Research Library Issues RLI 267 December 2009 A Bimonthly Report from ARL, CNI, and SPARC A Special Issue on Distinctive Collections Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1–2 Special Collections at the Cusp of the Digital Age: A Credo . . . . . . . 3–9 Clifford A. Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information Moving Special Collections Forward in an Age of Discovery: Themes from the ARL-CNI Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10–19 Lisa R. Carter, Head, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries and Visiting Program Officer for the ARL Special Collections Working Group The Collaborative Imperative: Special Collections in the Digital Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20–29 Anne R. Kenney, Carl A. Kroch University Librarian, Cornell University The Changing Role of Special Collections in Scholarly Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30–42 Donald J. Waters, Senior Program Officer, Scholarly Communications, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation