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.”