Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Libraries, Archives, and Museums Today: Insights from the Field

This book offers insights into changes brought about by the enormous growth of the internet. There are new ways to share cultural heritage materials through online finding aids, exhibits, and other initiatives. What has been accomplished across libraries, archives, and museums? The authors consider that question by using case studies to explore activities in 14 libraries, archives, museums, and other heritage organizations. They consider what we can learn from current collaborations within and across libraries, archives, and museums and why some collaborations are successful while others cannot be sustained. Their findings are based on observations and interviews at institutions and organizations in the United States, Australia, and the U.K. These organizations have worked to make their collections accessible. Some have simply digitized their collections, while others have enhanced their collection management systems. Others have incorporated digital asset management systems to organize and retrieve media, and to manage digital rights and permissions. Most of these institutions and organizations have succeeded through strategic partnerships, strategic planning, and insightful leadership. However, the book also contains examples of institutions that have undergone transitions: one of the museums closed, and another closed its library. Taken together, the fourteen institutions shed light on professional practices today. Review This is a useful, instructive, and well-designed research volume for its region, one that should have a place in all archival practice reference libraries as well as in classrooms dedicated to training the next generation of LAM professionals. As we move through the 21st century, collaboration will be ever more necessary to sustain cultural heritage institutions of all types. This book provides a roadmap of how to do so successfully.--Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture [Libraries, Archives, and Museums Today] provides readers, especially academic librarians, with a survey of the current trends of libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. The book showcases these institutions and provides snapshots of how they function in constantly evolving environments. The volume also provides readers with a contemporary understanding and appreciation for what makes cultural institutions successful while also spotlighting examples of when they face transition and sometimes fail. . . . [The] book will be of value for archivists, librarians, museum curators, and staff working in university and cultural heritage contexts. The volume will also be useful for graduate students taking courses in special collections or archives at schools of information and library science. The helpful case studies provide literary glimpses into how LAMs collaborate with each other, engage users, and use technology to improve access to information.--College & Research Libraries Botticelli, Cloonan, and Mahard, all of the Simmons School of Library and Information Science, examine the impact of digital technology on the convergence of libraries, archives, and museums in the 21st century. The editors have gathered 14 case studies, grouped into five sections, that show possibilities, analyze successes, and guide transitions in situations ranging from closing a site to dispersing a collection. The appendices provide questions and list interviewers; the volume concludes with a bibliography. This book can be a guide for people already working in libraries, archives, and museums, as well as those who wish to consider a role in the sharing of cultural resources. This compact volume is both current- and future-based, showing ways to share and innovate in the field. Recommended. -- Patricia Hogan--Booklist Using over a dozen case studies, the authors illustrate how the interests of library, archives, and museums have converged over the last three decades, leading to new opportunities for co