Mobilizing Unique Materials
Can libraries and archives efficiently deliver on the promise of unique materials? We're working to change both parts of the cost/benefit equation associated with special collections and archives. Libraries need to make these materials cheaper to describe and disclose. They need to invest only what is necessary to make them discoverable effectively. They need to make them more valuable to the institution's teaching and research and be sure the institution's stewardship contributes to its prestige.
For a complete overview of our approach to our work in this area and what we want to accomplish, see the Mobilizing Unique Materials full narrative. A list of current activities for this theme is available below.
Current Activities
ArchiveGrid is a growing collection of nearly two million archival material descriptions that provides a foundation for OCLC Research collaboration and interactions with the archival community, and also serves as the basis for our experimentation and testing in text mining, data analysis, and discovery system applications and interfaces.
This project focuses on enhancing the effective management of born-digital materials as they intersect with special collections and archives practices in research libraries.
Rough and Ready: Typescript Finding Aid Conversion
OCLC Research will undertake a small scale experiment to explore the effectiveness of tools and techniques for bringing offline archival descriptions to the open Web.
Streamlining procedures for successful delivery of rare and unique materials to users will maximize use of increasingly limited staff and financial resources.
Survey of Special Collections and Archives in the UK and Ireland
OCLC Research and Research Libraries UK (RLUK) will survey library special collections holdings and practices of RLUK members & OCLC Research Library Partnership institutions in the UK and Ireland.
Survey of Special Collections and Archives in the US and Canada
A detailed survey of more than 300 special collections and archives in academic and research libraries throughout the United States and Canada identified norms across the community as well as defined needs for community action and further research.
Some of the activities listed here have prototypes or demonstrations you can explore and play with. You can find a list of just those hands-on activities in ResearchWorks.
A few of these activities have generated software that you can download and build upon. Go to our software page for a list of only those activities.
The OCLC Research Library Partnership has sponsored the activities with this mark.
OCLC Research on YouTube
Check out the OCLC Research YouTube Channel for a fresh, succinct view of what OCLC Research staff are up to.