1 As our world's media becomes more and more technologically driven, new material is not the only media

affected. Younger generations have come to expect media to be in digital formats and accessible from a computer. Librarians have had to adapt to technological changes for centuries, but these most recent changes have not been so drastic since the invention of the printing press. For the Winterthur Library, which focuses on decorative arts and its history, many of the materials in their collection tend to be old, rare, and vary immensely in shape and size. Librarians at Winterthur have to put in a lot of effort to make their collections digital. Many libraries all over the world are having to archive materials digitally and make their collections available online. Winterthur has done a remarkable job creating their own online catalog, online exhibitions, and digital collections. Winterthur struggles, however, to keep up with the ever-changing technological advances in those areas. Managing the digitalization of collections in a library is a difficult task and requires balancing funds, staff, and time. It's daunting. The learning curve is steep (Mathias 2002, 2). Every library will have different needs when it comes to digitalizing its collections and other aspects of its library. Every digitalization project will be different, informed by the content you choose to digitize, funding, staff expertise, institutional infrastructure, developments in technology and standards, and more (Mathias 2002, 2). But, the trends and changes in technology will affect all libraries similarly. Librarians all have to deal with the volume and growth of digital information, the non-commercial, obscure, esoteric, trivial, ephemeral and idiosyncratic content (Lor 2011, 13-14) that crowds valuable information online, authenticity and reliability of online sources, use of social networking, and educating users about technology (Lor 2011, 13-16). Libraries have to make on-line and off-line worlds compatible - by finding ways to incorporate

2 technology with traditional search methods, users will have a much better library experience (Coyle 2007, 708-709). The change towards technology dependence is happening and libraries have to overcome many problems to create the best library for their users. For Winterthur Library, digitalizing collections is important for creating a library that meets the needs of its users. Winterthur Library funds its digitalization projects through the return from their endowment, grants, contributions from private individuals, Museum admissions, and from the Museum's licensed products. While Winterthur is continually trying to keep the library up-to-date with technological advancements, what collections become digitalized often depends on the nature of a grant or the specification of a donor. Frequently, Winterthur will not begin a digitalization project unless a specific grant or donation is acquired for that specific purpose. The nature of a decorative arts library lends itself to having a collection made up of many photographs. As most of the Winterthur Library users tend to be advanced researchers, the library has to pay more for posting very high quality, detailed photos and pay for the increasing bandwidth as researchers use links to the images in academic publications (Mathias 2002, 3-4). Paying to digitalize a collection, however, is not a single monetary exchange. There are costs to support having the collection online and keep the collection in the most up-to-date digital format. Institutional support of digital migration is an absolute necessity; if funding and support are not available, all digitization efforts can be lost within ten years (Mathias 2002, 7). Staff must be allocated and/or hired to perform these functions as well. Digitalization of collections is also dependent on the number of available staff and the abilities and expertise of those staff members. With the general lack of funding many libraries face in the

3 economic hardships of today, many libraries are running with a bare bones staff. They are running with the fewest number of employees necessary to keep their doors open. With staff's available time already stretched to the maximum, it can be very difficult to find the time for digitalizing material. Winterthur Library struggles to maintain staff levels, which certainly affects all aspects of library maintenance. Not all staff are equipped to assist in digitalizing material. If current staff do not have the skill set to perform some digitalization tasks, libraries must hire new employees, hire temporary employees, hire a consultant, or provide education to current staff. This is not just a monetary decision, but library administration must consider staff morale and long-term planning. Keeping up with technological advancements is something Winterthur Library considers a challenge. Collections that are already digitalized may have to be formatted or changed altogether as technology changes. So, the challenges of having enough funding and staff are expounded with every technological change. With all the noise of the internet, it can be challenging to simply choose how to make your collections visible and accessible online (Lor 2011, 14). As soon as the library may finish one aspect of digitizing their library, a new technology will likely have been created that, in some ways, makes what was just accomplished obsolete. The library does its best to use the most popular websites, like Google and Wikipedia, to provide information about itself and its collection. Popularity of websites change and new websites are always being created. So, the library may have to redirect its online information to other websites. Winterthur also maintains a large collection of research guides for its researcher users. So, whenever the technologies and collections change, the research guides must be changed or new ones must be created. Balancing funds, staff, and technological changes are a part of the Winterthur Library's

4 struggles to keep up with ever changing technological advances. Winterthur is certainly not alone in its struggles, but seems to be flourishing through the changes, while some libraries simply struggle. Winterthur is certainly an incredible resource to those interested in decorative arts and is doing an excellent job in providing the best resources possible. As technologies advance and change and Winterthur Library does its best to keep up, the library can only get better with time.

5 References Coyle, Karen. 2007. "Digital Divide." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 33, no. 6: 708-9. OmniFile Full Text Mega, WilsonWeb (accessed 1 July 2011). Lor, Peter Johan and Johannes J. Britz. 2011. "New Trends in Content Creation: Changing Responsibilities for Librarians." Libri 61, no. 1: 12-22. OmniFile Full Text Mega, WilsonWeb (accessed 1 July 2011). Mathias, Eileen. 2004. "Anatomy of a Digitization Project." Library Journal (1976) 2-7. OmniFile Full Text Mega, WilsonWeb (accessed 11 July 2011).