Reflections and action cues on special collections in academic libraries (with an appendix on third mission’s evaluation)

Abstract

The article tackles with the growing attention given to special collections in academic libraries in Italy due to an increasing and more meaningful collaboration among professionals in the cultural heritage and to the third mission. The author describes the main activities related to the promotion of special collections in academic libraries, as third mission is highlighting their value for the general public and library stakeholders. One of the most relevant activity in order to promote a collection is the organization of exhibitions of ancient and rare books in library spaces: step by step the author describes the main challenges in projecting a collection exhibition in academic libraries, tackling with the aims, the costs, the staff, the communication plan, the competencies, and the administrative burdens necessary to organize it.

In the second part of the article the author presents an assessment scheme to evaluate special collections in the perspective of the third mission in Italy. The scheme proceeds through three steps. The first step is the assessment of the external context and of the needs of the academic library publics; the second step involves the detailed analysis of the special collections’ profile; the third step is a qualitative and quantitative analysis to be carried out by gathering data and stories in order to highlight the social and historical value of the academic library for students, researchers and, last but not least, for the general public.