Enabling Integrated, Online Access to Special Collections

Between Tradition and Automation in Special Collections: A Memoir

“…Such examples have since become legion, 22 and most special collections departments can now attract and serve international 23 and local users with equal ease and efficiency. 24 Not only OPACs, but also online displays, full-text scans, 25 and other pragmatic forms of digital outreach quickly showed the superiority of graphic user interface (GUI) over text-based librarianship, both digital and analog. Such outreach can even introduce special collections to a wide variety of very young students, satisfying the full depth of their newly awakened curiosity without librarians having to worry about untrained hands pawing irreplaceable materials.…”