Tom: I fought through this issue when I was trying to re- and re-organized the Hilton Hotels Corporate (HHC) Collection. The previous system was set up alphabetically and was just not working for me. When Hilton added a new brand, its tenth, well...... What I ended up doing was to create a new series call "Brands" and each individual "Brand" has it own sub-series: Brand: Hilton Garden Inns; Brand: DoubleTree Hotels; Brand: Hilton Resorts; etc. Another new series was created called "Hotels". If I have only a brochure, ad, photos or a few items that fit into one folder, then it is placed in the boxed series called "Hotels: A-C", or "Hotels: D-G", etc.. If there is enough for a box (either 2", 5" or 10"), then we have the sub-series: "Hotels: Waldorf Astoria"; Hotels: Palmer House"; "Hotels: Hilton-Americas Houston" and so forth. I love it when an HHC executive looks at the Inventory list/ Finding Aid to see if they or their hotel is "in the box"! Or if they are higher in the pecking order, they may have their own box sub series that is in the series called "Corporate Executives: individual's name".
After nearly a year of use, the system has worked beautifully for processing and adding new sub-series, even without an item or folder level inventory. And this has also been a huge help when pulling out boxes for research. It is only taking seconds to locate files now. Wow!
Now if I could only find enough financial support to get the finding aids "on-line". Perhaps that hurdle will be jumped in the next year. We can all dream.
Cathleen Baird, Hospitality Industry Archives,
Houston
-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Berry [mailto:tberry@HCEA.NET]
Sent: Thursday,
April 11, 2002 11:26 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re:
Business name changes and collection titles
Thanks to all, as always,
for replies. I had no idea I'd stir up the
interest I did. Here's a summary
of the relies I got:
1. Use the name the company was operating
under when the collection was
transferred: 4
2. Use the name the
company was operating under when the record was
created: 2
3.
Use the name that's in popular usage: 1
4. Use as many names as
practicable (i.e., "Blount, Blount, and Carter
Collection of the Beggs and
Lane Papers," with Beggs and Lane being the
current name): 1
5.
Use whatever title best serves the purpose of recalling information
quickly:
1
Of course, now that the dust has settled from that discussion, what do
I get
in the mail?
1. An assortment of brochures from one company
operating under two different
names at the same time.
2. A set of
brochures from two separate companies who published them jointly
(one does
the assembly and fabrication for the other), with both names on
each
document.
3. A set of brochures for a company's current product line but
showing three
different company names, reflecting changes in ownership that
occurred over
the range of publication dates (the last four years or
so).
4. A catalog for one manufactuer, recieved in an envelope
bearing the names
of both that company and a competitor.
What to do?
Use strategy no. 1, modified with applications of nos. 2, 3 and
5 as needed
to account for the constant name changes, mergers, acquisitions
and the
like.
Ah, corporate life in the late 20th/early 21st centuries -
never a dull
moment! Thanks again.
Best wishes,
Thomas Berry,
Archivist/Web Editor
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623
Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
Phone 419-352-5616
Fax
419-352-6086
tberry@hcea.net
http://www.hcea.net
A posting from the Archives &
Archivists LISTSERV List!
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to
listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
In body of
message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname
lastname
*or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to
archives@listserv.muohio.edu
Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!),
use the web interface at
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
Problems?
Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt
<rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>