-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Hempe [mailto:ahempe@hpl.lib.tx.us]
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 11:33 AM
To: Nancy Iannucci
Subject: Re: The Miscellaneous Box!
Nancy --
I HATE miscellaneous series too. Unfortunately, most of the collections
that I have processed have included that type of stuff. You need to
make hard decisions as to whether you really need this material. Does
it relate to the rest of the collection in a meaningful way? Are
patrons likely to use it? Is it worth the space that it will take up on
the shelves? If the answers to these questions are no, then I would
recommend that you be ruthless and discard as much as you can. If you
feel that you have to keep the material (and I often have had to) then
you should be prepared to describe it on your finding aid in somewhat
greater detail than the rest of the collection. That's not always a
good solution, though, because by the time I get to the miscellaneous
stuff, I just want to finish the collection. You may decide that the
extra time describing the miscellany may not be worth it. If that's the
case, you'll just have to suck it up and live with calling it
"Miscellaneous". I hope this is helpful. This is one of my little pet
peeves, and I really haven't come up with a good solution either.
Andy Hempe
> Nancy Iannucci wrote:
>
> Hello All,
>
> As I am going though a particular collection and arranging series
> sets...I know that I am going to end up with a box labelled as
> "Miscellaneous." I don't know if any one else out there feel this way
> but I HATE miscellaneous boxes. Sometimes these boxes are a must
> have, no other alternative, or a necessary disease! Unless...there is
> someone out there who has a wonderful suggestion--or feels the same
> way that I do and has come up with something in order to avoid one of
> these "grab bag" of boxes!
>
> Thanks for your time with this question.
>
> Nancy Iannucci
> Emma Willard School Archives
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Andy Hempe
Houston Public Library, Archives
Acting Unit Head
500 McKinney Street
Houston, Texas 77002
Telephone: 832/393-1654
Fax: 832/393-1687
email: ahempe@hpl.lib.tx.us
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