Cultural heritage organisations are facing a growing demand for information services at the same time as diminished funding. Success requires innovative practices that maximise resources while focusing on user needs. A good collections management system supports these goals, allowing information professionals such as librarians, archivists and curators to preserve and reveal records of enduring value. This paper discusses the process for implementing a collections management system to allow institutions to uncover collections and fulfil their commitments to research, education and outreach.

This article discusses approaches I used to teach “Research Methods,” an archival-based course for a history graduate program at a small college. The instruction included baseline research strategies for students new to the humanities as well as advanced methodologies for experienced researchers, with attention given to archival research techniques. Most professional literature focuses on teaching archival literacy aimed at K-12 students or undergraduates; this article explores the distinct research and instruction needs of graduate students. It examines how graduate students perceive the research process, what difficulties they encounter while conducting research, and what impact attending the course could have on their long-term research procedures. While teaching the course, I discovered that students viewed archives as intimidating. By acknowledging that new users can feel daunted by researching archival collections, instructors and archivists can consider how to make the archives more welcoming to first-time visitors.

Recent developments in the ICT, web and mobile technologies have significantly boosted research and development activities aimed at the creation and management of digital cultural heritage resources. Managing digital cultural heritage involves a number of challenges ranging from the digitization of cultural heritage objects and artefacts to various knowledge organization challenges that include metadata, indexing and retrieval, and various user and social challenges such as information seeking and retrieval in the context of cultural heritage, digital divide and social inclusion, social and legal policy issues, and moreover long term access and sustainability issues . Beginning with an overview of different information management issues and challenges associated with cultural heritage information, this book provides an account of research in digital cultural heritage focusing particularly on the knowledge organization, access, users and usability issues digital cultural heritage information systems and services.