OCLC Research and RLUK have collaborated to survey the special collections practices of RLUK members and OCLC Research Library Partnership institutions in the UK and Ireland. The findings from this survey as well as the resulting recommendations have just been published in a report "Survey of Special Collections and Archives in the United Kingdom and Ireland".
The report seeks to provide institutional leaders, curators, special collections staff and archivists with both evidence and inspiration to plan for much needed and deserved transformation of special collections.
As per the findings from the report, the challenges for archives and special collections in the UK and Ireland are outreach, born-digital materials and space. Alignment of special collections with institutional missions and priorities is an ongoing challenge, says the report. It further points out that the special collections sector is undergoing a major culture shift that mandates significant retraining and careful examination of priorities; and that philanthropic support is limited, as are librarians' fundraising skills.
According to the report, the use of all types of special collections material has increased across the board; users expect everything in libraries and archives to be digitised; one-third of archival collections are not discoverable in online catalogues; and management of born-digital archival materials remains in its infancy.
The report also contains 20 recommendations that the authors feel will have a positive impact toward addressing the issues identified. In addition, it provides a backdrop for continued discussion, both within special collections and the larger library enterprise, for the role of special collections in an evolved information economy. These key findings and recommendations are highlighted in the report's executive summary, which has been published as a separate document.
The latest survey builds on the foundation established by "Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives", a report published in 2010 that provides an appraisal of the state of special collections in the US and Canada. Together, the survey findings published in both reports seek to establish a baseline for comparison of practices in the US and Canada between those in the UK and Ireland.
