archives & preservation projects

Beinecke Library Reading Room Out Card_Handling

Steinberg Papers_Sorting orphan enclosures

Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New Haven, CT

PROJECTS

Primary Sources at Yale

March 2015- September 2016

The Primary Sources at Yale Task Force was tasked by the Yale University Library Special Collections Steering Committee (SCSC) in 2015 to re-envision the Primary Sources at Yale website which serves as an entry point for special collections research and as a teaching tool for undergraduates. We began our work by assessing the current iteration of the site and evaluating outdated information and visual elements. We then proposed a new website, with a more dynamic and engaging visual design, easier to navigate structure, and more succinct information. With fellow task force members, I wrote a new section, “Find & Discover Primary Sources,” that teaches users about primary, secondary, and tertiary sources and search strategies. I also led the group in creating a new design through a site-map and mock-ups of our proposed site. Working with an outside web designer I helped build the site on Yale’s new Drupal platform.

Primary Sources at Yale is now considered a first-stop resource for library instruction for undergraduate and as a portal for Yale’s primary source collections.

Beinecke Library Reading Room introductory brochure and handling guidelines out card

March 2016- September 2016

In 2016 I initiated and implemented a project to create new documentation for visiting researchers and students. Working with the Head of Access Services and the Head of Preservation and Collection Management created a new Guide for Researchers pamphlet and a new outcard with collection handling guidelines. These new printed guides have been in use in the reading room since the September 2016 library reopening and have proven successful in helping Access Services and Security educate our researchers on the research process. Featuring a welcome pamphlet that introduces the research process and explains reading room guidelines, these documents soften the sometimes intimidating effect that the architecture and high security of our reading room have on visitors. We also introduced handling guidelines into the reading room in the form of out-cards to encourage researchers to handle archival material carefully. Using welcoming, positive language, the guidelines invite our researchers to join us as “partners in preservation.”

As a companion to the new printed handling guidelines, I also led a two-part handling workshop for Access Services and Security. With the premiere of our new reading room handling guidelines, it seemed like a good opportunity to get everyone on the same page and review our existing policies and practices. Along with a team of experts from YUL Preservation and Conservation, including Christine McCarthy, Tara Kennedy, and Karen Jutzi, we created a two-part workshop that met the needs of Access Services staff. Planning the workshops included reassessing some reading room and paging practices with Access Services department heads and discussions with curators about these changes in practice. We taught two workshops in January and February 2017. As an accompaniment to the workshop, we created a quick reference guide for staff. The guide includes tips on handling, points of vulnerability and required tools for a range of formats commonly found in Beinecke collections along with images and definitions of common enclosures. I am happy to see that this workshop filled a need for Access Services and Security and brought up some outstanding issues and questions about handling that have since been resolved. We look forward to repeating these workshops on a yearly basis and making them open to all staff and student employees.

Beinecke Library Guide for Researchers

Beinecke Library Reading Room Out Card_Handling

Handling quick reference guide_Handling Workshop 2017