Works in Progress Webinar OCLC RLP Collection Building and Operational Impacts Working Group Update
Channel: OCLC Research
Date: 2019-05-28

Archives and special collections are charged both with collecting records that document our society and its institutions, and with the ongoing, responsible stewardship of these records. Yet many archives and special collections units struggle to manage the volume of material under their care. A key to making informed collection development, appraisal, and processing decisions is a strong understanding of the necessary institutional resources and capacity for the work to preserve, describe, and make accessible collection material. But in many institutions, those tasked with building collections are separate from those tasked with the ongoing work of collection management, and institutions may lack clear, actionable information on the institution’s capacity to care for its collections, making a holistic approach to acquisition and stewardship decisions especially challenging. 

The Collection Building and Operational Impacts Working Group was formed to explore the intersections between current collecting and collection management practices; seek ways to better integrate collection management considerations into the collection development process; and bring together colleagues across these important, interdependent functions. Since its formation in late 2018, the group has been working on a suite of tools to support cost estimation and better communication between those involved in building and caring for collections, to enable informed, responsible, and shared decision making. In this webinar, we will share our process and progress on these tools and seek feedback to inform our next iteration of work.  

This webinar will be of interest to administrators, curators, collection managers, and anyone involved in the selection, care, or administration of rare books, archives, special and distinctive collections.