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Primary Research Group has published Trends in Rare Book & Documents Special  
Collections Management (ISBN: 1-57440-095-9).  
This  special report examines the management practices and business decisions 
of  special collections libraries with a focus on rare books, manuscripts, 
maps, and  other historical documents. The report profiles the John J. Burns 
Library of  Rare Books and Special Collections at Boston College, the Buffalo and 
Erie  County Public Library, the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham 
Young  University-Provo, the Huntington Library, the Newberry Library, the San 
Antonio  Public Library, the Watkinson Library at Trinity College, the 
Special  Collections Research Center at the University of Southern 
Illinois-Carbondale,  and the Bancroft Library at the University of California-Berkeley. 
Interviews  were conducted in November and December of 2007.  Additional information 
through an online  form was provided by San Jose State University Kent State 
University Map Library AGS Libraries, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and 
California State University-Chico.   
Some of the main findings of the report were  that: 
    *   Trends in special collections libraries management are  relatively 
stable in terms of acquisitions, staff, and preservation strategy  but are in a 
transition with newer issues such as choosing new technologies  and growing an 
online presence with more searchable, browsable features.  
    *   Consortiums and, to a lesser degree, relationships with  commercial 
vendors have played a large role in bringing digitization projects,  catalog 
availability, and general publicity to special collections libraries  that 
otherwise might lack the resources to work on such projects. Similarly,  many 
smaller libraries simply lack the resources to develop complex  applications to 
manage data or streamline workflows, and are dependent on  larger libraries to 
provide the programming expertise and developmental  leadership to offer 
solutions, open source or otherwise.  
    *   Relationships with commercial vendors to provide  limited edition 
materials and other items for sale seem to be on the upswing.  
    *   Nearly all librarians we spoke to mentioned an interest  in 
digitizing their patron tracking system but no vendors had provided a way  to 
effectively address the needs of a special collections library. Most  currently use 
entirely paper records, and the very few who used any kind of  digital tracking 
had not progressed beyond simple Microsoft Excel sheets.  
    *   We found that digitization generally has a dual purpose  but is 
currently more effective in piquing interest and drawing Web traffic  than it is in 
preservation. Digitization may also help with making available  collections 
that are normally stored offsite, but a certain amount of  technological 
infrastructure needs to be in place before any of this can  happen. 
    *   Online exhibits with metadata-tagged images and text  also bring in 
significant additional traffic and publicity. These exhibits do  not have to be 
large or comprehensive of the collection itself in order to  draw in viewers 
and researchers, but lack of infrastructure and staff  resources often blocks 
libraries from doing such projects. In these cases,  consortiums can play a 
significant role in digitizing exhibits when the home  institution is not 
equipped to work on such projects alone.  
For further information view our website at  www.PrimaryResearch.com 




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