Seeing the forest through the trees.....

Another busy day – March 10, 2008

More labels, more sorting of the collection into logical files. Papers everywhere on the table, slips of paper on each pile identifying the folder title. Logically trying to get the folders into the drawers where they might eventually reside. This makes it easier to find things, see the space remaining, continually revisit the breakdown of the series within the collection.

For example, the collection of Monmouth County and New Jersey History has already been broken out into an Administration series which includes all kinds of information on special collections around New Jersey. This is a “how to” collection with reference material from places like Rutgers Special Collection and Newark Public Library. It is very interesting to see different collections and different write ups of these collections.

Also, the Long Branch specific material has been broken out into its own series. It has turned out to be a serious collection of material so didn’t fit into a folder or two within Monmouth County. This evolution of design happened after exploring the material and examining the detail of the content. This would not have been possible by just going by the original collection description. Sometimes material is well organized and folders already exist and just need to be examined for paperclips and perhaps re-housed in acid free folders. And sometimes a collection might be huge, containing many thousands of items and the process I’ve been going through with Elsalyn P might take years.

Some of the material in the folders may need repair. Folded manuscripts should be opened if possible and stored that way to limit the wear on the folded section of the paper. Newspapers should be copied onto acid free paper if possible. Put the name and date on the paper if it is known. Its not always possible to get this information from a scrap of newsprint. Whether you throw away the original once you have a copy is a matter of policy generally. In our case we are only removing duplicate information – and even duplicate information may not be thrown away. It may be given to other repositories or even to the reference department for their archives. Every item is reviewed.

While sorting the material into folders, we are also identifying as we go the authority file or index. We are doing this on slips of paper also. If this collection was hundreds of boxes in size, this solution would not work. I think a laptop on the table with entries made immediately would be a solution or perhaps index cards that are constantly updated and reshuffled according to changes. In hindsight, I think I would have been comfortable with index cards with this collection, wrapping a big rubber band around the stack each night, everything sorted and tagged, ready for the next visit.

I had an interesting opportunity to witness the proposed accession of some material for the LB Special Collection. The director received an offer from a customer who knew of an auction of some material and had put in a silent bid for the grouping. The director asked Elsalyn Palmisano, consultant for the Special Collection, and the librarian responsible for the collection what their thoughts were on the topic. Elsalyn immediately posed, in writing, several questions about appraisal.

1) Had anyone actually seen the photographs that were being offered?

2) Do we know who is in the photos?

3) What is the size of each of the photos?

4) What is the condition of the photos and the frames?

5) Are they part of a bigger collection?

6) Where would the money come from to purchase these photos?

7) Where would we put them?

My initial reaction was kind of negative since the walls in the room are full and I couldn’t conceive of how we’d store these additions but Elsalyn’s logical questions clarified the situation. First, if we know who these are pictures of they become more valuable to library. We can do an exhibit, we can place them properly in the collection, we can confirm our mission statement and confirm that they fit within our collection policy. Size is an issue if we have to store the items and condition is imperative to know. If the material is damaged then how much money will it cost to repair them? Conservation can be very costly – do we have the budget to purchase AND preserve these items? This ties into the budget line question and where exactly would we get the money from. Is there money available in the budget? The question about whether the photos were part of a bigger collection is interesting. It raises other questions about provenance and rights to ownership along with possibilities that there might be more pictures we would eventually consider purchasing. So many issue stemming from one seemingly simple question.

In the end, the Board makes the decision to buy or not. They must approve the expenditure so all the answers to the above questions must be provided to them so they make their decision with full knowledge of the situation.

Another discussion item – we sometimes change our minds but its fun to talk through a problem and come up with a solution. Anyway, we have several very famous women who have their own folder of materials. Dorothy Parker (annual event in Long Branch is Dorothy Parker Day), Alice Paul, Mary Philbrook. We also have one very famous rock musician, Bruce Springsteen. The question is, do I file them under their last name or first name? Right now I’ve put them under their first name with a See Also entry requirement by last name. But this may change…..

Ok - more stuff on what to keep and what to remove.
Duplicates - what is retention policy of non unique material? For Long Branch the policy is two for the file (in case one gets lost) and one for an exhibit. If you have more than three of anything you consider tossing it or bartering it with another organization. Or even giving it to another organization.

What about collecting outside the policy? Maybe another repository can use it - dont' keep anything that doesn't fit nicely into your collection otherwise you'll wind up with no "collection" but a mass of unrelated material.