resources identified by speakers. Also presented is an excellent synthesis of the major themes that emerged at the forum in presentations and audience questions that was written for ARL by North Carolina State University’s Lisa Carter. CNI’s Clifford Lynch writes in his essay, “special collections are a nexus where technology and content are meeting to advance scholarship in extraordinary new ways.” The papers included here, as well as those referenced, describe some of the “extraordinary new ways” that librarians, archivists, and scholars and coming together and using technology to identify and steward distinctive collections while simultaneously expanding their visibility for use by a worldwide audience. In publishing this special issue of RLI, ARL hopes that it will serve to inform and inspire yet more innovative initiatives, and underscore the working group report’s key message that this is truly a time of great opportunity to grasp the challenges before us and help shape a glorious future for the extraordinary resources found in special collections in North America. 1 The working group report, the archive of the Web conference, and the blog are available online at http://www.arl.org/rtl/speccoll/SCwebcastjuly07.shtml. The proceedings from the ARL-CNI forum are available at http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/fallforumproceedings/ forum09proceedings.shtml. RLI 267 2 A Special Issue on Distinctive Collections ( C O N T I N U E D ) DECEMBER 2009 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC