University Libraries Collaborating to Improve Access to Archives and Special Collections

The Rocky Moun­tain Online Archive, hosted by the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, is one of three con­sor­tia plan­ning for a new net­work that will improve access to archival col­lec­tions in the West.

Last fall, the Insti­tute of Museum and Library Ser­vices (IMLS) awarded a National Lead­er­ship Grant to the J. Willard Mar­riott Library at the Uni­ver­sity of Utah on behalf of the west­ern regional con­sor­tia. In addi­tion to the Rocky Moun­tain Online Archive, there is the Utah Aca­d­e­mic Library Consortium’s Moun­tain West Dig­i­tal Library and the Orbis Cas­cade Alliance’s North­west Dig­i­tal Archives.

This col­lab­o­ra­tive plan­ning grant is a one-year project, “Plan­ning for a West­ern Archival Net­work: Admin­is­tra­tive, Tech­ni­cal, and End User Con­cerns.” The con­sor­tia on the grant are cur­rently explor­ing ways to improve user access to archival find­ing aids describ­ing the archival mate­ri­als in our three West­ern regions, pos­si­bly via a cen­tral west­ern search por­tal that lever­ages the Encoded Archival Descrip­tion (EAD) stan­dard now in use by all of the par­tic­i­pat­ing consortia.

Fif­teen staff mem­bers rep­re­sent­ing the con­sor­tia met at UNM Uni­ver­sity Libraries in Albu­querque in Jan­u­ary to exam­ine ways to cre­ate bet­ter user expe­ri­ences and real­ize cost effi­cien­cies through shared stan­dards, tech­nol­ogy and administration. Follow up meet­ings are planned in Salt Lake City, Utah in April and Port­land, Ore. in September.

This project will have national impact for both end users, and the EAD com­mu­nity at large. Once the plan­ning is com­pleted and the meth­ods imple­mented, end users will have eas­ier and quicker access to both a greater vol­ume and diver­sity of archival mate­ri­als. The intent is to pro­vide a model that other orga­ni­za­tions can imple­ment so that con­sor­tia across the coun­try ben­e­fit from reduced costs and increased access to collections.

Accord­ing to Michael Kelly, RMOA Project Direc­tor, “This is a good oppor­tu­nity to expand access to RMOA by net­work­ing with other EAD col­lab­o­ra­tives.  Pro­vid­ing one point of access to find­ing aids from across the West will make it much eas­ier for users to dis­cover our collections.”

Based on the grant activ­i­ties, final rec­om­men­da­tions and a report will be released in Octo­ber 2012. The three con­sor­tia hope to pur­sue addi­tional col­lab­o­ra­tive fund­ing for the imple­men­ta­tion phase of the project.

EAD Con­sor­tia Project Part­ners
The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Uni­ver­sity Libraries pro­vides the infra­struc­ture for the 30 con­tribut­ing insti­tu­tions in New Mex­ico, Col­orado and Wyoming of the Rocky Moun­tain Online Archive. UNM sup­ports and main­tains RMOA as a ser­vice to libraries, muse­ums and archives in the three states with the goal of improv­ing access to man­u­script and archival col­lec­tions. Ini­ti­ated with a grant from the National Endow­ment for the Human­i­ties in 2004, con­tin­u­ing sup­port comes from the UNM Uni­ver­sity Libraries and the Cen­ter for Regional Studies.

The Utah Aca­d­e­mic Library Con­sor­tium is a 40-year-old con­sor­tium of 14 aca­d­e­mic libraries in Utah, along with the Utah State Library and affil­i­ate mem­ber libraries in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. UALC part­ners coop­er­ate in con­tin­u­ally improv­ing the avail­abil­ity and deliv­ery of library and infor­ma­tion ser­vices to the higher edu­ca­tion com­mu­nity and to the State of Utah, through fos­ter­ing research, devel­op­ing and imple­ment­ing coop­er­a­tive library pro­grams; pro­vid­ing a means for the exchange of infor­ma­tion on coop­er­a­tive library ven­tures; max­i­miz­ing lim­ited resources by improv­ing library meth­ods and avoid­ing expen­sive dupli­cate pur­chases; max­i­miz­ing infor­ma­tion deliv­ery through shared use of tech­nol­ogy and human resources; and act­ing as an advo­cate for excel­lence in library resources and ser­vices. One of the flag­ship pro­grams of the UALC is the Moun­tain West Dig­i­tal Library, a free search por­tal to 350 dig­i­tal col­lec­tions con­tain­ing more than 650,000 resources about the Moun­tain West region from 62 part­ner­ing libraries, archives, and other cul­tural her­itage insti­tu­tions. Eight part­ners of the MWDL main­tain EAD files, and sev­eral more are involved in cre­at­ing new EAD collections.

The Orbis Cas­cade Alliance is a con­sor­tium of 36 aca­d­e­mic libraries in Ore­gon and Wash­ing­ton. Alliance mem­ber libraries work together to pro­vide out­stand­ing ser­vices to stu­dents and fac­ulty, share infor­ma­tion resources and exper­tise, develop library staff, and help mem­bers allo­cate finan­cial and human resources to serve the unique needs of each mem­ber. To this end, the Alliance con­sid­ers the com­bined col­lec­tions of mem­ber insti­tu­tions as one col­lec­tion. The Alliance sup­ports a num­ber of ser­vices that sup­port this vision, includ­ing Sum­mit, a sys­tem that allows stu­dents, fac­ulty and staff to eas­ily search and request library mate­ri­als owned by mem­ber libraries; courier ser­vice offer­ing deliv­ery of library mate­ri­als in Ore­gon, Wash­ing­ton and Idaho; the North­west Dig­i­tal Archives, which offers enhanced access to pri­mary sources in the North­west U.S.; coop­er­a­tive pur­chas­ing for data­bases, ebooks and ejour­nals; and other dig­i­tal library services.

Ques­tions / com­ments may be directed to:

Rocky Moun­tain Online Archive:
Kath­lene Fer­ris, Dig­i­tal Pro­grams Man­ager, (505) 277‑7172; email: kferris@unm.edu

Uni­ver­sity of Utah, J. Willard Mar­riott Library
Gre­gory Thomp­son, Asso­ciate Dean for Spe­cial Col­lec­tions & Prin­ci­pal Inves­ti­ga­tor, (801) 581‑3421; email: greg.c.thompson@utah.edu

Moun­tain West Dig­i­tal Library
San­dra McIn­tyre, pro­gram direc­tor, (801) 585‑0969, sandra.mcintyre@utah.edu

North­west Dig­i­tal Archives
Jodi Allison-Bunnell, pro­gram man­ager, (406) 829‑6528; email: jodiab@uoregon.edu