New Report From OCLC Research: “Total Cost of Stewardship: Responsible Collection Building in Archives and Special Collections”

Developed by the OCLC Research Library Partnership’s (RLP) Collection Building and Operational Impacts Working Group, Total Cost of Stewardship is a framework that proposes a holistic approach to understanding the resources needed to responsibly acquire and steward archives and special collections. The Total Cost of Stewardship Framework responds to the ongoing challenge of descriptive backlogs in archives and special collections by connecting collection development decisions with stewardship responsibilities. 

This OCLC Research report is a collection of resources designed to support archives and special collections in making informed, shared collection building decisions; bring together collection management and collection development considerations; and support communication between colleagues in curatorial, administrative, and technical services roles. 

The collection of materials published includes:

• An OCLC Research report: Total Cost of Stewardship: Responsible Collection Building in Archives and Special Collections
• An annotated bibliography of related resources
• The Total Cost of Stewardship Tool Suite, comprising of a set of Communication Tools, Cost Estimation Tools, and a Manual to guide end users in implementing the Tool Suite.

Authors

Chela Scott Weber
OCLC Research

Martha O’Hara Conway
University of Michigan

Nicholas Martin
New York University

Gioia Stevens
New York University

Brigette C. Kamsler
George Washington University

Direct to Full Text Report
28 pages; PDF.

Direct to Report and Additional Resources (Tools, Annotated Bibliography, Image Gallery)