Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
I am looking for special collections management literature (or
experience based opinions) which deal with the subject of the physical
organization of rare/special collections.
I oversee a mixed manuscript, rare books, and special collections
environment. That is, we do have certain separately shelved collections
that have never been interfiled with other rare holdings, but by far the
greater part is a motley mixture of Dewey and LC classification. I can
see pluses and minuses to both kinds of physical arrangement, but I am
lately of the opinion that location specific "special collections" are
beneficial in more ways than not, particularly if the MARC records are
non-existent or of uneven quality. True, sometimes collections are
formed naturally by classification when collections deal with a narrow
subject, and it is also the case that author searches and publisher
keywords can virtually round up a collection in a split second. But
very often older collections defy reasonable attempts to lasso them.
There are quirks about the way things were classified here historically
that accounts for some of this.
I could ask for these to be reclassed, but that is unlikely to ever
happen, and in any case much more work than assigning them to a separate
collection sub-location, in which case I wouldn't much care about the
classification so much any more.
I am swimming against the history of librarianship here and I may be
considered heretical. We assume a great deal of our online catalogs for
purposes of making rare titles accessible, but in fact related material
of an interesting nature often gets buried because, unless you know what
questions to ask, the "big picture" that relates single titles to other
holdings is lost. Big libraries make books into very passive objects,
and sadly too many of them don't get asked to dance very often. I can
go on at great length as to why I think breaking the amorphous whole
into more manageable and physically visible parts is the case, but what
I would like more is to hear from others on this. Is there literature on
this topic? Would you consider reconstituting old donated "cabinet
collections" that were dispersed by subject classification, or even
creating unprecedented "artificial" collections that do not link back to
a donor or purchase, but nevertheless represent a heavy concentration
of related matter with research potential? On the other hand, is this
just my archival training showing through?
I would be very happy to get replies on, or off the list. Cheers to all
of you out there, ev
--
Ed Vermue
Special Collections and Preservation Librarian
Oberlin College Library
415 Mudd Center
148 West College St.
Oberlin, OH 44074-1545
Ph: (440) 775-5043
Fax: (440) 775-8739
ed.vermue@oberlin.edu
www.oberlin.edu/library/special/