ASERL’s Special Collections Interest Group was established in 2017 to encourage cooperation and partnerships among member libraries. A series of activities was undertaken in 2017 to bring together special collections professionals and libraries, in particular for shared digital collections and expanding professional development. Activities included site visits to 24 member institutions and a professional development survey to inform future webinars.
In 2019, the group offered two webinars on outreach and community engagement and donor relations, a disaster response survey and is planning a Shared digital exhibit to launch in Fall 2019. See the Webinar Archive for recordings of these sessions.
Activities:
- Collection Profiles gathered from site visits and interviews with administrators of special collections
- ASERL Disaster Response Survey (*.xls format) results from an information gathering survey on disaster supplies and response at member institutions
- Shared Exhibit exploring the history of enslavement in the Southeastern US as part of the 400th anniversary of the first arrival of Africans to the English colonies
The Special Collections Interest Group page is maintained by the co-chairs of the Special Collections Interest Group, Suzan Alteri (University of Florida) and Jessica Perkins Smith (Mississippi State University).
Email aserl-spec-collections@aserl-lists.org to be added to the ASERL Special Collections listserv.
University of Florida Special and Area Studies Collections
University of South Florida Special Collections