Academic research collections: possibilities and challenges

Abstract

This article explores the possibilities and challenges for academic research collections - a set of documents accumulated and produced by researching centers and groups inside universities over the development of their own investigations -, dealing with some aspects of its constitution, its technical problems, and also the inherent possibilities of preservation and disclosure of collected and produced materials inside researching centers at the university, privileging here History field. Starting from some questions on the physical storage of materials, passing by its digitalization and getting to the current challenges of making them available, we will try to construct a reflection on these scholar research collections social function, in and outside academy, aiming the preoccupation of, through them, open an access path among researching centers, the material they produce and society - represented by people which may be interested in a wild range of information, that can promote researches and become viable History teaching and writing.