Library, Archive, and Museum Collaboration: Organizational and Service Relationships on the LAM

An investigation to further dialog and collaboration among libraries, archives and museums, hosted by RLG Programs.

Libraries, archives, and museums coexist in a variety of organizational settings and face increasing pressure to provide more integrated access to their collections. Universities and other large institutions have a vested interest in being able to share their holdings of unique and rare materials from their various archives, museums, and special collections in a unified way with their community of researchers and learners. Integrated access to collections is just one example for how libraries, archives and museums can maximize their efficiency and impact by working more closely together. How do these three communities respond to increasing economic and end-user pressures for greater integration? Shared data, services, technological infrastructure, staff, and expertise can unlock greater productivity within institutions, as well as create online research environments more aligned with user’s expectations.

RLG Programs, now part of OCLC Programs and Research, is conducting an investigation into library, archive, and museum collaboration. This project will initially focus on campus or campus-like institutions that have one or more libraries, archives, and museums. Of particular interest are data, content, or service relationships where significant savings can be realized, where content or services are made accessible to new users, or where managing or using collections is made easier. Finding, and taking advantage of, synergy among the libraries, archives, and museums should then allow each individual institution to focus their efforts on the unique things that only they can do.

A call for expressions of interest in participating in the investigation yielded many institutions. Conference calls helped identify five sites that had already established some collaborative efforts, and where staff was interested in making further advances.

The Smithsonian Institution, Yale University, Princeton University, the University of Edinburgh, and the Victoria and Albert Museum were selected for a day-long meeting on-site with RLG staff and a facilitator. The goal of each meeting is to deepen existing library, archive and museum collaborations, and identify new areas for joint work. After each meeting, a report will be prepared about the individual institution’s progress and aspirations, to be shared with campus colleagues and administration. A report compiling all five institutions’ experiences, as well as findings from the campuses that were not visited, plus views of outside experts, will extrapolate emerging models for collaboration.