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Houghton Library adds 100th manuscript collection guide to website



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, please contact Beth Brainard, Director of
Communications for HCL, at 614.495.8415

HOUGHTON LIBRARY ADDS 100th MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION GUIDE TO WEB SITE

On May 1, Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library reached a
milestone in its efforts to put information about its manuscript and
archival collections on the Web when it added its 100th guide, the guide to
the Amy Lowell papers, to the OASIS catalog. OASIS
(http://oasis.harvard.edu) is Harvard University's union catalog of guides,
or finding aids, describing archives and manuscripts in a growing number of
repositories in the Harvard system.

The Manuscript Department of the Houghton Library has been involved in the
implementation of Encoded Archival Description, the recognized standard for
encoding finding aids for Web use, since 1995.  All new cataloging since
then is available on OASIS and, selectively, older typescript finding aids
have been converted to electronic form, encoded, and added.  "It's been a
slow process," said Leslie A. Morris, Curator of Manuscripts in the Harvard
College Library,  "but that situation will soon change."  Houghton Library
has been given a matching grant under the University's Library Digital
Initiative for a two-year pilot project to begin conversion of its older
finding aids, providing funds to hire a full-time Conversion Coordinator to
investigate and apply 'best methods' for converting typescript finding
aids, as well as to manage the project.  "We estimate that Houghton has
about 2,650 finding aids, or some 70,000 pages, to convert-but that doesn't
include the handwritten ones," said Morris.  "The College has been creating
finding aids since the nineteenth century.  We hope to convert about
two-thirds over two years, including most of our 'modern' ones."

It is particularly appropriate that the 100th finding aid to be put on the
Web is that for the papers of poet Amy Lowell (1874-1925).  One of a
distinguished Boston family that includes her brother, Abbot Lawrence
Lowell, president of the University 1909-1933, and the poets James Russell
Lowell and Robert Lowell, her own poetry became identified with the
movement of Imagism, and she was its most prominent practitioner.  Her
papers show her wide involvement and influence in literary circles, and are
central to the study and understanding of early 20th century American
literary life.  She was also a major benefactor of the Harvard College
Library, bequeathing to it her unparalleled collection of manuscripts and
letters of John Keats, as well as such treasures as the juvenalia of the
Brontë family, the autograph manuscript of Ludwig van Beethoven's An die
Hoffnung, Mrs. Piozzi's copy of Boswell's Life of Johnson, with many
annotations, George Eliot's manuscript 'quarry' for Middlemarch, and much
more.  The Library was also the beneficiary of a trust she established to
continue to add to the Harvard collections. Many of the Library's most
important acquisitions, from the notebooks of Alfred Lord Tennyson to the
papers of E.E. Cummings, Robert Lowell, and Wole Soyinka, would not have
been possible without the Amy Lowell Fund.

"While 100 out of 2,650 may not seem like much," commented Morris, "for us,
it marks the end of a period of struggle to get this work done, and the
beginning of a very exciting time.  It is crucial that detailed information
about unique Houghton collections be easily available over the Internet.
More and more, students and faculty make the Web their first research stop."  

Added William P. Stoneman, Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton
Library, "We hope that this pilot project will not only provide improved
access to Houghton Library collections, but will also provide the
information to move the University forward on conversion of all finding
aids within the Harvard system. We estimate there may be 14,500 of them.
The Harvard manuscript and archival collections are incredibly rich primary
research resources, and those of us who care for them want to make it
easier for people to find what is here, and use it."
 
______________________________________________

Eva Weber
Writer/Electronic Media Coordinator for HCL
Harvard University
Widener Library, Room 80
(P)617.496.0845
(F)617.496.4750

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