Research Collections and Support
Libraries are increasingly leveraging the raw materials of scholarship and knowledge formation by emphasizing the creation and curation of institutional research assets and outputs, including digitized special collections, research data, and researcher profiles. Our work informs current thinking about research collections and the emerging services that libraries are offering to support contemporary modes of scholarship. We are encouraging the development of new ways for libraries to build and provide these types of collections and deliver distinctive services. Our efforts are focused in the following three areas:
Publications
Summary of Research: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project
31 May 2023
Chela Scott Weber, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Brooke Doyle, Lesley A. Langa, Merrilee Proffitt, Bruce Washburn, Itza A. Carbajal
Synthesizes OCLC’s findings for the Building a National Finding Aid Network project. The research investigated end user and contributor needs for finding aid aggregations and evaluated EAD encoded finding aid data quality and consistency from existing regional archival aggregators.
EAD Analysis: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project
30 May 2023
Bruce Washburn, Merrilee Proffitt, Chela Scott Weber
Analyzes a corpus of EAD encoded collection descriptions provided by regional finding aid aggregators in the US to assess existing EAD data as raw material for building a national finding aid aggregation.
Focus Group Interviews: Findings from the Building a National Archival Finding Aid Network Project
30 May 2023
Chela Scott Weber, Merrilee Proffitt, Lesley A. Langa, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Brittany Brannon, Brooke Doyle
Investigates the needs of archivists and others who might contribute to a national archival aggregator through focus group interviews with archivists and archives administrators from across the United States.
Thresholds for Discovery: EAD Tag Analysis in ArchiveGrid, and Implications for Discovery Systems
14 October 2013
Marc Bron, Merrilee Proffitt, Bruce Washburn
The paper analyzes a large collection of over 120,000 Encoded Archival Description (EAD) documents within the ArchiveGrid discovery system. It evaluates how well these documents support online discovery and establishes criteria for completeness and consistency. The study reveals that while the EAD standard and encoding practices have limitations for comprehensive online discovery, emerging trends, such as updates to the EAD standard and the use of new encoding tools, offer promising improvements for the future.
Social Media and Archives: A Survey of Archive Users
16 August 2013
Bruce Washburn, Ellen Eckert, Merrilee Proffitt
This report details findings from a survey of users of archives to learn more about how researchers find out about systems like ArchiveGrid, and the role that social media, recommendations, reviews, and other forms of user-contributed annotation play in archival research. It will be of interest to those working with archival discovery services, or those investigating the utility of social media in discovery environments.
2012 Top Ten Trends in Academic Libraries: A Review of the Trends and Issues affecting Academic Libraries in Higher Education
1 June 2012
Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Janice S. Lewis, Stephanie Alexander, Yunfei Du, Brad Eden, Barbara Petersohn, +
Something's Got to Give: What Can We Stop Doing in a Time of Reduced Resources
1 October 2011
Merrilee Proffitt
Taking Stock and Making Hay: Archival Collections Assessment
26 September 2011
Martha O'Hara Conway, Merrilee Proffitt
This report identifies projects and methodologies that can be used as-is or serve as models for librarians, archivists and others who are considering collections assessment to meet one or several institutional needs. The goal of the report is to encourage a community of practice and to make it easier for institutions of all types to undertake collections assessment.