Use and Special Collections: Access and Outreach at the University of North Carolina's Wilson Library

This study examines the experiences of a sample of users of the Wilson Library Special Collections. Issues of accessibility, outreach effectiveness, and user satisfaction are addressed, including access to digitized collections, user awareness of outreach activities, and patron experiences with the spaces and resources available for their use. Survey results are discussed and suggest that, from this small sample, user priorities and those of archivists may differ in their scope. When developing collections, outreach programs, collection websites, and other user tools and spaces, special collections professionals should take into account their desired audience and examine their needs as objectively as possible to make such activities as successful as possible.