1. The Art of the Possible:
Special Collections
Veronica Adamson
Jane Plenderleith
Glenaffric Ltd

2. Stakeholder Interviews
• Specialist staff in libraries (both university
and public), museums and archives
• Range of questions focused around
SWOT
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, thr
eats)
– Issues, Examples, Benefits, Easy
Wins, Special Collections ...
• Pushing at an open door

3. The Art of the Possible
• Special Collections can make sense of
open data and aggregation
– difficult to understand language and
concepts of resource discovery
• Everybody has them and attendant pride
but they're not well used and can be a
resource drain
• Not perceived as core business (teaching
or purchased collections) so not always a
priority

4. Some Examples
• Local Heroes
– Origin, Workplace
– Lord Kelvin, John Ruskin,
Ernest Rutherford
• National Events – London 2012
• Anniversaries
• Guardians of the Public Memory –
changing education policy
• Staff Personal Interest – Spanish Civil
War

5. ONE TO MANY;
MANY TO ONE: - By and about
THE RESOURCE Lord Kelvin
DISCOVERY - Electrical
TASKFORCE VISION Engineering
- Laboratory
UK researchers and Apparatus
students will have
- Correspondence:
easy, flexible and
ongoing access to
letters in and out
content through a
collaborative,
aggregated and
integrated resource
discovery and
delivery framework
which is
comprehensive,
open and sustainable

6. Et maintenant qu'est-ce qu'on fait?
• If it's all out there, then focus resource on
what's unique and special
• Need to be consistent and not piecemeal
• Polish the jewels, display them well and
avoid gathering digital dust