--- John Gavin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT ACCESSIONING ITEMS INTO THE
> ARCHIVES. WE PRESENTLY
> ARCHIVE RARE BOOKS, HISTORICAL PAPERS AND ORIGINAL
> PHOTOS THAT MEET OUR
> MISSION. WHAT WE ARE WONDERING ABOUT IS HOW OTHERS
> TREAT COPIES OF PHOTOS
John --
To answer your subject line question, I would not
accession any of the items you've described into your
museum's permanent collection. If you feel you need
to set up an accession record - as opposed to
cataloging and organizing items of minimal intrinsic
value and possibly little long-term usefulness - set
up a parallel accession file for disposable and copy
items. That wau you won't have to jump through the
same sorts of hoops to deaccession because the type of
items you're asking about tend to get lost, get
superceded or get worn out through use.
As to the specific types of materials:
Are the copies of photos photocopies or photographic
prints? If the former they can easily be
rephotocopied so organize them as a personal reference
file (librarians would call this a vertical file, a
reference to the type of cabinet or drawer they're
stored in .
If by copies you mean photographic prints, then I
would store and organize them as you currently handle
photographic prints for which you have original
negatives. However, it is important to note somewhere
that you cannot provide permission for any use other
than on-site reference -- otherwise you will
run into copyright infringement issues.
If you are scanning or making copy negatives and then
next generation prints from these the resultant images
are going to less than ideal so you would want to send
your researchers who are looking for reproduction
quality prints to the original source.
> DOCUMENTS (WITHOUT HAVING THE ORIGINAL AVAILABLE,
> ... DONOR DOESN'T WANT TO
> PART WITH THE ORIGINALS)
Keep for reference purposes, only (like the copies of
photos) and continue to work with the owner to see if
he/she will transfer the originals and all rights to
the items at some point in time. Personally, I'd be
reluctant to act as a front-end service which seems to
be how the "donor" is using your institution but I
assume the documents must be highly relevant to your
museum.
AND ALSO BOOKS THAT ARE
> COMMONLY AVAILABLE BUT WE
> HAVE THEM FOR REFERENCE.
There are many ways to deal with a reference book
collection. At the most basic create an inventory of
the items so you can make certain nothing has gotten
lost, wandered to someone's home, etc. This is
commonly called a shelf list file in a library.
If the collection is small and on the same subject,
the simplest thing to do is arrange it by author or
title, although it might be worth attaching some sort
of label to maintain the order. If the collection
covers a variety of subjects or if it is too large to
shelve in one area, then arrange it by subject.
If you have several hundred items, investigate ways of
cataloging the books according to current library
rules, adding subject headings (LC is usually best for
museum collections) and other access points and
assigning classification (LC or Dewey) and Cutter
numbers to create unique identifiers and shelf
locations for the items.
Depending on the size of the collection, you may want
to investigate collection management software that
will allow you to import MARC records from Worldcat or
the Library of Congress and put into a local database.
It would be easier to start while the collection is
manageable in size, rather than wait until you have so
many books, reprints and journal issues you cannot
find things.
ALSO, DO YOU HAVE
> RESEARCHERS GLOVE UP AND FOLLOW
> THE RULES FOR HANDLING ACCESSIONED ITEMS when they
> are handling the copies
> and reference books?
No - unless you think it would help remind them to
wear gloves when dealing with the accessioned item.
If the
materials you have described are stored separately
from the accessioned collections, then gloves would
not be necessary.
Hope that helps.
Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI
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