Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Survey of Special Collections and Archives in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Survey of Special Collections and Archives in the United Kingdom and Ireland, An OCLC Research Report

  • “The top 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.
  • The special collections sector is undergoing a major culture shift that mandates significant retraining and careful examination of priorities.
  • Philanthropic support is limited, as are librarians’ fundraising skills.
  • Use of all types of special collections material has increased across the board.
  • Users expect everything in libraries and archives to be digitized.
  • One-third of archival collections are not discoverable in online catalogs.
  • Management of born-digital archival materials remains in its infancy.”

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.