This report explores the following types of emerging scholarship: (1) experimental--designed to develop and model a methodology for generating recorded information about a historical event or an academic discipline that might otherwise go undocumented; (2) open-ended--generates digital objects that are intended to be added to over time; (3)…

Discusses the digitization of culturally significant library materials based on evaluations at the Council on Library and Information Resources. Highlights include a definition of digital information; preservation questions, including authenticity and integrity; access to information, including the World Wide Web and copyright issues; and digital…

The goal of this survey was to collect and analyze baseline information about the status of audio collections held by a set of research institutions. This information can help shape the national preservation plan now being developed by the National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) and the Library of Congress to preserve "sound recordings that…

Recent innovations in information technology have met, and in many cases, exceeded all but the most utopian visions for increasing access to research materials. Although the costs of the technology are high and the risks of losing access to digital information in the future because of hardware and software obsolescence are now widely recognized,…

In April 2000, the Digital Library Federation commissioned three reports to address broader concerns about digital collections in research libraries. This report synthesizes the nearly 10 years' experience that libraries have had digitizing items from their rare, special, and general collections, and making them available online. The report…

This report discusses the ways in which artifacts and their physical frailties affect their research value--originality, faithfulness, fixity, and stability--over time and how libraries can minimize the risk of unacceptable loss of that value. It investigates the specific issues around selected media, such as paper-based printed matter, moving…

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) organized an invitational conference in May 2003 to examine the key factors shaping the information environment in which libraries operate and how these factors will affect stewardship of the cultural and intellectual resources vital to education and research. Scholars, library directors,…

This discussion of library preservation practices for information and cultural materials of value focuses on digital technology. Discusses controlled environments, reformatting, and emergency-preparedness strategies. A sidebar describes the Library of Congress's "American Memory" project to convert information in traditional media to an…

This paper is a response to discussions of digitization at meetings of the National Humanities Alliance (NHA). NHA asked the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to evaluate the experiences of cultural institutions with digitization projects to date and to summarize what has been learned about the advantages and disadvantages of…

This report summarizes the challenges and accomplishments in preservation efforts since the early 1960s. The paper gives an overview of the preservation and management of research collections and describes the context in which decisions are made by researchers and librarians about what to preserve and how. By examining how librarians and scholars…