ARL has announced the release of their newest SPEC Kit: Digital Humanities (SPEC Kit 326). The survey used in creating the SPEC Kit is openly accessible online as is the front matter of the SPEC Kit.  This is an important publication for libraries and all digital humanities folks for both the digital humanities and for the ways in which digital humanities work supports and informs digital scholarship.

Press Release:

For immediate release: August 4, 2010

For more information, contact:
Karla Strieb
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
karla@arl.org

ARL Promotes Member Use of Large-Scale Digitization Principles

Washington DC— The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Board of Directors unanimously voted on July 26, 2010, to endorse a set of nine principles to guide vendor/publisher relations in large-scale digitization projects of special collections materials, recommended by its Transforming Special Collections in the Digital Age Working Group. The Board’s vote strongly encourages ARL member libraries to refrain from signing future agreements with publishers or vendors, either individually or through consortia, that do not adhere to the principles.

The ARL Board recognizes that research libraries are increasingly finding that large-scale digitization of special collections materials involves partnerships with commercial vendors and publishers, and that those partnerships should be governed by principles that protect special collections materials and promote the broadest possible access to digital versions of them.

Special collections often include valuable and unique materials, but also incur special responsibilities for their stewards. Digital access to special collections materials has become important in revealing hidden materials and promoting humanities research, and ARL member libraries often require appropriate collaborations and partnerships to implement large-scale digitization activities.

The nine principles address issues including implications of the distinctive character of special collections, the need for libraries to retain their own copies of the products of digitization projects, the importance of promoting broad access to digitized collections, and concerns regarding the collection of data about users of digitized collections.

“I am thrilled that the ARL Board has endorsed these principles, which encourage research libraries and archives to provide digital access to special collections while safeguarding institutional interests and promoting broad public access,” said Anne R. Kenney, Chair of the Working Group. “At Cornell, we plan to draw on the framework to improve many terms in our negotiations with vendors, including to shorten embargo periods on all our digitized collections to five years or less.”

To view these principles, please visit: http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/principles_large_scale_digitization.pdf

The Research Library Leadership Fellows (RLLF) Program is an executive leadership program jointly designed and sponsored by ARL member libraries. The pilot program was sponsored by the University of California at Los Angeles; Columbia University; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Texas at Austin; and University of Washington. The second offering was sponsored by six ARL member libraries: University of California, Berkeley and the California Digital Library; Harvard University; University of Minnesota; North Carolina State University; Pennsylvania State University; and the University of Toronto. The 2009-2010 program is being jointly sponsored and designed by Brigham Young University, University of Florida, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Houston, University of Michigan, University of Utah, and University of Western Ontario. The program offers an opportunity for development of future senior-level leaders in large research libraries.

Applications for the RLLF Program are due by March 6. Not only is this an amazing opportunity, but it’s one that includes a visit to the University of Florida Libraries, which is also wonderful and I’m excited to know that the Libraries have the opportunity to host the RLL Fellows. As one of the sponsors for the 2009-2010 RLLF Program, the University of Florida Libraries is hosting a meeting (“Strategic Issues Institute II”) in February 2010!