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…

With both budget dollars and buying power shrinking for academic library collections, the selection of materials is a series of crucial choices. With increases in numbers of online programs, how can we determine if what we are buying is in fact what our users need? E-reserves are an increasingly popular way to provide digital copies of course…

Recent surveys indicate that many colleges and universities have reached a pivotal moment in assessing the function and future development of their institutional repositories. Other surveys convey that archivists are participating in the development and implementation of institutional repositories at a variety of levels and have contributed to the…

There is a general perception that as librarians, we know what constitutes and defines a rare book, that our heritage book collections are well-documented and their future survival is planned for and secure. This discussion paper asks whether our definitions of heritage material might be too narrow and whether they reflect the reality across all…

This article identifies and provides some commentary on the key issues emerging from research into the digitisation of Indigenous materials in collections conducted in collaboration with three state libraries. It situates the research project within the broader context of related activity aimed at addressing the ongoing challenges of access,…

Twenty-six scholarly papers and ten abstracts comprise the content of the thirteenth annual Brick and Click Libraries Symposium, held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future face of librarianship. The…

Digital repositories are new tools for documenting the accumulated scholarly work produced at academic institutions and disseminating that material broadly via the internet. Digital repositories support all file types and can be adapted to meet the custom design specifications of individual institutions. A section for community engagement…

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…

In recent years there has been growing international interest in the development of shared facilities to house legacy print collections as a means of providing cost-effective and secure storage. These "repositories" have in some cases been successfully implemented on a national scale. This article traces the recent history of Australian…

Twenty-three scholarly papers and twelve abstracts comprise the content of the eleventh annual Brick and Click Libraries Symposium, held at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The peer-reviewed proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future face of…

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…

The Making of America (MoA) Testbed Project, coordinated by the Digital Library Federation, is a multi-phase endeavor. Its purpose is to investigate important issues in the creation of an integrated but distributed digital library of archival materials (i.e., digitized surrogates of primary source materials found in archives and special…

Reports on an agreement signed by 15 leaders of large U.S. research libraries and archives to collaborate on the establishment of a National Digital Library Federation which will implement an open digital library consisting of digitized collections accessible via the Internet. Also lists the federation's mission, goals, and participant names and…

In creating Australia's first prime ministerial library, a new cultural institution was developed which blends professional practice from the fields of librarianship, education, archives, journalism and museums. The John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library honours the contribution of wartime prime minister John Curtin, works towards the advancement…

While university libraries have a long tradition of preserving scholarship, they are less experienced in the technology-dependent and computer networked environment. By taking advantage of current activities and expertise that exist in various parts of the institution, policies and practices can be linked that will engender long-term…