Comments on: Our Reading Rooms Are Empty: Digital Access to Materials in Special Collections and Archives

By: randygue

randygue — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 11:59:09 +0000

Chella55555, Jeffery and I plan to combine the sessions. However, footnote, I am very interested in the issues you have brought up – maybe we could have a separate session surrounding the digital collections issue?

By: footnotesrising

footnotesrising — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:37:35 +0000

One of the ongoing discussions that both troubles and interests me is whether digitized library items should be provided in the form of “collections” at all. Some in the library world argue that users just want access to the stuff, a la Google, while others feel that the context surrounding a particular library item can be as significant as its specific content and should be provided to the digital user. As a cultural historian with a museum background now working in a library–and a context geek–I’m totally on the keep collections together side of things. But I am also intrigued by both sides of the discussion, and wonder if it isn’t a relevant addition to the issues you mention here.

By: chella55555

chella55555 — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:57:22 +0000

I would like to participate in this discussion too. There is another discussion on the classrooms of the future (and today). Would you consider folding this topic into that one? As your concern is about providing access to special collections, I think it would be nice to have the perspective of instructors on this issue and talk about how we can help in integrating primary sources in an online or in-class environment.

By: Classrooms of the future (and today) | THATCamp Virginia 2010

Classrooms of the future (and today) | THATCamp Virginia 2010 — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:35:59 +0000

[…] I’m still mulling (see my post here for one exploration of these ideas as well as this one from a colleague and this project on the spaces in which we learn), but this could well be something that goes beyond classrooms to something like “learning spaces of the future” that would combine the physical and intellectual space that classrooms, libraries, and museums occupy now and in the years to come. It might also well overlap in fruitful ways with the proposal to talk about archives in the digital world. […]

By: mebrett

mebrett — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:37:51 +0000

Just speaking from a user perspective, part of the problem with some special collections libraries is that their finding aids and catalogs are only available on-site. I’m less concerned with the digitization of the material (that would be nice, but expensive) than just getting the finding aids online.

VIVA here in VA is a good example of how finding aids online can made special collections more accessible. The fact is, it is easier for me to justify travel time and expenses to my museum if I can show that the material we need is there, rather than just saying “Well, I hope so.”

By: randygue

randygue — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:57:17 +0000

I just came across this post about the large scale digitization of manuscript collections at The University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center: lib.typepad.com/scrc/2010/11/digitizing-archives-and-manuscript-collections.html

Interestingly it says that “The digital images are being made available via the online finding aid for each collection. This will recreate for the online user the experience of a researcher encountering the original materials in the SCRC Reading Room, with documents displayed as they are housed in each folder, and with description of the contents in the form of folder headings.”