The Small Easy: Budget-Neutral Digital Projects at Small Libraries

Abstract

Small museum libraries with one or two staff members are inspired by the large-scale digital projects of bigger flagship institutions. How can one translate this inspiration to action with small means and few staff? Over the past year the Menil Collection Library has embarked on small-scale digitization projects that are budget-neutral but provide access to information and resources generated by the museum that were previously found only in the archives. From repackaging born-digital gallery guides and ephemera to capturing and cataloging finding aids and foundation documents, library staff are beginning to make the entire exhibition history available globally for the first time. Full surrogates of some Special Collections materials are now part of the scholarly record as well. This has not only made valuable information more accessible but also helped raise the library’s profile within the broader digital initiatives of the museum.[This article is a revision of a paper presented at the “Digitization and Preservation” session at the ARLIS/NA conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana, in February 2017.]