[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Books in the Archives

[Brad Bauer]

Dear VivianLea,

And one more example, from NYU Abu Dhabi:  we have done this a few times,
chiefly for donated book collections in which the books demonstrate
something about the collector's activities that could be of interest to our
users, here are a couple of examples:

--Frauke Heard Bey and David Heard collection:
http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyuad/ad_mc_064/
This is a growing collection of difficult-to-obtain materials from the
early years of this country (UAE), donated by two longtime expats.  The
collection is a mix of ephemeral publications, scholarly reprints and white
papers, government publications, and other materials.  I hope to be able to
catalog some of the books and upload them to OCLC, but the collection as a
whole says something about two significant members of the expat community
here, and their activities over the past 50 years, and for this reason the
collection belongs together, and merits description in a finding aid.
Smaller format items I have put in boxes and folders as I would archival
materials, whereas books are shelved separately, but given a sequential
volume number as their container number, at least for the time being.

--Adnan Pachachi book collection:
http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyuad/ad_mc_085/
I had the opportunity to select titles from the estate of Mr. Pachachi, a
longtime diplomat and advisor to the rulers of the UAE, following his
passing.  Since there were many general interest titles, I skipped those
and focused on books that were connected to his activities and his network
of acquaintances, many of them represented through presentation copies of
books given to him by their authors.

--Map collection
http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyuad/ad_mc_019/
Here is an example where individual maps are cataloged individually in OCLC
and in our library catalog, but which are difficult to search in that
catalog due to its structure.  My hope is that a finding aid can provide a
bird's eye view of the collection, and make them much more accessible.

In other collections that are predominantly archival, but which have
significant donations of books that came along with them, we try to catalog
the books in OCLC, with a 500 note linking it to the collection.

None of these are perfect solutions, and as an archivist, creating finding
aids for collections of books or maps does feel to me a bit like going
against the grain.  But as mentioned in other posts, this does help us to
get books out there that might otherwise be hidden due to the length of
time it will take to catalog them.   I am always happy to find examples
from other institutions that might help me improve on these practices as
well.

Best regards,

Brad Bauer

On Mon, Mar 28, 2022 at 5:07 PM Solek, VivianLea <VivianLea.Solek at kofc.org>
wrote:

> Good morning all,
>
>
>
> Happy Monday.  Here’s a conundrum to start off your week…
>
>
>
> I’m a lone arranger with a large number of books within my archives.  I
> know that ASpace is not designed to handle books (but it can) and I have no
> other library catalog at my disposal.  Many of the books could be put
> within existing collections (defined as artificial assemblages).  My
> thought is to designate the last series in the collection as “books” and
> add the titles under that series record.
>
>
>
> Has anyone done anything similar?  Thoughts? Concerns? Problems you’ve
> encountered?
>
>
>
> Will appreciate any and all feedback on or off list.
>
>
>
> MANY thanks!
>
> VivianLea
>
>
>
> VivianLea Solek
>
> Archivist
>
> Knights of Columbus Supreme Council Archives
>
>
> 1 State Street
> New Haven, CT 06511-6702
>
> Phone 203 752-4578
> Fax 203 865-0351
>
>
> CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message and any attachments may contain
> confidential, proprietary or legally privileged information and is intended
> only for the use of the addressee or addressees named above for its
> intended purpose. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
> this message constitutes notice that any review, retransmission,
> distribution, copying or other use or taking any action in reliance on the
> information in this message and its attachments, is prohibited. If you
> receive this communication in error, please immediately advise the sender
> by reply e-mail and delete this message and its attachments from your
> system without keeping a copy. Unless expressly stated in this e-mail,
> nothing in this message may be construed as a digital or electronic
> signature. Thank you.
> _______________________________________________
> Archivesspace_Users_Group mailing list
> Archivesspace_Users_Group at lyralists.lyrasis.org
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__lyralists.lyrasis.org_mailman_listinfo_archivesspace-5Fusers-5Fgroup&d=DwICAg&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=8Xy72keGxrm5-LXMewd02A&m=FjAO_X3azndFOAloOSArVOYe677Ms7nPP556oHK5Nd3PbdoAXZxDVQb5imytlqcy&s=jRD8_inRUTCSNcdXr95uPQ1tPNMcvFvDOd2NXvp3o-w&e=
>


-- 
Brad Bauer
Associate Academic Librarian
Head, Archives and Special Collections
New York University Abu Dhabi
PO Box 129188
Saadiyat Island
Abu Dhabi, UAE
e-mail:  bdb3 at nyu.edu
phone:  +971 2 628 7335
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lyralists.lyrasis.org/pipermail/archivesspace_users_group/attachments/20220401/69419129/attachment.html>