Full Description
Addressing the most exciting and challenging areas in the profession, this text will be invaluable to any professional looking ahead to the future of special collections and related cultural heritage work.
Special collections today—from rare books and other specialized book collections to audio recordings and visual images—offer librarians limitless opportunities to showcase their skills in curating, preserving, and offering access to these resources to patrons. Drawing on innovative practices and enduring values to address challenges and opportunities in the broad realm of special collections librarianship, this book updates the notion of special collections to the wide range of materials, institutions, and contexts where they exist today. The contributed essays describe the various kinds of innovative projects and practices that are sought by IMLS and other funding agencies today and serve to illustrate how going beyond a traditionally limited idea of special collections opens doors to far more engaging opportunities.
Spanning the converging worlds of academic and special libraries, rare book collections, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions, this book will be useful to newcomers and seasoned professionals alike. The essays address the recurring themes of managing and welcoming change and the impact of digital technologies throughout the book, whether regarding new approaches to outreach and instruction, the acquisition and curation of non-traditional collections, new structures for discovery and access in a digital world, or the nature of special collections work now. Both experienced professionals and recent graduates from one of the booming archival studies programs will find this text invaluable in creating a successful career in special collections or cultural heritage curation today and in the near future.
Contents
CONTENTS
Introduction
Lynne M. Thomas and Beth M. Whittaker
Chapter 1: The Rare Book Librarian's Day, Revisited
Melanie Griffin
Chapter 2: Reading Room and Reference (Re)Vision: The Transformation of Reader Services
Mattie Taormina
Chapter 3: "Oh, Wow!": Assessment and Affective Learning in Special Collections and Archives
Anne Bahde
Chapter 4: Developing K-12 Outreach Methods for Special Collections Centers
Amy Chen, Lisa Crane, Melanie Meyers, Charlotte Priddle, and Abby Saunders
Chapter 5: Teaching with Special Collections: Alliances Between Cultural Heritage Professionals
Maureen E. Maryanski
Chapter 6: History, Memory, Community, Leadership: Collections-Based Programming in Congressional Archives
Audrey McKanna Coleman
Chapter 7: Collecting Printed Books in a Digital Age
John Overholt
Chapter 8: Digital Acquisitions and Appraisal
Sarah Barsness and Anjanette Schussler
Chapter 9: Documenting Ferguson: Collecting Current Events in Archives
Meredith R. Evans
Chapter 10: Dance Companies as Living Archives: Protecting the Future by Preserving the Present
Supriya Wronkiewicz
Chapter 11: Success with Donors: Practical Approaches that Work for All
Sherry Williams
Chapter 12: You and What Army?: Making the Most of Student and Volunteer Labor in Contemporary Special Collection and Archives
Dana M. Miller
Chapter 13: A Janus Perspective: Origins and Future of 21st-Century Preservation and Conservation in Library and Archives Special Collections
Priscilla Anderson and Whitney Baker
Chapter 14: Top Ten Questions and Answers about Digital Preservation for Special Collections and Archives
Lynne M. Thomas and Jaime L. Schumacher
Chapter 15: Discovery of Special Collections Resources at Web Scale: Opportunities and Challenges for Metadata Librarians
Christine DeZelar-Tiedman
Chapter 16: Special Files on the Semantic Web: Using Linked Data to Revitalize Special Collections Catalogs
Allison Jai O'Dell
Chapter 17: Old Challenges, New Solutions: Leveraging Organizational Change to Construct a New Future
Jennifer O'Brien Roper and Ivey Glendon
Chapter 18: Open Access and Copyright in Archives and Special Collections
Heather Briston
Chapter 19: Leaving Privacy in the Past?: Exploring a Curatorial Conundrum
Judith Weiner
Chapter 20: Succession Planning for 21st Century Special Collections Leadership: Initial Steps
Athena Jackson
Chapter 21: Towards a Culture of Social Media in Special Collections
Colleen Theisen
Afterword
Index
About the Editors and Contributors
