Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives Jackie M. Dooley Program Officer Katherine Luce Research Intern OCLC Research A publication of OCLC Research Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives Jackie M. Dooley and Katherine Luce, for OCLC Research © 2010 OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. Reuse of this document is permitted as long as it is consistent with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 (USA) license (CC-BY-NC- SA): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. October 2010 Updates: 15 November 2010, p. 75: corrected percentage in final sentence. 17 November 2010, p. 2: added Creative Commons license statement. 28 January 2011, p. 25, penultimate para., line 3: deleted “or more” following “300%”; p. 26, final para., 5th line: changed 89 million to 90 million; p. 30, final para.: changed 2009-10 to 2010-11; p. 75, final para.: changed 400 to 80; p. 76, 2nd para.: corrected funding figures; p. 90, final line: changed 67% to 75%. OCLC Research Dublin, Ohio 43017 USA www.oclc.org ISBN: 1-55653-387-X (978-1-55653-387-7) OCLC (WorldCat): 651793026 Please direct correspondence to: Jackie Dooley Program Officer [email protected] Suggested citation: Dooley, Jackie M., and Katherine Luce. 2010. Taking our pulse: The OCLC Research survey of special collections and archives. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Research. http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2010/2010-11.pdf. http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2010/2010-11.pdf October 2010 Jackie M. Dooley and Katherine Luce, for OCLC Research Page 2 Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives Contents Executive Summary ........................................................................................ 9 Introduction ................................................................................................ 15 Background .............................................................................................. 15 Definition of Special Collections...................................................................... 16 Project Objectives ...................................................................................... 16 Survey Population....................................................................................... 17 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 19 1. Overview of Survey Data .............................................................................. 21 Overall library size and budget ....................................................................... 21 Collections ............................................................................................... 23 User Services ............................................................................................ 34 Cataloging and metadata .............................................................................. 46 Archival collections management .................................................................... 49 Digital special collections ............................................................................. 53 Staffing ................................................................................................... 62 Most challenging issues ................................................................................ 68 2. Overviews of Membership Organizations ............................................................ 73 Association of Research Libraries .................................................................... 73 Canadian Academic and Research Libraries ........................................................ 83 Independent Research Libraries Association ........................................................ 89 Oberlin Group ........................................................................................... 95 RLG Partnership ........................................................................................101 3. Conclusion and Recommendations ..................................................................109 http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2010/2010-11.pdf October 2010 Jackie M. Dooley and Katherine Luce, for OCLC Research Page 3 Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives Appendix A. Survey Instrument .........................................................................113 Appendix B. Responding institutions ...................................................................138 Appendix C. Overview of Museum Data ...............................................................144 Appendix D. Methodology ...............................................................................148 References ................................................................................................ 129 http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2010/2010-11.pdf October 2010 Jackie M. Dooley and Katherine Luce, for OCLC Research Page 4 Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives Tables Table 0.1. Survey respondents ......................................................................... 18 Table 0.2. Respondents by type of institution ....................................................... 18 Table 1.1. Printed volumes by membership organization .......................................... 22 Table 1.2. Branch libraries reported ................................................................... 24 Table 1.3. Special collections size ..................................................................... 25 Table 1.4. Impetus for establishing a new collecting area ......................................... 27 Table 1.5. Acquisitions funding ......................................................................... 29 Table 1.6. Onsite visits .................................................................................. 35 Table 1.7. Presentations ................................................................................ 45 Table 1.8. Catalog records .............................................................................. 46 Table 1.9. Mean number of staff FTE................................................................... 63 Table 1.10 Most challenging issues ..................................................................... 68 Table 2.1. ARL overall library size ..................................................................... 74 Table 2.2. ARL change in overall library funding .................................................... 75 Table 2.3. ARL special collections size ................................................................ 75 Table 2.4. ARL acquisitions funding, 2010 and 1998 ................................................ 76 Table 2.5. Percentage of all survey holdings held by ARL libraries ................................ 77 Table 2.6. ARL onsite visits ............................................................................. 77 Table 2.7. ARL presentations ........................................................................... 78 Table 2.8. ARL catalog records ......................................................................... 79 Table 2.9. ARL online catalog records (2010 and 1998) ............................................. 79 Table 2.10. ARL archival finding aids (1998 and 2010)............................................... 81 Table 2.11. CARL overall library size .................................................................. 84 Table 2.12. CARL change in overall library funding ................................................. 84 Table 2.13. CARL special collections size ............................................................. 85 Table 2.14. CARL onsite visits .......................................................................... 86 http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/library/2010/2010-11.pdf October 2010 Jackie M. Dooley and Katherine Luce, for OCLC Research Page 5 Taking Our Pulse: The OCLC Research Survey of Special Collections and Archives Table 2.15. CARL presentations ........................................................................ 86 Table 2.16. CARL catalog records ...................................................................... 87 Table 2.17. IRLA overall library size ................................................................... 90 Table 2.18. IRLA change in overall library funding .................................................. 90 Table 2.19. IRLA special collections size .............................................................. 91 Table 2.20. IRLA onsite visits ........................................................................... 92 Table 2.21. IRLA presentations ......................................................................... 93 Table 2.22. IRLA catalog records ........................................................................ 94 Table 2.23. Oberlin overall library size ............................................................... 96 Table 2.24. Oberlin change in overall library funding ............................................... 96 Table 2.25. Oberlin special collections size .......................................................... 97 Table 2.26. Range of Oberlin special collections sizes .............................................. 97 Table 2.27. Oberlin onsite visits