Back in June, I began keeping tabs on our new (and new-to-us) additions to the Center for Restoration Studies and general rare books collections.  Since then our collections have grown by 1060 items.  If you’d like to see the titles and authors added, click through these lists.

Christian Advocate, 1858-1888

Here are the breakdowns of items added by month:

June: 104

July: 80

August: 143

September: 216

October: 183

November: 220

December: 114

In order to prepare these for our colleagues in Technical Services, archives staff and student workers compare what we have at hand against what we have in the catalog and on the shelf.  Usually, this means a student worker (Mac and Amanda also do this some, too) verifies whether we have the item already cataloged.  If not, we add it to the workflow to be cataloged.  If we already have a copy (or copies) we (usually Mac) compare the condition of what we have against the condition of the one on the shelf.  He also looks for variant editions, printings, bindings, or other features that merit inclusion.  If the new book is in better condition that the shelved copy, we will replace the worn copy.  If it is in comparable condition, we may put it in the queue for scanning or digitization, offer it for the circulating collection, or trade to another library.  We slip each book with instructions for cataloging, indicating where the book should be cataloged (into the CRS collection or another sub-collection within rare books), who the donor is, and whether cataloging should make special note of any edition or printing or provenance.  Once we get a full cart, we send them upstairs to Tech Services.  When they are finished, we shelve them.

Not only do these 1060 new (or new-to-us) titles represent the fine work of our students and colleagues, they represent dozens of donors who wanted to see the collection grow in scope, utility, breadth, and depth.  We do not yet know how students and researchers will utilize these materials, and we look forward to what 2019 will bring to the shelves.

In December our colleagues in Technical Services and Cataloging added 114 items to the Center for Restoration Studies, University Archives, ACU Authors, Taylor Hymnals, and general rare books collections.  Some of these were new to us; in other cases these new additions gave us a second copy.  Further, the work performed on some of these items reflects original cataloging, which is a tremendous contribution to knowledge about information resources from and about the Stone-Campbell Movement.  In still other cases new catalog records were added for manuscripts collections that we processed downstairs.  Much of the December 2018 additions are AV in one format or another: cassette tapes, a few DVDs, a few LP records and I think a couple 8-tracks.  The first item on the list is part of our departmental reference library for staff use.

The Library in Daisy Hall, with a Jesse Sewell reading a book at a table and shelves of books around him.

Our goal is 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.

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