This report provides actionable recommendations based on real-world case studies that libraries can apply to help make their own collaborations successful and sustainable. The report shares experiences from the Texas Data Repository, Portage Network, and Data Curation Network to illuminate the challenges, opportunities, and considerations of…

The OCLC Research report "Library Collaboration as a Strategic Choice: Evaluating Options for Acquiring Capacity" explores library collaboration as a key strategy for academic libraries in acquiring needed capacity, but also contextualizes it as one sourcing approach among a range of options available to libraries. The decision for…

Libraries continue to spearhead initiatives to incentivize instructors to adopt, adapt, and create open educational resources (OER). However, these programs often do not explicitly require educators to preserve the OER they create. Drawing on an analysis of semi-structured interviews with six experts, this article presents considerations for…

Special collections libraries collect and preserve materials of intellectual and cultural heritage, providing access to unique research resources. As their holdings continue to expand, special collections in research libraries confront increased space pressures. Off-site storage facilities, used frequently by research libraries for general…

This article establishes the level of skills and experience in preservation and conservation management using a case study methodological approach conducted in the 3 university libraries at the University of Zambia. The findings revealed that 20 (57%) of the library staff had not received formal training in preservation and conservation of library…

As library collections increasingly become digital, libraries are faced with many challenges regarding the acquisition and management of electronic resources. Some of these challenges include copyright and fair use, the first-sale doctrine, licensing versus ownership, digital preservation, long-term archiving, and, most important, the issue of…

How have college and university-based archives and special collections fared over the past few years in the midst of an historically grim economic downturn? The authors conducted in-depth interviews with directors of 13 archival repositories at state universities and private colleges in the Appalachian region of Virginia, West Virginia, North…

This paper reports on a questionnaire survey of 16 national libraries designed to clarify how national libraries attempt to justify their web archiving activities. Results indicate they envisage that a) the benefits brought about by their initiatives are greater than the overall costs, b) the costs imposed on libraries are greater than the costs…

The Web-at-Risk project is a digital preservation project funded by the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. The project is developing a Web archiving service to enable curators to build, store, and manage archived collections of Web-published materials captured largely from U.S.…

Storing and curating authentic academic literature and making it accessible for the long term has been a time-honoured task of national libraries. By guarding existing knowledge and facilitating its use to produce new insights, national and university libraries have formed an integral part of the research environment, complementing the roles of…

Examines the job content of preservation librarianship as evidenced in job advertisements. The findings indicate that preservation librarians function in a largely administrative role, possess the Master of Library Science degree in many cases, and are paid below the average salary for functional and subject specialists and department heads. A…

Discusses the issues facing New York State public libraries regarding preservation of materials. Highlights include a review of related literature to examine the history, preservation methods, control of the library environment, education and training, organization, and government involvement; and results of a questionnaire that surveyed directors…

This report, written for a National Archives Staff training program, presents the results of a survey which sought information about the administration of the government documents sections of the National Library of Canada, the National Archives of the United States, and 12 selected American state archives and state libraries. The survey gathered…

This Association of Research Libraries (ARL) publication presents data from 119 U.S. and Canadian research libraries that were members of ARL during the 1991-92 fiscal year. The Preservation Statistics Questionnaire was designed to yield statistical information on the current level of preservation efforts in research libraries and on the key…

This document examines the changes in organization and staffing of preservation programs since SPEC (the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center) surveyed members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in 1985. It is based on responses of 109 ARL libraries to ARL preservation surveys, and additional contacts with 21 ARL libraries that have…