Pamphlet Groups Now Searchable
Wednesday, June 21st, 2006Special Collections has just completed improving access to a major part of the pamphlet collection – the writings of Quaker authors. Pamphlets, minor works and ephemeral writings from the 18th century to the present are to be found in this collection. Almost 1,000 records have been added to improve scholarship into this under-utilized resource.
Previous to this time users could only determine our holdings via an in-house card catalog file that had suffered the inconsistencies of time and generations of different librarians. Materials were housed in acidic environments and many items were inappropriately placed, or duplicated cataloged texts.
Every item of each box was evaluated to insure that the material matched the scope of the collection. Duplicates were placed in the duplicate collection, parts of series were cataloged for the stacks and some important, even rare materials were identified and placed appropriately. Thanks to the industry of Joan Powell all the resultant materials were re-housed in acid-free folders and boxes, ordered and accurately labeled.
A Tripod record was created for every Quaker author with a listing of the titles of his/her works under a series title of “Selected Writings of Quaker Authors.” These records will be found via searches on author, title and keyword. Users can now accurately and easily determine what materials may enhance their study.