In general, books arriving as part of a manuscript collection should be removed from the collection during processing. Appraisal of printed materials can be complex; there are often categories that are clear to processors, and then a wide swath of grey area. Workflow for working with printed material will often depend on the volume of material. Discuss issues with Kelcy and the curators.
AS OF OCTOBER 2017, we are seeking to streamline work with printed materials and minimize the use of separation records in finding aids. Books that will be added to the Schlesinger's collections will be cataloged with provenance information retained as outlined below. Because of this, we no longer find it necessary to also list these titles in a separation record. What we do ask is that archivists appraise the printed material in a collection as part of the survey and processing plan and determine if there is literary or other rationale for retaining a list of books and other printed material.
When cataloged, the following information will be retained (either in the bibliographic record or on the book plate or penciled in the volume itself): the accession number (or call number) and the name of the manuscript collection from which it was removed. If a second copy is in the manuscript collection, that, too, will be noted. The book plate will read: "Received with the papers of [name of collection]." For organizational records, it will read: “Received with the records of [name of organization].”
For more information on “Recording and Tracing Ownership in the Aleph Record,” see document named “Recording and tracing sources of ms material” in the Collection Services directory on G:
When cataloged, the HOLLIS record for the published item will have a 541 in the holdings (Source of Acquisition, i.e. donor name) and then usually a 561 (ownership note, which usually is the name of the collection, i.e. From the papers of Dorothy I. Height or From the records of Boston Women's Health Book Collective). The text of the 561 is also written in pencil on the item, but the published materials department is no longer using physical bookplates.
Books may fall into one of several categories: 1. Books by or about the creator of the Manuscript collection. 2. Books that are not by or about the creator but fall into the Schlesinger Library collecting policy for printed materials. 3. Books that you are not sure whether they fall into the collecting policy. 4. Books that duplicate current Schlesinger Library holdings. 5. Books that are out of scope of our collecting policy.
Essentially, archivists are assessing and searching Hollis/OCLC for info HOLLIS for holdings information on all these categories of books, but might want to separate them into relevant categories for curatorial ease of appraisal.
1. Those Those volumes that are are by or about the the creator of the manuscript collection but are not currently in our collection (or, in some cases, may duplicate what's in our collection but be annotated or have some other compelling reason to keep and catalog them) are relatively easy for the processor to identify. Fill out a “Published Materials Separated from Manuscript Collections” form. These volumes can be cataloged as per the processor's recommendation; but the curators should still review them for their general knowledge.2. Books that are separation form and separately note the titles in order to inform the curators of what is being added to the library collection.
- Books that are not by or about
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- the creator but clearly fall into
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- can also be cataloged on
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- the archivist’s recommendation. Fill out a separation form and separately note the titles in order to inform the curators of what is being added to the library collection.
- Books that are not by or about
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- the creator and MAY fall into
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- are more difficult to appraise. You should segregate these materials for review by the curators. Fill out a
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It's best (though not always possible) to try to ask a curator directly about the books.
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- Books that duplicate current Schlesinger Library holdings. If these do not merit inclusion in the collection (if they have annotations, bookplates, signatures, etc., they may merit inclusion) they can be given to
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- the Published and Printed Materials Department for sale through Better World Books, the Prison Book Program, or for possible donation to another library. These books can be given (
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- with completed separation forms) to the head of published materials with a note that you think they should be sent to Better World Books or another library.
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- Please note that for published materials that duplicate items in other libraries at Harvard, consult with the curators whether we should also have a copy at the Schlesinger.
- For books that are out of scope
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- , box them together and create only one separation form for the box indicating in the notes field that all the materials in that box are out of scope. The Head of Published Materials will then review for possible donation.