Editor’s Note

Abstract

As I surveyed the articles in this issue of RBM, I realized that they happen, completely coincidentally, to revolve around a theme. The word “outreach” is used so frequently, and with so many different meanings, that it is difficult to nail down what we are really talking about. As a profession, we have tended to use “outreach,” sometimes dismissively, to speak of work that we do that does not directly relate to supporting individual researchers who use our collections.

“Outreach,” then, tends to be used for “everything else”: the engagement with potential and actual donors, the relationship building with long-term . . .