Keeping treasures in testing times : special collections in the academic environment

&ldquo;&hellip; university libraries, while differing in the specifics of their goals, generally embrace the obligation to collect, preserve, and make available primary source materials for both current scholarship and future research&rdquo; (Hewitt 1998).This paper explores some of the challenges faced by the Fryer Library, the special collections branch of the University of Queensland Library responsible for manuscripts and pictorial materials, as well as theses and rare books. The challenges are not dissimilar to those being met by other cultural agencies or institutions as well as other academic libraries. The challenges covered include collection development, access and preservation, making appropriate responses to the research imperative, as well as promotion of services and collections, and servicing the community at large. The paper outlines the research library context and concludes with experiences of cross-sectoral collaborations and future opportunities.<br /

State Library of New South Wales

This paper describes a project at the State Library of NSW to develop structured machinereadable collection descriptions to provide online access to our collection strengths. Background The State Library of New South Wales has a history tracing back to the establishment of the Australian Subscription Library in 1826. It is one of Australia’s premier research libraries with its collections forming a key part of Australia’s cultural heritage. There are extensive pictorial and manuscript collections including such unique national treasures such as 9 of the 11 extant original First Fleet journals, as well as vast holdings of published library materials such as books, serials and maps, now complemented by online databases. Much of this intellectual capital and cultural wealth is still currently accessible only via card catalogues and supplementary paper-based finding aids located within the library buildings and thus available only to those who are able to visit the site. Approximately 25 % of the total 4,623,791 collection items, 9,533 linear metres of manuscripts and 5,368 hours of oral history have online records – only bibliographic formats catalogued since 1980 and original materials (manuscripts, pictorial collections and maps) catalogued since 1992