Where museums, libraries, and archives intersect.

Anne Van Camp

RLG Manager, Member InitiativesJune 2003

32nd LIBER Annual General Conferece Rome, Italy

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RLG BackgroundNonprofit membership corporationFounded in 1974160+ members in 15 countriesHeadquarters in Mountain View,

California; offices in New York City and London

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RLG Mission

Through collaborative action, improve access to information

that supports research and learning

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University

Public Research

Primary Sources

Museum

National/State

Types of RLG Members

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Online Information ResourcesRLG Library Resources

RLG Union Catalog and Z39.50 Gateways ESTC and Hand Press Books SCIPIO: Art and Rare Book Sales Catalogs

RLG Citation ResourcesRLG Archival ResourcesThe AMICO LibraryRLG Cultural Materials

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Historical Ways of Providing Access to Primary Materials

Published guidesUnpublished guidesGood reference staffGood scholarly guessworkConferences, articles pointing to stuffElectronic access via bibliographic utilities

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Current Efforts Underway to Enhance Access

From collection level description to full-text finding aids

Various presentation strategiesMovement to standardsTaking best advantage of the webSurfing vs. Organized accessMediated to unmediated discovery

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New Technologies and Practice

Web as the preferred delivery vehicleEmerging standards and practice for

descriptionGreater appreciation for need to promote

and integrate primary research materials

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Current Services

Archival Resources - union access to dispersed primary resources Cross file searching Unexpected content Unified result

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RLG Cultural MaterialsDigital objects documenting civilization Digital surrogates of materials in all formatsCross-searching among dispersed

collectionsAccess to rare, fragile, or hidden treasuresRecreated or new “virtual collections”Rights management framework

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Future Trends

More integration of related contentMore digital surrogates availableNew users, uses of primary material

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Learning MoreGeneral information about RLG:

www.rlg.org/RLG Archival Resources:

www.rlg.org/arr/ RLG Cultural Materials:

www.rlg.org/culturalres/ RLG Library Resources:

www.rlg.org/libres.html