[Archivesspace_Users_Group] Books in the Archives

Mon Mar 28 10:13:26 EDT 2022

  Hi VivianLea,

We will often use AS to provide access to books in our archival
collections.  The guiding principle is whether the books are in our
collection because they are individual book-like objects (and thus should
be cataloged individually) or if their value is in their being aggregated
material with shared provenance (and thus can be described archivally).
For example, we hold a large run of paperback books that came with the Ian
and Betty Ballantine papers. Their value and interest here is as a grouping
of items, rather than as individual books, so we listed them in a finding
aid:
https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_13511438/dsc/2

Same for Tennessee Williams's library that was in Key West house when he
died:
https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079626/dsc/10

This seems like good use of archival principles to me, and has a
secondary advantage of unhiding materials quickly. It would have taken us
years to individually catalog the nealy 6,000 books in the Ballantine
collection, at the opportunity cost of other materials in the backlog that
really do call for the expertise of our wonderful rare book catalogers.

Kevin

On Mon, Mar 28, 2022 at 10:06 AM McElheny, Robin G. <
robin_mcelheny at harvard.edu> wrote:

> We’ve done a somewhat similar thing here at the Harvard University
> Archives: for our John Rawls material, we created two finding aids:
>
>    - Papers of John Rawls, HUM 48.
>    https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/hua32010/catalog
>    - Books from the personal library of John Rawls, 1915-2002, HUM 48.1.
>    https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/hua36010/catalog
>
>
>
> We also created bib records for each book in the Rawls personal library,
> indicating John Rawls as a former owner. Admittedly icing on the cake but
> this is one of our most heavily-used collections.
>
>
>
> Robin McElheny (she/her)
>
> Associate University Archivist for Collections & Public Services
>
> Harvard University Archives
>
> robin_mcelheny at harvard.edu
>
> https://library.harvard.edu/libraries/harvard-university-archives
>
>
>
> *From:* archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org <
> archivesspace_users_group-bounces at lyralists.lyrasis.org> *On Behalf Of *Nic
> Stanton-Roark
> *Sent:* Monday, March 28, 2022 9:55 AM
> *To:* Archivesspace Users Group <
> archivesspace_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org>
> *Cc:* ASpace - Small Archives List (
> archivesspace_small_archives_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org) <
> archivesspace_small_archives_users_group at lyralists.lyrasis.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Books in the Archives
>
>
>
> Hi VivianLea,
>
> We do this for the few manuscript collections we hold where we have taken
> possession of the individuals' personal library. Typically we call the
> series "library" or "personal library," and either enter book titles as
> item level records or attach a pdf listing of the books as an external
> document at the series level. In some cases, we have digitized versions of
> notable individuals' (public domain) books to make annotations available,
> and attach these as item level records in Personal Library series that
> otherwise do not have item level description.
>
> I'm not sure how well all of this gels with EAD, but our first priority is
> making our holdings intelligible for researchers, and this seems intuitive
> for our users. I'd be interested to hear any horror stories from other
> users about similar setups, though.
>
> [image: Image removed by sender.]*Nicholas Stanton-Roark*  |  Archivist
> | Robert A. Nicholson University Library
> Anderson University  |  1100 E. Fifth St, Anderson, IN 46012
>
> (765) 641-4285 <%28765%29%20641%204285>  |  ndroark at anderson.edu
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 28, 2022 at 9:07 AM 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
>
>
>
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-- 
Kevin Schlottmann
Head of Archives Processing
Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Butler Library, Room 801
Columbia University
*Pronouns: he/him/his*
535 W. 114th St., New York, NY  10027
(212) 854-8483
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