Shelving by collection and faculty publications: Thank you and summary

[Jordon Steele <steelej@LAW.UPENN.EDU>]

Thanks for everyone's thoughtful responses to my query regarding
shelving books in closed stacks by collection.

 

The responses generally favored shelving books by collection.  At least
one person interfiled books and referenced the collection name in the
catalog record (which is what we now do).  However, most respondents
emphasized that there is no professional standard and one must choose a
scheme that suits their particular scenario.

 

In an effort to better monitor growth of our collections, we have
decided to shelve books by collection.  However, we will also continue
to catalog them according to Library of Congress cataloging rules.  We
don't see these two decisions as incompatible.

 

In response to my follow-up question regarding how to shelve faculty
publications, the responses were pretty evenly split between
respositories that have a publication date requirement (like 1901) to
determine whether the book will be shelved with the rare book collection
or the faculty publications collection, and those repositories that
shelve faculty publications without regard to date, condition, or
rarity.  In the words of one respondent whose institution arranged
faculty publications according to the latter scheme, "the collection is,
in effect, a permanent record of faculty scholarship."

 

Thanks again!

 

Best,

 
Jordon
 
Jordon Steele, CA
Archivist
Biddle Law Library
Penn Law School
3460 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3406
(215) 898-5011