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A Natural History of the Stephen Jay Gould papers at Stanford University Libraries

A Natural History of the Stephen Jay Gould papers at Stanford University Libraries. Jenny Johnson, Stanford University Libraries Society of California Archivists Annual General Meeting - Berkeley, California 2013. About Stephen Jay Gould. Paleontologist Evolutionary biologist

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A Natural History of the Stephen Jay Gould papers at Stanford University Libraries

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  1. A Natural History of the Stephen Jay Gould papers at Stanford University Libraries Jenny Johnson, Stanford University Libraries Society of California Archivists Annual General Meeting - Berkeley, California 2013

  2. About Stephen Jay Gould • Paleontologist • Evolutionary biologist • Historian and philosopher of science • Harvard faculty and New York University adjunct faculty • Rare and antiquarian book collector • Author, both popular science essayist and scientific texts • Activist • Baseball fanatic • Musician

  3. Project Overview • Nearly 600 linear feet of material, including: • Textual materials (manuscripts, correspondence, juvenilia, teaching materials, subject files, data) • Photographs (prints and slides) • Artifacts, specimens, memorabilia • Audiovisual materials • Born-digital computer media Processed in two separate phases: First phase: manuscripts, correspondence, and juvenilia Second phase: Everything else (a sprint to the end!) Team consisted of one Project Archivist and one Processing Assistant

  4. Parallel Projects • Item level cataloging of all audiovisual material • Imaging and processing Gould’s born-digital computer media • Cataloging rare and antiquarian book collection • Scanning rare and antiquarian book collection

  5. Audiovisual Materials Variety of media, including: • 160 videotapes • 271 audio cassettes • 7 reels • 35 compact discs

  6. Born-Digital Materials Computer media: 1,180 files (52 megabytes) • Variety of media including: • 3.5 inch floppy diskettes • 5.25 inch floppy diskettes • Punch cards

  7. Rare & Antiquarian Book Collection

  8. Scanning & Delivering Gould’s Rare Book Collection

  9. Correspondence

  10. Manuscripts • 22 Books • Natural History magazine column “This View of Life,” 300 consecutive monthly articles for over 25 years • Book Reviews - Many for New York Review of Books; as well as other publications • Articles & reprints by Gould • Figures. Illustrations, charts, diagrams, graphs, and other visual works

  11. Juvenilia

  12. Artifacts, Specimens, Memorabilia, and Ephemera Specimens and soil samples from research trips

  13. Photographs

  14. Everything else • Subject Files • Teaching materials • Organizations, committees, boards • Conferences, lectures, • symposia • Research • Baseball • Music • Awards • Clippings and scrapbooks • Biographical • Family • Works by others • Oversize materials • CVs, endorsements, reviews

  15. Challenges • Limited experience working with science-related collections and their unique considerations • Privacy issues • Providing reference for this type of collection • Processed in two separate phases First phase: Manuscripts, correspondence, and juvenilia Second phase: Everything else

  16. Limited Scientific Knowledge

  17. Issues Specific to Scientific Collections

  18. Privacy Issues • FERPA (student records) • HIPAA (family medical records) • Legal matters • Nominations • Tenure Hearings • Peer Reviews • Endorsements

  19. Lack of Familiarity with Gould and his Corpus of Work Solution: Set up a Google Alerts notification. Solution: The Power of my Library Card!

  20. Identifying Manuscripts Solution: Google Books useful for comparing manuscripts to published works

  21. Appraisal

  22. Correspondence Crisis

  23. Justifying Juvenilia

  24. Dealing with Data Data: both raw and observational, including: • Machine readable (punch-cards) • Computer printouts (greenbar) • Field Notebooks

  25. Reprints, Reprints, Reprints Considerations: • Gould’s own research/marginalia • Correspondence accompanying reprint • Requests • Unsolicited submissions

  26. Making Sense of Specimens

  27. Making Meaning of Born-Digital Materials Data Visualization projects created by Peter Chan, Digital Archivist

  28. Promoting the Collection

  29. Promoting the Collection to an Even Wider Audience

  30. The Drawbacks of Project Work This is a pervasive challenge for our profession, however, it’s specifically challenging for specialized collections in terms of: • Providing expert collection reference • Processing accruals • Managing related projects in the future

  31. Conclusion Questions? Email jenny.johnson@stanford.edu

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