Digitizing special collections: to boldly go where we've been before
| Pages | 379-395 |
| Published date | 01 September 2005 |
| Date | 01 September 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830510621793 |
| Author | Peter Michel |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THEME ARTICLE
Digitizing special collections:
to boldly go where we’ve been
before
Peter Michel
Special Collections, UNLV Libraries, University of Nevada Las Vegas,
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Aims to present issues related to digitization in the context of the historical role and
purpose of academic special collections.
Design/methodology/approach – Presents a comparison of current issues related to digitization to
historical issues related to the management of traditional print special collections.
Findings – The current issues are not new. Technology has not dramatically altered the role of
special collections in academic libraries.
Research limitations/implications – Based on personal observation and experience and an
awareness of issues, but essentially a personal viewpoint.
Practical implications – May provide non-special collections librarians with a better
understanding of, or different perspective on, the popular notion of “digitizing special collections”
and of special collections historically and generally.
Originality/value – This is the viewpoint of an experienced head of special collections, a trained
academic historian, and someone who has been involved in a number of digital projects.
Keywords Collections management, Digital libraries
Paper type Viewpoint
Introduction: billboard or research?
In a period when some librarians are obsessed with creating digital librar ies, special
collections continue to obsess on physical collections of unique and rare printed and
manuscript materials. As library collections become increasingly homogenized
through the aggregated commercialization of both print and electronic resources,
special collections increasingly are what make library collections distinctive. Special
Collections at UNLV has established for itself a unique collecting niche identified with
Las Vegas, interest in which has grown with the popular and academic interest in the
cultural and urban “phenomenon” of this, still, fastest growing city in the USA. Special
Collections have also played a critical role in library digitization programs, as the
Libraries seek to present their distinctive and potentially popular collectio ns online.
Special Collections librarians have been pioneers in presenting collections via the web
as a way to reach beyond their traditional reading rooms to new audiences for their
esoteric materials. But are we creating digital billboards of popular culture or serving
the research needs of a community of scholars, or both? How can Special Collections
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Digitizing special
collections
379
Received 1 February 2005
Revised 30 March 2005
Accepted 25 April 2005
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 23 No. 3, 2005
pp. 379-395
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830510621793
retain its traditional role of preserving print culture for a specialized research
community in an increasingly commercialized digital world?
Digitization at UNLV
At UNLV we have approached digitization cautiously. This despite frequent
pronouncements expressed in strategic planning or simply in casual descriptions or
explanations of special collections by non-special collections staff or administrators
that “we are (or will be) digitizing Special Collections”. Or despite the persistent
inquiries of visitors, researchers, or provosts, “aren’t you digitizing all this, or when
will this be available online?” In former days potential donors, visitors, or scholars
would ask when such and such a collection would be cataloged; now they ask when it
will be digitized. And the honest answer should be the same: it depends on the content
and potential use of the collection.
At UNLV Special Collections began digitization like many others by posting finding
aids as word documents which we began in 1995. We then moved on to creating online
exhibits from physical exhibits, to sustain an exhibit past its physical life and to
enhance the original with material that would not fit in the case and could provide
additional contextual material, and not least, to add content to our fledgling web site.
Our first such major effort, “Dino at the Sands”, began as a tribute to Dean Martin, an
icon of Las Vegas entertainment, who died in 1995. Interest in Dean Martin grew when
the Sands Hotel, the venue of the famous Rat Pack performances, was imploded. Las
Vegas discovered, perhaps for the first time, a loss of its past, and our images of Dean
Martin, Frank Sinatra and the old Sands Hotel resonated with a general nostalgia for
old Las Vegas and the music and performers associated with it. Given this popular
appeal we – myself and members of the cataloging staff who were moving into web
work and looking for something to jazz up the web site – decided to digitize the exhibit
(my first online exhibit) as a series of virtual galleries, and put it on our web site where
it has remained to this day, still the most popular of the UNLV Libraries’ web pages.
The purpose of the digital exhibit was fairly straightforward. It was to make a
somewhat limited local exhibit available to anyone on the web, to present some of our
most popular photographs, and to promote our Special Collections as the foremost
repository for the history of Las Vegas, a history that has become a popular subject of
television documentary entertainment. UNLV Special Collections is now known as the
foremost provider of images of the Rat Pack and old Las Vegas. These photos have
found their way into just about every television show and documentary about Las
Vegas and have attracted fans, producers, publishers, impersonators, webmasters, and
authors world-wide. This has raised our image, attracted new use, and extended our
outreach into the popular media. The site is not a source for serious research and was
never intended as such. It is a teaser, a marker on the internet, a billboard for our
collections, and as such it has been enormously successful. Reproductions of Frank
Sinatra and Dean Martin photographs and film footage now produce a regular and not
insubstantial revenue stream, and it has opened the door to our documenting other
aspects of Las Vegas entertainment and popular culture. These are positive results.
The negative side is that this fascination with this one part of our collection trivializes
and carnivalizes our history and our collections. But it has provided good copy, good
sound-bytes and a number of conference papers.
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