. Digitization
efforts may continue and additional resources may be added, but this is not added value, and merely represents a gradual growth of
content, not of services and not a return on investment for the initial labor and ongoing maintenance.
NOTE: For the purposes of this survey, “digital collections” are defined as those where at least 90% of 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).
Digital Humanities, digital scholarship, and digital publishing initiatives create and enhance digital library collections. By leveraging
the socio-technical infrastructure (people, policies, technologies) from digital libraries, what new opportunities for integration with
research and teaching are possible through the assessment of digital library collections? How is that assessment being used to
sustain and grow digital libraries and to simultaneously better align digital libraries with full support for the data/digital curation
lifecycle? What new forms and technologies are in use or are needed to support outreach, assessment, and next steps based on
assessment?
The purpose of this survey is to discover what methods ARL member libraries currently use to maintain the relevancy of their locally
curated digital library collections, and to continue to sustain, grow, capture return on investment, integrate digital collections with
research and teaching, and enhance existing resources through outreach and assessment. This survey explores current practices of
outreach and assessment along with methods to integrate digital resources into the research, teaching, and learning environment.
The results of this study will illuminate work in Digital Humanities in the age of Big Data and collection management, reference,
and outreach in the digital age. The survey results will thus inform considerations for integrating and aligning research library digital
investments with research, teaching, and learning.

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

SPEC Kit 341: Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach · 19
that connect across the libraries and the full insti-
tutions to support locally curated digital collections
along with other programmatic efforts in areas such as
Digital Humanities, digital scholarship, data curation,
assessment, outreach, and integration with research
and teaching.
Endnote
1. Nancy L Maron and Sarah Pickle, Sustaining the
Digital Humanities: Host Institution Support beyond the
Start-Up Phase. (New York: Ithaka S+R, June 2014),
56. http://www.sr.ithaka.org/sites/default/files/SR_
Supporting_Digital_Humanities_20140618f.pdf

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

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