Small As and Bs: Accessioning and Processing

DRAFT April 2021

Small As and Bs are collections that are too small to be housed in a half file box. They can range in size from one item to multiple folders. They are housed in legal-sized folders and filed in file cabinets in Vault 1.

Small As are papers in which the collection’s creator is a person

Examples: Deborah Ann Coleman Papers. A/C692

Diary of Anonymous, 1894. A/A6151g

Ruchell Magee collection, 1971, undated. A/M191

Small Bs are records in which the collection’s creator is an organization

Examples: Boston Women's Trade Union League Records, 1924-1945. B/B74

Records of the Women's Service Club, 1958-1963. B/W8728se

Accessioning and processing of Small As and Bs are done at the same time. Use the Small A checklist when processing a collection. It is the easiest way to make sure all the accessioning and processing steps are completed:

Small A Checklist

Determining the creator of the collection and forming a name:

Since you are accessioning the collection, you will need to establish a name for your creator. The creator is the main entry, or authorized access point, for the collection and is used in the MARC 100 field.

Authorized access points should reflect the name by which the creator was known. If the creator was a published author, this would mean the most common way they listed their name on their publications. Since many of our creators are relatively unknown, you should do your best to get a sense of how the creator was known. Did they use their maiden name in conjunction with a last name? A middle name or initial? Sometimes this can be determined through additional biographical research (see section below).

Steps to make a name:

Check the Library of Congress Name Authority File. Does your creator have an existing heading? If so, use it. If you think the LC name is incorrect, or needs a death date, contact Paula.
If your creator is not listed in NAF, check HOLLIS. Use the name you find in HOLLIS.
If you can’t find the creator in LC NAF or HOLLIS, you will need to form the name yourself. The name must be unique so that it does not conflict (match) with a name already in LC NAF or HOLLIS. There are multiple ways to qualify a name to make it unique, but the preferred way is by life dates. Please see the following guidelines on Harvard’s Metadata Best Practices wiki (see below). Feel free to ask Paula for advice. If you need to form a new corporate name and have questions, discuss with Summer Unsinn (who is qualified to establish corporate headings in LC NAF).

Metadata Standards wiki: https://harvardwiki.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=58594640

Biographical research:

Many Small As are so small in size that information about the creator is extremely limited. Sometimes you will receive some information from the donor or a dealer, but often you will need to do the more extensive biographical research you might do with a larger collection just to determine some basic information for your biographical note. You should log in to Ancestry.com (use the Harvard link: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:ancestry) and also search the wider internet to find information to place your material into context. This research will also help with establishing a proper name and life dates.

Establishing a Call Number:

We use a Cutter Table to create call numbers for Small As and Bs. A “Cutter number” is based on the name of the creator and allows for an alphabetical arrangement of collections. Please see the separate instructions to create a Cutter number.

See Cutter Numbers: Establishing a Call Number

MARC records: special considerations

Since you are accessioning the collection at the same time as processing it, you will be creating a MARC record from scratch. Use the instructions in the MARC manual on creating a record from scratch: Creating a new bibliographic record in Connexion. Also see the best practices documentation for additional information: Schlesinger best practices for cataloging - by MARC field.

Some special considerations:

Extent: Because the item is not large enough for a box, there is no linear footage to cite. Simply list the number of folders, i.e. 1 folder.

More to come?

Purchased items that have Alma stub records and item records

Small As and Bs purchased by the printed material division by the books curator will have a stub record in Alma with an attached item record. Please see the separate instructions on how to handle these records.

See Small As and Bs with Item Records

Shelf list card:

Small As need a shelf list card. Use the template in Sharepoint to draft your card.

Shelf list card template

Updating the Accession logs

Since you are accessioning at the same time as processing, you should update the accessioning logs as soon as the bibliographic record is live in HOLLIS and you have completed your shelf list card. You can create you finding aid after this step.

There are two logs:

Paper log: use the key at the cover of the log to determine which marks to make next to your entry. Look up the accession using its accession number and indicate that you have finished the MARC record and that you have filed a shelf list card. If you have changed the creator’s name in any way (different last name, spelling, etc. you should update it here as well).

Online excel spreadsheet: This spreadsheet is a more extensive version of the paper log. It contains useful information about the accession and tallies of formats. You will need consider each field and see if it applies to the accession you are processing. The most common fields you will need to fill out for a small A are related to the following tasks:

Update creator name if you changed last name, spelling, etc.

Whether accessioning is complete

Assigned processor and processor initials

MARC record is live in OCLC and HOLLIS

Shelf list card created and filed

Paper log updated

Updating Outlook email donor file

If a collection’s creator’s name has changed in a significant way, update the name of the email box so that donor correspondence. (If your small A was a purchase from a dealer, there won’t be a an email correspondence file box or deed of gift).

If for some reason you need to change a name in DOG Tracker database, contact Susan Earle.

Photographs:

If your Small A or B contains photographs, give the collection to Joanne to review before you shelve it. Photographs are kept with the collection and not removed as they are with larger collections.

Finding aids:

As of 2020, we are now making finding aids for all new Small As and Bs. We have a special template that has been adjusted for Small As and Bs. This template has speical instructions embedded into it.

Small A finding aid template