Are Special Collections Ready for Born-Digital Materials?

p strongMost academic-library special collections have at least part of a born-digital workflow, but staffing and processing capacity are not yet keeping pace with the material arriving./strong/p p Primary Research Group found that 38.46% of surveyed departments had a fully implemented workflow for born-digital content and 46.15% had a partial one. The remaining 15.38% had none. Digital photographs were the most common format, handled by 73.08%, followed by audiovisual files at 50% faculty papers and administrative records each reached 42.31%./p p Capacity is the pressure point. Only 38.46% were satisfied with their processing capacity, while 46.16% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. A total of 19.23% had no trained staff for the work and 38.46% had only one trained employee no respondent reported five or more./p p Technical preparation is similarly mixed. BitCurator or another digital-forensics tool was in use at 38.46% of institutions, absent at another 38.46%, and planned by 23.08%. Nearly half&mdash46.15%&mdashwere dissatisfied with the long-term sustainability of their preservation approach./p p For special-collections leaders, a complete workflow on paper is not enough. The operating plan must include intake rules, appraisal, rights review, forensic capture, storage, fixity checking, description, access and succession coverage for trained staff. Born-digital material may still represent a small share of current acquisitions, but delay increases the risk that files, context and institutional memory will disappear before processing begins/p