SPECIAL COLLECTIONS IN ARL LIBRARIES Results of the 1998 Survey Sponsored by the ARL Research Collections Committee BY JUDITH M. PANITCH Research & Special Projects Librarian The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Special Collections in ARL Libraries Published by Association of Research Libraries 21 Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 800 Washington, D.C. 20036 202-296-2296 (telephone) 202-872-0884 (fax) <[email protected]> <http://www.arl.org/> ISBN 0-918006-47-3 Design by Todd Allan Printing Company, Inc. Copyright © 2001 This report is copyrighted by the author. Permission is granted to reproduce and distribute copies of this work for nonprofit, educational, or library purposes, provided that copies are distributed at or below cost, and that the author, source, and copyright notice are included on each copy. This permission is in addition to rights of reproduction granted under Sections 107, 108, and other provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act. The paper used in this publication meets the requirement of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper) TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword . 3 Acknowledgements . 5 Executive Summary . 7 Survey Results . 11 Introduction . 12 Chapter I: Positive Status . 17 Chapter II: Distinctive Profile of Largest Institutions . 25 Chapter III: Distinctive Profile of Canadian Institutions . 37 Chapter IV: Areas of Concern . 45 Chapter V: Unanswered Questions . 59 Bibliography . 63 Appendices . 67 1. ARL Survey: Special Collections in Academic Research Libraries . 68 2. Responding Institutions . 75 3. Survey Tables . 77 4. New, Proposed, and Discontinued Special Collections during the Past 10 Years . 110 5. Special Collections Digitization Projects . 116 3 FOREWORD pecial collections contribute in a fundamental way to • The changing role of the research library in higher education. the mission of the modern research library. ARL How must special collections be positioned to continue as a university libraries, while differing in the specifics of primary element in the research library and the university Stheir goals, generally embrace the obligation to collect, mission? preserve, and make available primary source materials for both • The impact of digitization. How do new technologies current scholarship and future research. The approach of influence not only the operations of special collections, but individual institutions toward this mission varies, shaped by a even the basic mission and goals of special collections? range of local factors including the strengths and orientation of the parent institution and the strategic priorities of the library, • The challenge of selecting, preserving, and making available the th as well as the library’s collecting history and traditions. Never- voluminous cultural record from the 19 century onward. How theless, the commitment to maintaining special collections is should actual, anticipated, or desired changes in collecting broadly shared. For most research libraries, special collections patterns shape institutional and interinstitutional goals and are a point of considerable pride. Indeed, it is frequently a procedures? library’s special collections that serve as one of its defining • The potential for cooperative action. Can the general goals of elements, differentiating the institution from otherwise similar special collections be expressed as a collective obligation of peers. research libraries that would additionally help to direct A number of independent research libraries—the Folger or the local decisions? Newberry libraries, for example—are united by their primary As the Research Collections Committee began pondering identity as special collections. Their mission may not be easily these issues, it soon became clear that certain types of basic accomplished, but the central object of this mission is clear. By information were simply unavailable to us. Most significantly, we contrast, special collections within the university research found no standard framework of benchmarks and comparative library face an additional set of challenges, for in this context data, such as are normally used in other areas of decision making. they exist as just one element in a comprehensive program of While we had access to deep longitudinal data about our library services. The administration of special collections in collections and services generally through the ARL annual university libraries must be closely coordinated with—and in statistics program and to specific programmatic areas such as some cases balanced against—simultaneous priorities. through the ARL preservation statistics, no such measures were It was from the viewpoint of directors of university libraries, available regarding special collections. It was thus decided that a called upon to make decisions about special collections quantitative survey would be a logical starting point and that the alongside other equally pressing institutional concerns, that data gathered would constitute welcome common ground for an ARL’s Research Collections Committee first expressed interest issue-centered dialogue about special collections. in this area. We on the Research Collections Committee The publication that you now read is the direct result of those recognized that our objectives as directors would not necessarily early conversations. The data can serve at least two immediate always coincide with those of our special collections curators. purposes. First, they should provide some of the information Nevertheless, our interest was intended to be supportive in that directors felt they were lacking when making local nature. Many of us wished to be better equipped to protect and decisions about special collections. How do special collections promote special collections as an essential element of libraries staffing and expenditures, for example, compare with peer within a higher education environment that has increasingly groups? What national trends ought to be considered when turned its attention and resources to performance measures, making local decisions? How do programs compare in size and distance education, the crisis in scholarly communications, and scope? The publication of relatively recent comparative data similar issues. We were interested in better articulating the should prove beneficial in administering special collections and relative role of special collections within the library program advocating on their behalf. and in more visibly integrating special collections with the goals At the same time, the data can serve as a foundation for of the library and the university. collective action. Since the earliest discussions regarding the We also recognized that, despite occasionally differing viewpoints, survey, ARL has expressed an unwavering interest in and a some of the basic issues facing special collections at the dawn of growing level of activity around special collections. This the 21st century would be most effectively addressed by directors includes the May 1999 ARL membership meeting on the theme and curators acting together. These issues include the following: of “Special Collections in the Digital Age” and several ad hoc gatherings of ARL directors and curators to begin articulating 4 ASSOCIATION OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES issues and questions surrounding special collections. These differences in local statistical tracking. Nevertheless, the survey efforts have culminated in planning for a symposium on special was developed and executed with a great deal of care through collections that will take place in June 2001 and that will have the dedicated and persistent efforts of Judy Panitch, and it as its goal the development of a formal ARL special collections elicited an exceptional response rate. The results can be agenda. This was one of the original hopes of the Research considered a promising foundation for the types of local and Collections Committee, which continues to believe that ARL is collective action described above. Perhaps more than anything, the most appropriate organization to facilitate such an initiative. this survey confirms the richness and the challenges of special Not only does ARL’s membership consist of institutions with collections in research libraries and the need for further study, so similar interests and priorities, but it also has a successful history that their full potential can be successfully realized in and of effective collective action, through initiatives such as the integrated into a fluid environment of changing academic Global Resources Program and the launching of the Scholarly emphases, evolving technologies, and multiple priorities. Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). Joe A. Hewitt Admittedly, this study is only a first attempt to quantify the Associate Provost for University Libraries complex operations of special collections. It is not without University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill flaws, due in part to the lack of standardized definitions, widely Chair, ARL Research Collections Committee (1997–2001) divergent administrative structures for special collections, and 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS his project could not have been completed without tested an early survey instrument and provided much helpful the suggestions, advice, and support of numerous feedback. Angel Beza of the Institute for Research in the Social individuals. This list is bound to be incomplete, but I Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill am grateful for all the valuable assistance given so provided a practiced critique of the survey instrument and José T Sandoval gave