Assessing Archival Collections through Surveys

Assessment of collections holdings through survey can be used as the first step in the larger goal to uncover archives and special collections materials that are backlogged and thus inaccessible to researchers. This article seeks to gather data on the experiences and outcomes of collections assessment surveys. The responses of thirty-three archives and special collections professionals were analyzed to discover whether a survey was an effective planning tool and to determine if similarities would emerged that could be widely applied to future collections assessments surveys.