Personal Research Collections Program

Quick facts

Total projects: 3

Problem statement: Personal collection-building tools abound in the online environment, from social bookmarking sites (de.lic.ious, PennTags, CiteULike, Zotero etc.) to iTunes and LibraryThing. As libraries seek to integrate their services into the flow of online scholarship and research and to build collections that mirror and support current scholarly practice, they must reexamine the place of personal collections in the research lifecycle. Are research libraries responsible for creating or supplying tools to support personal collection building? Are they responsible for acquiring and preserving the personal collections of the researchers, students and faculty they serve?  Little is known about how the range of available tools might be integrated in the library service environment, or what opportunities are available for collaborative sourcing of solutions that can meet the needs of libraries, archives, and museums.

Impact: Projects within this program area will engage partner institutions in an exploration of where personal research collections fit in the agendas of libraries, archives, and museums. By the end of calendar year 2007, we and our partner institutions should have a shared understanding of the level of institutional interest in managing personal collections, the range of available tools to support personal collection building, and a short list of partner and other institutions interested in codevelopment opportunities in this area.

Projects

• Assess the level of interest among research institutions in providing services to support faculty and students building and preserving personal research collections
• Explore opportunities for collaborative sourcing of personal (research) collection-management tools
• Summarize outcomes of recent studies of disciplinary research behaviors to define high-level requirements for network-level services