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Re: pamphlets, ephemera, etc.



We have created several "artificial" archival collections for
Businesses and Organizations in which much ephemeral materials
(brochures, etc.) are placed.  If an area gets overly large, we may
create an artificial collection just for that agency.

We get considerable amounts of published materials that fall in the
area where librarians would consider either vertical files or cataloging.
For example,  a booklet of articles and vendors for the Spring 2001
Home and Gardening Show at the Pensacola Convention Center, or
the season guide for the Pensacola Ice Pilots Hockey team, or the
annual report for West Florida Hospital.    In reality, many of these
items should probably be cataloged but we have such vast quantitles
of these "original cataloging" materials that even today, our Library
cataloging staff wil come to me to ask a question about an item that
has a note from me dated ten years ago!    I also believe there has to
be a "line" between cataloging time and effort and the item to be
cataloged.   As a historian and archivist, an important clue may be
buried in the innocuous pamphlet....yet this piece in itself hardly
justifies the work involved in having it formally cataloged.

To solve this question in 1967, the Library and Special Collections
embarked on a bibliographic project "The Bibliography of West Florida"
in which we provided a number (year of publication-sequential e.g.
2000-143) and an annotated citation to materials, file them by this
number and the bibliography helps us use and identify materials.
An entry might read:
                                                2000007
Escambia County Master Gardeners
        Gardening Tips for the Coastal South, 2001.
[Pensacola, FL]: 2000.
        [32] p.     32 cm.

        Calendar for 2001, with gardening, landscaping, and
planting tips designed for flora of the deep South and Gult
Coast.   With sections on drought-resistant plants, cold
protection of plants, etc.
        UWF

----------------------
As a calendar, it's ephemeral, hardly worth cataloging, and
yet it provides a year 2000 glimpse into what types of plants
are utilized in our culture today.

Anyway that's how we're handling these materials.


Dean

Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

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