IASA 2018 Annual Conference

The concept of “special collections” covers a wide range of notions that commonly refer to rare and unique material archives or cultural institutions possess. Its meaning ranges from precious manuscripts, to a particular material type collection, or an individual’s personal archives. Because these collections are special, they add to the uniqueness of the cultural institution's general collection. However, precisely because they are special, they present specific challenges and require specific treatment. Given the vastness of this notion for the purpose of this tutorial we will narrow it down to one particular kind of special collections: mixed collections that documents of a wide variety of media or carriers, e.g., written documents, photographs, audio, and video recordings. It is customary that such collections remain closed, but there is scarcely an institution, which can handle all forms of documents and recordings in a competent manner. Therefore, various competences should join and collaborate in dealing with such collections. By first attempting to define the main characteristics of mixed collections, this tutorial will then try to outline a framework and a methodical approach that should allow an archive to receive and treat correctly these collections, to describe and contextualize them properly, and to give them an appropriate place in the general collection. Great attention will be paid to the definition of workflows necessary to the management of these special collections.