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           [log in to unmask] "Jeanette Scott" writes:

> I'm having trouble keeping up with newspaper clipping donations in my museum.
> Traditionally each one has been individually accessioned and no deed of gift
> issued, but neither procedure sits well with me. Even though they have no
> monetary value, I still think accessioning requires a deed of gift. Plus
> accessioning makes it difficult to find clippings when they are needed (at
> least in our unique system of cataloging.) I've seen some small historical
> societies treat them as library material and file by subject with no
> accessioning about it.
> Please tell me how you handle this type of material.
>
> Jeanette Scott
> Winnetka Historical Society
> Winnetka, IL
> [log in to unmask]
>
One way to look at this is to ask: what is important about this clipping:
the clipping itself, or the information it contains?  The acid test
(literally!) is - would be as happy with a photocopy as with the
original clipping?  If you would be as happy, happier even, because the
photocopy is on archival quality paper, the original on newsprint), and
the clipping is essentially a library item.  If, however, the clipping is
important as a clipping, and you feel that a photocopy could never be as
'good', then it is an object.

Retrieval is a separate issue.  Your cataloguing system may be unique,
but it should have a 'classification' index of some kind, that will
enable you to identify all the dairy equipment, and newspaper clippings
refering to milk statistics, or all the fire-fighting equipment, and
newspaper clippings referring to fires (for example).  Providing
the indice by subject refers to the accession number, and there
is a finding mechanism by accession number, then you will always be
able to identify where the clipping is.  If you can get a system
which deals with multiple classification categories (such as fires in
dairies) then it is more efficient than filing-by-category.

--
Patricia Reynolds
Keeper of Social History, Buckinghamshire County Museum / Freelance Curator

16 Gibsons Green
Heelands
Milton Keynes
MK13 7NH
ENGLAND

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