Manuscript collections often contain printed material, and we often do not keep this with the collection. If material can be given an item record in Hollis, it may be better served living in the Library's Book and periodical collection. If it is heavily annotated or there is some other compelling reason to keep it with the collection, discuss with Kelcy. Your initial survey is when you should begin to consider the issues related to printed material.
Most printed material falls into the categories of newsletters, serials, or books. Decisions about printed material often fall into categories by format. ALL printed material (except ephemera) that leaves your collection must be accompanied by a separation form.
If your collection has a large amount of printed material, it's a good idea to sort it all out and go over what it is and what you plan to do with it with Kelcy. Student workers can search Hollis and OCLC for information about each title necessary for appraisal.That will give you a better idea of what to do with the material before you discuss it with the curators.
Newsletters are periodic publications, often low-budget, and often created by organizations or groups. Because we collect the records of a number of organizations, we also collect those organizations' newsletters. Newsletters are sometimes a great research tool for organizations that may have been ephemeral, or produced no other printed documentation. For more information about what to do with newsletters go here.
Serials (other than newsletters) may be journals of professional organizations, women's magazines, or other journals related to women that we subscribe to or collect. If you have serials that fill holes in the Schlesinger's collections, fill out a separation form for each, and then give them to Lee Sullivan, the head of published & printed materials.
Please list their titles and a date range of issues as "transferred to the Schlesinger Library books and printed materials collection" in the Separation Record of the finding aid.
Books may fall into a number of categories, see here.
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 in their Aleph holdings record. 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.
Ephemera (printed material that generally does not have a title and author, often brochures or advertising material) which is not directly related to your collection, but seemingly suitable for preservation at the library, should be given to Cat Holbrook. After meeting with the Head of Collection Services, Cat will folder the approved material, add it to the Feminist Ephemera Collection or another constructed collection, and update the finding aid and bib record (when necessary for added entries, including any author/title entries designated by the Head of Collection Services). If you're not sure what kinds of things constitute ephemera, check out the finding aid (http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch01258), or ask Cat.
Examples of Separation Records:
An updated workflow procedure was elaborated in December 2014. Read it here.