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Re: Business name changes and collection titles



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

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