The Evidence In Hand: Report of the Task Force on the Artifact in Library Collections (review)

Abstract

In recent years, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has published a series of timely and well-regarded reports and white papers on subjects at the forefront of debate in academic libraries. It is not surprising that many of them deal with topics associated with digital efforts, but none was as eagerly anticipated as the work of the Task Force on the Artifact in Library Collections. Chaired by Stephen G. Nichols, the James M. Beall Professor of French and Humanities and Chair of the Romance Language Department at Johns Hopkins University, the task force comprised fifteen distinguished scholars and librarians charged "to articulate for scholars and librarians a general context or framework for formulating and/or evaluating institutional policies on the retention or disposal of published and archival or unpublished materials in the form the works were created." While giving primary attention to the world of print, CLIR also asked the group to focus on non-print and electronic research sources. In the course of its deliberations, the members not only heard testimony from practitioners, but also conducted a series of forums around the country with scholars and faculty, in order to gather both opinions and approaches from as broad a segment of stakeholders as possible.