In March our colleagues in Technical Services and Cataloging added 32 items to the rare books, University Archives, and Center for Restoration Studies collections.  Most of the items added this month supplemented the books, periodicals (bound and unbound), and A/V subsets within the Restoration collection.  The University Archive and Taylor Hymnal collections also received a few new items.  Some of the additions are newly published, others are new-to-us, and still others represent a second copy or a new-to-us edition or printing.  You’ll notice this is quite a bit fewer items compared to recent months, and that is true.  However, it represents large runs of loose issues of Christian Standard, Gospel Guardian, and Word and Work, all of which are major periodicals for 20th century Restoration history.  I am very glad to have these issues sorted, foldered, boxed and cataloged.  Not a small undertaking, which just goes to show that sometimes our work is quantifiable, and sometimes quantity alone cannot tell the whole story.  It also reflects the fact that Technical Services has much more going on than just the cataloging tasks required of Special Collections holdings.  They brought a major project to completion in the circulating collection, and don’t forget spring break.  Meanwhile, downstairs we have been moving through several hundred gift books, verifying them against our holdings, in some cases comparing to the holdings on the shelf, and in general preparing them for cataloging.  So, we have a full queue that will last us through the summer.  The short version is the quality and scope of the collection will grow in some significant areas over the summer.

Abilene Christian College. Prickly Pear, Yearbook of Abilene Christian College, 1952, yearbook, 1952; Abilene, Texas. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.

Our goal is to build a comprehensive research-level collection of print materials by, for, and about the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.  But beyond assembly and preservation, a collection should be discoverable by those who need the information.  Collecting and preserving is only part of our task; those objects must be described and made available.  Thanks to the close and careful work of our colleagues upstairs, who describe our holdings, these materials are now discoverable. By discoverable I mean a patron can utilize our online catalog (such as by searching by author, or title, or subject) to find these materials.

32 new items…cataloged, shelved, and ready for research: