You are invited to participate in a research project being conducted by L. Tom Perry Special Collections in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University.  The purpose of this research is to gain a better understanding of how Special Collections repositories are using reappraisal and deaccessioning as a tool to better manage their collections and align their collecting ambitions with their stewardship capacity. If you choose to participate, you will be asked to complete an anonymous web-based survey. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes. The survey will not collect any identifiable information, and no one will be able to connect your responses to you. Your anonymity is further protected by using an implied consent on the survey. Please print this invitation for future reference. You may answer any and all questions on the survey or decline to participate. Reminder emails will be sent to non-responders to encourage participation. If you do not wish to participate and do not want to receive these reminders, please click on the link and answer “no” to the first question. However, we hope that you will take a moment to share your experience with us.

Consent will be asked in the first question on the survey: “Having read the invitation, are you willing to participate in the survey?”  Yes or No.

The survey is available at https://byu.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_50YQ6cWl9vEgbaK, and will be available until July 24, 2026. If you have any questions about the study, please contact Cory Nimer or J. Gordon Daines III at cory_nimer@byu.edu or gordon_daines@byu.edu, or at 801-422-6091. If you have questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant, you can call the BYU Human Research Protections Program at 801-422-1461 or BYU.HRPP@byu.edu. Please reference IRB ID# IRB2026-157.

Sincerely,

Cory Nimer

J. Gordon Daines III

Invitation to Participate in Survey on Records Management Practices in Higher Education

We invite you to participate in a brief online survey examining current records management practices within higher education. This study seeks input from professional librarians, archivists, records managers, and higher education personnel who work with or support institutional records. Your insights will help our research team better understand how institutions manage records today. The resulting landscape study report will help identify opportunities for strengthening practices across the field. A PDF version of the survey is available upon request.

The survey should take approximately 20–30 minutes to complete. Participation is completely voluntary, and no identifying personal information will be collected. You may access the survey here: https://iastate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1KYESrhu6IcN7dc. The survey will remain open until August 1, 2026.

We hope you will consider contributing to this project. Your participation will help provide a clearer understanding of records management across higher education and support ongoing improvements in the field. Please feel free to share this invitation with colleagues who may be interested.

For any questions about this survey, please contact Victoria Eastes, (254) 519-5499, veastes@tamuct.edu or Jane LaBarbara, (304) 293-0352, jane.labarbara@mail.wvu.edu.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

What Are You Letting Go of and Why is That Still a Win? Highlighting Successes in Digital Preservation

Our names are Marcella Lees (Digital Archivist at the Art Institute of Chicago Archives) and Lisa Lawlis (Assistant Archivist at Western University) and we are conducting a study titled “What Are You Letting Go of and Why is That Still a Win? Highlighting Successes in Digital Preservation.” The purpose of this study is to identify what parts of best practice in digital preservation are being let go of in pursuit of “good” practice and what metrics are being used to measure success at small to mid-sized institutions across North America.

Our larger goal is that by sharing the results of this study we can empower smaller institutions to dive into digital preservation now rather than waiting for everything to perfect and to celebrate the digital preservation work that is being done currently.

If you are involved with digital preservation or your responsibilities include the stewardship of digital records (either digitized or born digital), we would like to invite you to take part in this survey. You can access the survey here:

https://uwo.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cO1F6krZGmUlLYW

The survey is expected to take 5-10 minutes and consists of 10 questions. Your name will not be attached to your responses. The survey will be open until September 30th.

If you need an alternative format or have any questions, please email mlees@artic.edu or llawlis@uwo.ca.

Thank you,
Marcella and Lisa