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- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the author
- Reviews
An essential resource for staff working with special collections in a wide range of settings, including academia, public libraries, and museums, this new edition has been revised and updated to reflect the growth and complexity of the environment in which special collections operate. Cullingford thoroughly covers the essential principles, skills, and knowledge to manage special collections in any setting, including
- preservation;
- developing and managing collections, including enriched guidance on decolonizing collections;
- understanding objects;
- emergency planning and security;
- facilities, with discussion of working towards zero-carbon buildings;
- managing remote access by staff and users;
- legal and ethical concerns, including new material on the 2018 UK Data Protection Act;
- cataloging;
- digitization and digital resources;
- the implications of the “digital shift” and the place of special collections in online and hybrid teaching and learning;
- marketing, outreach, and advocacy; and
- fundraising.
Part 1. Discovering collections
1 Understanding objects in Special Collections
Part 2. Collections management
2 The care of Special Collections
3 Emergency planning for Special Collections
4 Acquiring and developing Special Collections
5 Cataloguing, description and metadata in Special Collections
6 Digitization and digital libraries in Special Collections
Part 3. Managing public access
7 Legal and ethical issues in Special Collections
8 User services in Special Collections
9 Marketing and communications in Special Collections
10 Widening access to Special Collections
11 Using Special Collections in education
Part 4. Governance and resources for Special Collections
12 Special Collections spaces
13 Organizational resources for Special Collections: people
14 Influencing and fund-raising for Special Collections
Appendix A The Special Collections reference shelf
Appendix B Skills for your Special Collections career
Appendix C Latin and palaeography
"The new edition provides updates on key topics and adds almost a hundred pages of content while still focusing on giving a broad overview of Special Collections ... Best suited for someone seeking a general introduction or as an introductory text for a class. It would also be useful for someone working in one area of Special Collections who wants to gain an understanding of another aspect of the field, such as someone in museum archives wanting to learn more about rare book librarianship. The bibliography also provides a helpful reference source."
— Technical Services Quarterly
"Considering how many materials and formats can fall under the rubric of 'special collections,' it seems like a daunting endeavor to compile a single handbook which covers all their management and care, but Alison Cullingford has done so with great finesse."
— Library Resources & Technical Services
"As a cataloger with over 20 years of experience with special collections, I was unable to identify any critical topics that were missing, and appreciated Cullingford’s realistic and pragmatic approach to the challenges common to this work ... The volume would be a welcome addition to a special collections staff reference shelf."
— Technicalities
Praise for previous editions
”A comprehensive manual for special collections and rare book librarianship; there is no contemporary one-volume U.S. equivalent ... Highly recommended."
— Library Journal
”As a practical handbook, this volume should be on the shelf of every special collections library – it should, indeed, be on the shelf of every library. There is much that all librarians may glean from it, whether their institution houses a special collection or not. It is worth every information professional understanding how special collections work to facilitate organizational communication and understanding, to see whether there are opportunities for collaboration or simply to understand how special collections function within a wider institution."
— Reference Reviews
”The Special Collections Handbook should be an essential tool to anyone managing Special Collections or archives, no matter their professional background or area of expertise."
— Archives and Records