SPEC Kit 317: Special Collections Engagement (August 2010)
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SPEC Kit 317: Special Collections Engagement · 11 Executive Summary Introduction Outreach—defined as activities provided by special collections and archives that foster use of materials and resources to enhance both education and re- search—is increasingly becoming a core component of special collections activities. Special collections and archives have been actively seeking out and building relevant primary-source collections for years, and they have devoted significant staff time to the processing (arrangement and description) of these items, helping to make these resources coherent and accessible. The implementation of encoded archival description has allowed collection guides/finding aids to be displayed on the Web, and this step has brought special collec- tions holdings to a wider exposure than ever before— both at the local institution and beyond. Nonetheless, students, faculty, and other scholars/researchers affili- ated with the institution may be unaware of available special collections resources and the potential benefits of these resources for supporting education and re- search at all levels of the curriculum. The next logical step in the outreach process for special collections is targeted engagement. This survey examines those aspects of outreach that are specific to the use of special collections for education and research by students, faculty, and other scholars/researchers affiliated with the institution. Although the survey focused on these three groups, we recognize that many special collections target audiences outside their institutions. While we briefly touch upon scholars/researchers not affiliated with the institution, a future survey will be needed to ex- plore outreach activities directed to external constitu- encies in more depth. The survey was conducted between 8 February and 18 March 2010. Seventy-nine of the 124 ARL mem- ber institutions completed the survey for a response rate of 64%. Exhibits Exhibits are ubiquitous as a form of outreach, with all but one of 79 respondents reporting that they create exhibits based on their collections. However, of those 78 respondents, only 15 (19%) have a person or position charged with primary responsibility for exhibits. The majority of respondents (51%) say that responsibility varies depending on the exhibit. Comments suggest that the format (i.e., rare books, archives, manuscripts) and/or the subject of the exhibit determine the in- volvement of appropriate specialist(s). In several insti- tutions special collections are distributed throughout multiple departments or programs, and responsibili- ties for coordination of exhibits in these cases tend to fall to a team or committee. As noted at one institution, “Special Collections are in four different locations and consist of 9 separate programs. There is an Exhibits Committee that manages and coordinates exhibits at our principle library.” The data suggest that all respondents are creat- ing physical and online exhibits. For both physical exhibits and online exhibits, institutions evenly tar- get undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty as primary audiences, with somewhat less emphasis on other scholars/researchers affiliated with the institution. Given this widespread emphasis on exhibits, it is not surprising that the majority of respondents have a physical space within the library designated for this
