Can't We All Just Get Along? Pan-Domain Collaboration Through an Innovative Collections Review Project at the Royal College of Surgeons of England

ABSTRACT

Although libraries, archives and museums were historically linked as ‘cabinets of curiosity,’ professionalization within the domains in the 19th century seems to have divided these collections. The creation of different working practices and standards built up barriers between these cultural or ‘information’ objects. However, in recent years there has been a well-developed trend towards pan-domain collaborative work which is slowly re-uniting collections and re-establishing links between the specialists that care for them. This article outlines how a project in the Royal College of Surgeons of England brought the library, archive and museum staff together to create a more collaborative environment which has served to benefit the collections, their users, and the staff themselves.