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The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at Cornell University has a distinguished history in collecting the materials related to unions, with particular strengths in the area of textile and garment manufacturing. It was fitting, therefore, that when the American Textile History Museum (ATHM) closed its doors in 2016, the Kheel Center acquired the bulk of the library and archives as well as many fabric samples. This article explores the ATHM’s mission to tell “America’s story through the art, science, and history of textiles” and how by bringing these collections to Cornell we can expand that story. Today, the global textile and garment industries employ an estimated forty to eighty million people, yet very few Americans understand the impact that it has on the lives of the people who make their clothes and on the earth’s fragile ecosystem. By combining emerging technology with expanding collecting areas and engaging new audiences with these incredible foundational materials, the Kheel Center can build more representative and discoverable collections upon ATHM’s enduring legacy.

Purpose - This paper aimed to conduct an inventory of digital resources for the Queens College Special Collections and Archives and had two purposes. The first was to assess the digital resources for a department too understaffed to address digital preservation and to provide a step-by-step program for them to start thinking in the long-term. The second was to show how these steps can be generalized for many institutions just starting to have digital holdings and looking to create a long-term digital preservation plan. Design/methodology/approach - The main method for research involved taking a significant sampling of the department's digital holdings and conducting an inventory of them, analyzing such characteristics as file size, names, formats and metadata. After the inventory was conducted, recommendations were made to the department based on best practices in the field of digital preservation. Findings - We found that while the department generally does not follow industry-best practices for preservation, the files were relatively new and, therefore, many issues could still be fixed. With a concrete plan and a bit of effort, their digital files can be more easily accessible and protected against future threats. Originality/value - The issues that the Department of Special Collections had with their digital holdings are similar to those at many other institutions - especially educational ones where staff turnover is high. This case study could help similar small organizations start to access their digital holdings and start formulating a plan for long-term preservation.