Management: Innovative Practices for Archives and Special Collections
explores the kinds of challenges that managers of archival programs face
today and how those challenges can be met to achieve optimal results
while working within existing resources. The book features thirteen case
studies that demonstrate solutions to both traditional management
concerns as well as new issues and opportunities presented by changes in
technology and organizational environments. The featured case studies
are: 1) "We'll Never Let You Retire!" Creating a Culture of Knowledge
Transfer 2) Raising Cash and Building Connections: Using Kickstarter to
Fund and Promote a Cultural Heritage Project 3) A Winning Combination:
Internships and High-Impact Learning in Archives 4) A Thief in Our
Midst: Special Collections, Archives and Insider Theft 5) Tackling the
Backlog: Conducting a Collections Assessment on a Shoestring 6) A
Platform for Innovation: Creating the Labs Environment at the National
Archives of Australia 7) Setting Our Own Agenda: Managing the Merger of
Archives and Special Collections 8) Taking Control: Managing
Organizational Change in Archives 9) Implementing Pre-Custodial
Processing: Engaging Organizations to Invest Resources in their Records
10) Building Effective Leaders: Redesigning the Archives Leadership
Institute 11) From Evaluation to Implementation: Selecting Archival
Management Software 12) More Bang for the Buck: Sharing Personnel and
Resources Across Institutions 13) "Make a New Plan, Stan" Useful and
Painless Strategic Planning The collected case studies present pragmatic
approaches to challenges and opportunities that are common to
organizations of all sizes and types. Their common focus is on building
stronger archival programs by making effective use of people,
technology, and resources while working within organizational
requirements and constraints. The volume will be useful to those working
in archives and special collections as well as other cultural heritage
organizations, and provides ideas ranging from the aspirational to the
immediately implementable. It also provides students and educators in
archives, library, and public history graduate programs a resource for
understanding the issues facing managers in the field today and the
kinds of strategies archivists are using to meet these new challenges.
