rluk special collections ten year from now
TRANSCRIPT
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
Special Collections ten years Special Collections ten years from nowfrom now
Richard OvendenKeeper of Special Collections &
Associate DirectorBodleian Library, University of Oxford
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
OR
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
How do you make God laugh?How do you make God laugh?
Tell Him your future plans
Source: Woody Allen
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
Summary
• Beyond EEBO• The Barbara Castle effect• The burden of the past• The rebirth of evidence• The proliferation of publics• The G-Spot• My favourite subject • Conclusions
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
Introduction
• Institutional prioirities are changing– What is it that makes an institution unique in a digital
age?– When almost any institution of any size can subscribe
to the same set of e-resources, what is it that distinguishes them from one another?
• Emory: New five-year strategy has three goals: ‘Digital Innovations’, ‘Special Collections’, and ‘Customer-centered Library’.
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
EMORY FIVE YEAR STRATEGY
• ‘Renowned special collections and world-class facilities differentiate Emory from peer institutions and establish Emory as one of the top five destinations in the country for research and teaching …’
• Target for fundraising: $100m
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
Beyond EEBO: Acquisitions
• Rare Books: The EEBO Effect– Will collecting policies change?– Will values change?
• Manuscripts: Uniqueness
• Archives: Critical Mass
• Collaboration vs. Competition
• Beyond ‘building on strength’– Supporting new areas
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
The Barbara Castle Effect: Digital Special Collections
• Concept of e-MSS• ERM and connection to institutional
archiving policy• Interconnections with other developments
in IRs• Creating a digital special collections place:
BodADaM• Putting a price on the digital (Zadie Smith,
Clutag Press)
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
The Burden of the Past: Collection Management
• What is space used for?– Move to off-site storage– Re-use space for public programmes; pedagogy; research
• Hidden collections– Mellon / CLIR initiative
• Pressure on conservation– Is it sexy enough?
• Challenge of standards• Costs
– Shifting the backlog left to us by previous generations– Deferred maintenance
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
The rebirth of evidence: Research trends and the support of research
• Move from Theory back to evidence• Resurgence of editing
– Interest in text encoding as well as textual transmission• Research training
– Skills, collaboration, opportunities• Undergraduate movements
– The rise of the dissertation• Competition
– What attracts graduate students?• What is a research output?
– REF changes will be significant• Danger of over-reliance on networked resources:
– Wikipedia
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
The proliferation of publics: Cultural strategy
• Museumification: books as ‘artifacts’– Morgan Library and Museum
• Widening participation, widening access– Political agendas
• Recognise priorities of funders• Special Collections as cultural repositories• Marketing strategies / skills gap?
– Education officers / Outreach Officers
• Using the network to reach out– BODCasts & Web Exhibits– Social networking– Wikipedia
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
The G-Spot: Digitization
• Mass digitization & Google/Microsoft
• The EEBO Effect– What is evidence?
• Emphasis away from originals?
• Generational shift and impact on teaching
• Two-tier system?
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
My favourite subject: Funding
• Mixed economy– Bodleian Special Collections– Staffing: 40% external (2002: 20%)– Acquisitions: 95% external (2002: 40%)
• Fundraising– Professionalisation (Bodleian = 4 fte)– Competition
• Grant giving bodies: whatever happened to cataloguing?– NFF/RSLP/?
• Sustainable funding– Endowments– US / UK comparison
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
JISC Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art Marc Fitch Fund
Andrew W Mellon Foundation
Heritage Lottery Fund V&A Purchase Grant Fund
PRISM Fund Friends of the Bodleian Friends of the
National Libraries The Art Fund John R Murray Charitable Trust Bernard H Breslauer Foundation Strachey Trust Samuel H Kress Foundation Gladys Krieble Delmas
Foundation Wireless Preservation Trust Fritz Thyssen Stiftung
PRIVATE DONORS
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
Conclusions: SWOT analysis
• Strengths– Staff attitudes– Collections– Return to evidence
• Weaknesses– Backlogs– Reliance on project
funding– Competition
• Opportunities– Collaboration– Fundraising– Public interest
• Threats– Funding– Politics– The end of
Humanities?
04/12/23 CURL Special Collections Meeting
CONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONS:: In 10 years time …
• We will need to be even more entrepreneurial– Fundraising– Marketing
• We will need to focus on what is unique: collections, services, training, atmosphere
• We will need to convince the scientists that Special Collections are for them, and make Joe Public see themselves as stakeholders.
• In doing this we must avoid alienating our core customers …
• We need to recognise that the special collections of the future will be digital as well as physical.
