SPEC Kit 317: Special Collections Engagement · 103
key disciplines to form contacts with specific faculty and gradually build up a promotion campaign. Sometimes our
biggest advocates are external researchers that talk us up at international conferences.
Volume of collections requiring processing to meet appraisal/tax receipt deadlines. Software and skill set need to be
acquired.
We have a small staff and limited hours closed evenings and weekends. All visits and events are during the hours we
are open.
We have been very successful with a number of faculty members, but for many, they are too busy and lack interest in
what we have to offer. Also, for several years we have tried to get subject specialists to include our materials in their
research guides, and this has not happened.
Additional Comments
42. Please enter any additional information about outreach that expands engagement with unique
collections at your library that may assist the authors in accurately analyzing the results of this
survey. N=29
As is commonly understood, the convergence of library, archive, and museum activities through a common discovery
layer, and the metadata creation that supports that layer, are critical to the use of our unique collections. Allied to
that are the librarians, archivists, and curators who work with instructors and researchers to expand the use of the
collections in teaching and research. Increasingly, a larger percentage of our unique collections are born digital, and we
need to incorporate that into our outreach strategies.
Budget and personnel limitations severely limit our ability to expand engagement. Given the current climate, this will not
improve until the economy turns around. We anticipate fewer resources, both university-funded and grant-funded.
Collaboration with other institutions to promote our collections getting our materials searchable in Google cooperative
collection development and acquisition programs with other area repositories we have worked closely with academic
units and with specific faculty member, and this has worked well the library offers research scholarships, and students
who use our materials seem to do well in this competition.
Digital Library Initiatives and Trace (our institutional repository) work towards providing more visible convenient
electronic access to a variety of library collections including primary resources in Special Collections. These are separate
departments in the library that we work with closely.
Exhibits, lectures, and special events are directed, in addition to student, faculty, and researchers, to the wider general
public.
For Asian Library, off-campus outreach is significant. Xwi7xwa Library does not host exhibits, but participates with
First Nations programs in events in the House of Learning Longhouse. Library Development Office promotes special
collections through its Vault program.
I hope we’ll get back to outreach initiatives like this but at the moment we are adapting to a series of curatorial staff
retirements. Our curatorial staff is primarily responsible for instruction and faculty outreach and those lines are not being
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