Public Services in Special Collections, SPEC Kit 296 (November 2006)

Turcotte, Florence; Nemmers, John

Public Services in Special Collections · 97
Pennsylvania State University
Special Collections has a number of single-sheet items for distribution. The
most attractive items share a common design with color printing on heavy,
semi-glossy stock. These are the brochures for:
Historical Collections and Labor Archives
United Steelworkers of America Archives
Penn State Sports Archives
Fred Waring’s America
Distinguished Alumni Collections
“A Few Good Women…”
There is also a color, tri-fold for Special Collections featuring a page with
an illustration for each of the three units. These were designed to be used
with both potential donors of materials and researchers.
Leaflets and cards for exhibits have been designed and printed
periodically. These include:
“Cases of Character: Selections of Photographic Case Art from the
B. &H. Henisch Photo-History Collection,”
“Gallery Talk on Robert Joyce and ‘Portraits of Activism,’”
“The Bust of Kenneth Burke” (card produced for the Burke exhibit),
“John O’Hara: A Centennial Exhibition” (also a bookmark-sized
card reproducing the spine of the dust jacket of Here’s O’Hara for
the O’Hara exhibit)
“Pennsylvania Broadsides and Fraktur” (card for the digital exhibit
on the web)
“The B. and H. Henisch Photo-History Collection Exhibit Room”
(card to describe the permanent exhibit space of the Henisch
collection).
There are also bookmark-sized cards for the Special Collections Library,
produced as part of the Libraries’ “Find It” series, and a card for Rare
Books and Manuscripts, which includes proper handling rules for rare
books on its verso.
Special Collections staff members periodically create hand-outs for classes
and other programs. While these are often simply word-processed and
photocopied for distribution, staff should consider whether these items
might have broader value and whether they should be discussed with the
unit head and/or department head as potential candidates for a more
formal presentation.
Finally, the Special Collections Library and the three sections are
described on pages 26-28 of the Guide to the Libraries pamphlet. These
entries provide a general overview of the collections, resources, and
services available in Special Collections.
There is no formal map of the department, as of now, showing locations of
significant resources and collections or staff office areas. However, this
should be created as a companion to department directories, etc.
Production of new publications should be discussed with the Special
Collections department head as they can have significant budgetary
impacts. Planning for such publications may require an extended period of
time, and will likely involve the Libraries’ Public Relations/Information Office
in design and production.
Department web pages are in transition from being a diverse collection of
pages, ranging from simple text-only to more seriously designed, multi-
paged sites like the University Park Campus History Digital Archives. Web
pages are being expanded and created in a Content Management System
so as to enable anyone to update or add content without having to be an
expert in web design or the use of special software or html. Future web
pages will utilize a set of standard templates, which will provide the “look
and feel” of the site, while content experts will supply the new or updated
content for the pages.

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96 · SPEC Kit 296
Pennsylvania State University
German, Comparative Literature, History, Communication Arts and Sciences, Art, Art
History, Music, Geography, Rural Sociology, American Studies, Architecture, Landscape
Architecture, Art Education, Higher Education, and Language and Literacy Education.
Presentation of instructional sessions is governed by the Special Collections Instruction and
Tours Policy, and it is an expected part of the responsibilities of library faculty in public
services units. Those course instructors wishing to have a Special Collections class
session for their course should contact the specific faculty or staff member in Special
Collections or the Head, Public Services and Outreach to arrange for the session. Knowing
the intended dates and number of students is necessary for room scheduling purposes, as
is the content of the session and the materials to be presented.
The Special Collections faculty or staff member should plan to meet with the course
instructor beforehand to learn about the intended outcome of the class session – are
students expected to complete an assignment using our materials or is this simply an
informational presentation for students to learn about options they may have for future
research? If there is an assignment where materials will be pulled for them, posting a
notice on the Special Collections Reference Blog is necessary so that all staff at the
reference desk know to expect these students and where materials are that have been
pulled for them. If any of the students will be using Special Collections for the first time, it is
highly recommended that they be told what to expect in terms of registration and
identification, locker use, reading room rules, copying, and working with staff to identify and
retrieve materials, since these are all quite different from working in other parts of the
library.
Generally, library instruction sessions are designed to help guide students to appropriate
resources through effective search strategies, and thus they tend to emphasize teaching
the use of valuable reference tools, databases, and special indexing and abstracting
services. Penn State’s library instruction program focuses on creating information literacy
skills – the ability to find and assess information, to determine the nature of the information
found in various sources, its value in meeting research goals, and how it contributes to
increasing knowledge. Since Special Collections materials are often unfamiliar to students
and challenging to locate, instructional sessions need to be more than “show and tell.”
Instruction should also emphasize the nature of primary sources and their value as
evidence in the research process of the discipline. Sessions should also help students
learn how to locate special collections materials in the CAT, and other relevant databases
and tools.
Special Collections faculty also offer credit courses under the Library Studies rubric, or
team teach with other faculty in courses offered by other departments. Library Studies 490,
Archival Management, is cross-listed with History 490 and is usually offered every fall. This
course teaches students the principles and practices of the administration of archival and
manuscript materials and is a useful course both for students interested in a more in-depth
understanding of research using archival materials, as well as being preparation for
students interested in a career in archives, library science, or museum studies. Faculty can
also offer Library Studies 496, Independent Studies, or 495, internship credit courses
based on pre-approved, individualized plans of study.
Individual instructors are responsible for entering data about their instructional and outreach
sessions (classes, as well as tours, special programs, lectures, slide presentations) into the
Libraries’ Instructional database. Information required includes the date, time, and duration
of the session, who it is for, where held, and the number of participants. Class sessions
data will also include the class designation, college, and name of instructor. Credit courses
taught by Special Collections faculty are entered on a per-class session basis.
Literature
Publications – brochures, pamphlets, hand-outs, etc. – are a standard form
of outreach for Special Collections. Providing visitors and researchers alike
with something to take away with them as an information resource, or
reminder of some facet of their visit, can be a useful tool. Today, those at
a distance are more likely to consult the Special Collections web pages
than they are to call or write for a publication, and all of the information
available in publications is also available on-line. In fact, in the future, if
not already, there will be far more information available through the
Special Collections web pages than in print form, although we will continue
to create some forms of publications regardless of on-line availability.
Brochures, leaflets, and flyers are all species of single sheet publications,
often printed on both sides. Brochures are usually designed to be folded
(tri-folds, for example) and may be printed on heavier stock leaflets and
flyers are usually unfolded hand-outs with the text laid out to be read as a
single sheet.

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SPEC Kit 296: Public Services in Special Collections (November 2006) resources

98 · SPEC Kit 296
University of Washington
RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF COLLECTIONS
If there is no restriction stated in the Millennium record, assume the
papers are open to all users.
Serious Researchers
In some collections the restrictions section of the Millennium record indicates
serious research use only. Serious researchers are researchers who have done
appropriate background reading/research in their area of interest, have in-depth
knowledge of the topic they are researching, and who can provide proper
identification. Serious researchers are not defined by academic level or
academic affiliation, but by their preparation and knowledge of their topic.
Adequate background reading/research includes knowledge of and reading in
secondary sources or research in other primary sources, such as newspaper
research on the topic, interviews, or oral histories. To be considered prepared, a
researcher should have done enough reading that they are familiar with the key
people/organizations/events surrounding their research topic, and will understand
the significance of the content of the collections they will be using. Generally,
this means a researcher should have consulted and be familiar with at least two
sources. Any researcher, including undergraduates or the general public, who
has done this preparation may access the papers.
On some occasions users may be considered serious researchers with a
different kind of background knowledge of the research topic. These users have
researched their topic, and discovered that there are few or no secondary source
materials. Some users that meet this criteria would include a person researching
a building for nomination to the historic register, someone with knowledge of the
topic who is not actually a researcher e.g. a miner looking at mining papers, a
genealogist, or a representative of a law firm preparing for litigation who has
established through legal and other research the relevance of the material to the
case and can justify the need to see restricted papers. Other users who may not
meet the definition of serious researcher who would be able to access the papers
would include the donor of the papers, or a direct descendent of the donor.
Individuals who do not meet the qualification as a serious researcher include
those who do not have a research topic, or obviously have done no background
research. A student simply assigned to see a “primary resource” should be
directed to collections that do not fall under the serious researcher restriction.
In situations when there is doubt about whether or not a researcher qualifies as
serious and should be allowed access, refer that user to the University Archivist,
the Pacific Northwest or Visual Materials Curator, or the Head of the Division, as
appropriate.
If access is denied a researcher, the reason access is denied must be noted and
initialed on the Project Description next to information about the accession to
which the access was denied.
Special Collections 4/2004 revision

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SPEC Kit 296: Public Services in Special Collections (November 2006) resources