Louisiana & Special Collections Collection Development Policy

PURPOSE OF THE COLLECTION

As Louisiana’s major urban university, the University of New Orleans supports the educational, economic, social, and cultural development of the state’s largest and most diverse metropolitan region. The Earl K. Long Library faculty and staff are active participants in that enterprise and are committed to the highest standards of service and access to library resources. The Louisiana and Special Collections Department, a cross-disciplinary department associated with all University of New Orleans colleges and programs, supports the library’s mission to provide resources which advance the university’s educational programs, including instruction at all levels, research, and public service. In fulfilling this mission, the Louisiana and Special Collections Department

Develops unique and/or special research collections of rare or other materials in designated subject areas, notably those pertaining to the State of Louisiana,

Houses and preserves library materials which require special handling or supervised use because of scarcity, vulnerability (fragility or prospect of defacement), unusual format, or monetary value,

Serves as the official archives of the University of New Orleans, including as part of this collection the records of the university, faculty members’ papers, UNO dissertations and theses, and the UNO Faculty Authors Collection,

Provides access to materials in accordance with the guidelines governing their use, and

Instructs library users in the availability, care, handling, and research potential of special collections.

In addition, the department

Serves as a focus and magnet for fundraising, donors, and grants,

Enhances the reputation of the library and the university through building subject strengths and/or subject niches, and

Represents the library to the wider community through exhibitions, publicity, programs, and presentations, in traditional forms as well as via the Internet.

The chair of the Louisiana and Special Collections Department shall serve as collection development librarian for rare books, archival and manuscript collections, and Louisiana materials, or may designate another faculty member of the department to function in one or more of those capacities.

LIBRARY USERS SERVED BY THE COLLECTION

Materials in Louisiana and Special Collections are available to researchers on equal terms, subject to appropriate care and handling of the materials on the part of the researcher, during established hours of operation of the Reading Room. The library does not reserve materials exclusively for the use of individual scholars. Circulating materials, limited to dissertations, theses, and master’s reports written at the University of New Orleans, may be borrowed upon the presentation of a valid borrower’s card. Access to rare books, archives, and manuscript materials may be limited to daytime hours. Rare books, archives, and manuscript materials generally are not available to students not yet in high school, unless the students are accompanied by a responsible adult. Students seeking exceptions should submit such requests in writing.

TYPES OF MATERIALS COLLECTED

In January 1997 the Louisiana Collection and the Archives and Manuscript Unit merged, becoming the Louisiana and Special Collections Unit of the Reference Department, and in October 2000 it became the Louisiana and Special Collections Department. The department collects the following types of materials, including both primary resources (the objects of research, e.g., collections of manuscripts) and secondary resources (the fruits of research, e.g., books and theses derived from those collections):

Louisiana materials
The purpose of the Louisiana Collection is to develop an in-depth resource of cross-disciplinary materials pertaining to the history, development, and people of the State of Louisiana and to offer to library users specialized, more intensive research assistance. The collection includes Louisiana-related books, periodicals, dissertations and theses, state documents, and vertical file and other ephemeral materials.

Publications in the Louisiana Collection have been designated as noncirculating because of frequency of use. Additional copies of Louisiana titles, when available, are housed in the stacks and are available for borrowing. Ideally, the library should acquire at least two copies of major publications about Louisiana, the first designated as noncirculating. Because of the presence of archival copies of Louisiana-related theses and dissertations written at UNO, Louisiana Collection copies circulate. Louisiana materials meeting the criteria for transfer to the rare books collection are housed there (see Appendix A).

Rare books
Publications are added to the rare books collection through gift, purchase, and transfer from the general library collection (see Appendix A, “Guidelines for Transfer to the Rare Books Collection”). They are volumes which require special handling or supervised use because of scarcity, vulnerability (fragility or prospect of defacement), unusual format, or monetary value. Historically, rare books have been housed with archives and manuscripts, with which they share a need for special care and handling.

For many years, inadequate funding resulted in negligible allocations for the purchase of rare books. Consequently the library lacks many of the volumes that would be considered cornerstones of a rare books collection in a major Louisiana university. In the late 1990s, with the designation of the University of New Orleans as a Four-Year II institution by the Southern Regional Education Board and with increased levels of funding came a new interest in building a meaningful collection of rare books, one which will support the university’s curriculum and programs while also attracting the attention of scholars beyond the university community and the interest of prospective donors seeking outlets for their collections. The rare books collection builds upon the library’s strengths and interest in Louisiana-related materials to acquire rare books and other publications in that subject area, with secondary interest in materials that support other areas of the university’s curriculum and programs.

Manuscripts and archives
In 1968 the library acquired the Italian Clubs Collection, which consists of records of eleven Italian fraternal organizations. Unlike collections of primary materials that had been received previously, the Italian Clubs Collection was accessioned. This marked the beginning of the library’s effort to collect such materials.

Early on, the decision was made to emphasize the collection of materials created by local businesses and ethnic groups. Other areas in which significant holdings of archival materials and/or personal and family papers have been developed include business, labor history, urban studies (New Orleans area), education, law, organizations, and news and entertainment media (these areas are discussed in detail below). Future collecting should build on these strengths while remaining open to opportunities to expand our holdings within areas that offer potential for curricular and research support.

University of New Orleans Archives, including UNO dissertations and theses and the UNO Faculty Authors Collection
Records generated by the various administrative and academic entities of the University of New Orleans are sought for addition to the University Archives. Until 2004 this was largely at the discretion of those entities. In 2004 the University of New Orleans established of a retention schedule and formal procedures for regular transfer of records to the University Archives, which is part of the Louisiana and Special Collections Department, and designated the chair of the department as University Archivist and Records Management Officer.

As an adjunct to the University Archives, the Louisiana and Special Collections Department collects one copy of each dissertation and thesis accepted by the Graduate School. Typically, another copy is directed to the general collection. If just one copy is available, it should be housed in the Louisiana and Special Collections Department.

Although there has been ongoing effort to identify and collect publications by members of the UNO faculty, not until 2001 was this practice made formal and funding allotted specifically for the purchase of such works. See Appendix B, “The UNO Faculty Authors Collection,” for guidelines directing this collection.

Ephemeral materials
Collecting ephemera has a long-standing tradition at the Earl K. Long Library. The Louisiana and Special Collections Department maintains vertical files of recent Louisiana ephemera, such as political campaign handouts, and holds such materials as printed broadsides. Additions by both donation and purchase are actively sought, and members of the faculty and staff are encouraged to contribute programs from performing arts events, invitations to Carnival balls, advertising and political memorabilia, etc.

Photographs and other visual materials
Photographs depicting the people and locales of the greater New Orleans area, though relatively few in number, qualitatively are a strength of the library’s holdings. In addition to photographs acquired as part of larger collections, miscellaneous photographs constitute an artificial collection housed with archival and manuscript materials. The department also collects postcards, posters, prints, and other visual materials.

Sheet music
In addition to sheet music acquired as part of larger collections, a small artificial collection of sheet music resides with the holdings of archives and manuscripts. Its strengths include music in Yiddish and especially music published in New Orleans during the nineteenth century to approximately 1930, when the city was a center for the publication of sheet music. In 2002 the addition of orchestrations of twentieth-century popular music in the René Louapre/Saenger Theatre Music Collection extended the chronological parameters of the music holdings beyond their former terminal date.

Oral history
The Louisiana and Special Collections Department collects oral history interviews on tape, accompanied by appropriate releases signed by the interviewer and interviewee(s). It is desirable that a transcript accompany interviews. On a limited basis, members of the department’s faculty and staff may produce oral history interviews that provide information about the collections and their donors.

Louisiana state documents
Since 1959 the Earl K. Long Library has been a depository for Louisiana state documents. As such, it is an integral element in the Louisiana Public Documents Depository System, which is administered by the State Library of Louisiana through the Recorder of Documents. Depository libraries are responsible for making Louisiana documents accessible to the public, for providing free service in their use, and for following established rules, regulations, and guidelines in administering the program. The Recorder of Documents has designated the Long Library as a complete depository, which means that it is obligated to receive one copy of all public documents received by the Recorder for distribution and to retain those documents for a minimum of six years. Complete depositories have the option of receiving current legislative materials (bills, journals, and calendars) generated by the Legislature during each session, and the Long Library has elected to do so. See the most recent edition of the Louisiana State Documents Depository Manual for additional information about the depository program.

Digital materials
Digital dissertations and theses accepted by the Graduate School of the University of New Orleans are a part of the Louisiana and Special Collections Department’s holdings. Additional collecting will be defined in cooperation with the Digital Initiatives Librarian.

FOCUS OF THE COLLECTION

Format
The Louisiana and Special Collections Department accepts materials in all formats, including manuscripts, archives, documents, books, pamphlets, sheet music, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, maps and plans, photographs and other visual materials, recordings (including oral history tapes), ephemera and selected memorabilia, videotapes, films, microfilm of other holdings and microforms contained in collections, compact discs, and Louisiana state documents. Those which are actively being added to the collection are described in detail above.

Geographic area
The collection documents all aspects of life in Louisiana, including materials that enable the researcher or reader to place state and local events in broader perspective. Nonprint materials and rare printed materials emphasize that area but are not limited geographically.

Subject
Within the geographic area noted above, subject interests support the curriculum and programs of the University of New Orleans and are not otherwise limited by subject. D. Clive Hardy, who headed the Special Collections Unit from its inception until his retirement in 1996, explained that the ethnic aspects of the first accessioned collection, the Italian Clubs Collection, directed collecting interests toward ethnic materials. “This stress was, of course, complementary of the university’s own urban cast, such groups being primarily, especially in the South, an urban phenomena [sic]. It was additionally appropriate that the memberships of such groups, like the university’s student body, was largely drawn from the city’s blue-collar class. There was also a very practical advantage to collecting such material: its generally more ready availability as a result, no doubt, of having been largely ignored by most of the area’s repositories, which, in the late sixties, still favored the records and papers of the old gentry.”

Primary Collecting Interests

Business History
Existing collection strengths: Records pertaining to New Orleans area small businesses include but are not limited to art galleries (Boothby-Orleans Gallery Collection, Johnson-Orleans Gallery Collection, Tahir Gallery Collection), manufacturers (Higgins Industries Collection, Jackson Brewery Collection, Lutcher & Moore Cypress Lumbering Company Collection), sales (K & B Archives, Dennery & Co. Collection, Paul Veith Collection), and service providers (A. P. Boyer Collection, Jacob Schoen & Son Collection).

Education
Existing collection strengths: As the repository for the archives of the Orleans Parish School Board, the Louisiana and Special Collections Department offers extensive information about the development of the city’s school system. Supplementing these records are personal papers of members of the School Board (William D. Reeves Collection), teachers (Sarah Towles Reed Collection), and students (Audrey M. Stier Collection). Materials pertaining to other educational institutions include the A. C. Priestley Collection (containing Leland College records), the Thiberge Collection (private education), and the archives of the University of New Orleans.

Ethnic History
Existing collection strengths: Manuscript and archival materials pertaining to African Americans, including the Marcus Christian Collection, the A. P. Boyer Collection, and the archives of the New Orleans Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, are exceptionally strong. Materials concerning other ethnic groups that settled in Louisiana also are collected, notably but not limited to the French (Athénée Louisianais Collection, René Grandjean Collection), the Italians (Italian Clubs Collection, Italian Newspaper Collection), and the Hispanics (Carnaval Interamericano Collection). Printed materials include a broadside advertisement of a slave sale in New Orleans in 1838. Various primary and secondary sources concerning the Isleños and other groups can be found in the Jean Lafittte National Historical Park Collection.

Labor History
Existing collection strengths: Manuscript and archival materials in this subject area include the archives of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO, the New Orleans Typographical Union (Local 17), and New Orleans Classroom Teachers’ Federation records in the Sarah Towles Reed Collection.

Legal History
Existing collection strengths: Manuscript and archival collections include the case files of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1813-1920; the records of Dart and Dart and related law firms; and the John A. Dixon, Jr. Collection. Law books and other publications pertaining to the history and development of Louisiana law supplement these materials.

New Orleans Area Urban Studies
Existing collection strengths: Published reports and studies, including, for example, reports of the U.S. Corps of Engineers; the archives of organizations such as the Audubon Park Commission, the Bureau of Governmental Research, and the Chamber of Commerce of the New Orleans Area.

News and Entertainment Media
Existing collection strengths: Both print and broadcast media are represented in the collection, including the Italian Newspaper Collection, the Iris Kelso Collection, records of the Vieux Carré Courier newspaper, the Ralph N. Vinson Collection (editorial cartoons from the New Orleans States), and the film and video archives of WDSU-TV. In addition, the collection contains broadsides and programs promoting performances in local theaters, sound recordings, and papers of entertainers such as Al Hirt.

Organizations
Existing collection strengths: Associated with collecting interests in ethnic groups, labor history, and urban studies, and overlapping other areas as well, is an emphasis on the records of organizations. Among those represented in the collection are records of the Société des Francs-Amis and the Société des Jeunes Amis, two African Amercan fraternal organizations; the Firemen’s Charitable Association, 7th District; the Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association of the United States and Canada, Local 93; and the Community Services Council of New Orleans Collection.

The association between the University of New Orleans and the Grand Consistory of Scottish Rite Masons, which began in 2001 with UNO’s twenty-year lease of the Masonic Temple on Carondelet Street, has opened the door to the collection of Masonic materials, including papers and publications of lodges in Louisiana and environs, papers of active members of the Free and Accepted Masons, publications that pertain to Freemasonry, and related memorabilia and ephemera.

Secondary Collecting Interests

Aviation
Existing collection strengths: Manuscript and archival holdings pertaining to the early development of aviation in Louisiana include the Newman Louisiana Aviation Collection (records of the Wedell-Williams Air Service and other early commercial aviation activity in Louisiana), the Abe L. Shushan Collection, and the Edward G. Wathan Collection.

Carnival
Existing collection strengths: Printed ephemera pertaining to Carnival in Louisiana, especially the New Orleans area, exist in several collections, notably the Richard Dixon Collection and the John Minor Wisdom Collection. The Charles V. Booth Collection offers manuscript materials, photographs, and memorabilia pertaining chiefly to truck krewes.

History of Medicine
Existing collection strengths: Manuscript and archival holdings include the Charity Hospital School of Nursing Collection and the Edgar Hull Papers. Among printed materials are publications concerning yellow fever in Louisiana.

Areas for Further Development

The University of New Orleans needs strong collections of primary research materials to foster the research of its faculty, staff, and students, as well as extensive secondary resources to further basic study. In support of original research, the Louisiana and Special Collections Department aggressively and extensively collects available materials pertaining to all aspects of Louisiana history and culture, as well as other manuscript and printed materials worthy of special handling which support the university’s instructional program. Efforts are made to expand upon strengths and to fill gaps, notably to expand holdings of nineteenth-century (and earlier) materials and of Louisiana-related pamphlets and ephemera. In light of approaching anniversaries of major historical events, current emphases for collecting rare books include Louisiana statehood (bicentennial, 2012), the Battle of New Orleans (bicentennial, 2015), and the Civil War (sesquicentennial, 2011-2015). Recent publications pertaining to all aspects of Louisiana history and culture, including works published in Louisiana and works written by and about Louisianians, also are collected aggressively and extensively. In evaluating prospective acquisitions, the following questions are considered:

Does it support the university’s curriculum and programs?

Does it complement existing holdings? Does it fill a gap in existing holdings?

What materials already in the collection could a researcher consult instead?

If a purchase, is the price fair? What is the “going rate” for such materials?

Time period
Collecting interests are not limited chronologically. Emphasis is on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Language
English is the major language of acquisition. Louisiana was and continues to be settled by emigrants from many countries, however, and materials in French, Spanish, German, Italian, and other languages are collected, as well. Materials in any modern language may be considered on a case-by-case basis. No materials will be refused solely on the basis of language.

Exclusions
The Louisiana and Special Collections Department generally does not accept the following: partial collections of archives and manuscripts when substantial portions of the collection already reside in another repository; microforms, except microforms of other holdings of the department or those contained in collections; collections which consist exclusively of photocopies; and collections which are entirely genealogical. Also excluded are non-rare printed materials that are not Louisiana-related or written by UNO faculty authors; three-dimensional objects, except that items which are within the department’s capability to care for them may be accepted as adjuncts to collections of papers and records; and materials in formats that are more appropriately housed elsewhere in the library (e.g., recordings of Louisiana music in the Multimedia Collection). The department may decline prospective acquisitions for which it cannot care properly because of their format, condition, or quantity.

COLLECTING METHODS AND RELATED PROCEDURES

Gifts
The library receives complimentary copies of all publications of the Louisiana State University Press. The Louisiana collection development librarian has first refusal of all LSU Press publications and typically retains those about Louisiana. Other publications about Louisiana also may be considered as gifts. Such donations often afford the opportunity to replace lost, worn, or damaged copies or to add second copies of older materials.
Donation is the preferred method of acquisition of rare books and archival materials. Such gifts are actively sought from organizations and individuals, including but not limited to University of New Orleans faculty and other members of the university community. Appraisals of monetary value are the responsibility of the donor.

Loans and Deposits
Although unrestricted gifts are to be preferred, materials proposed for loan or deposit will be accepted by the Louisiana and Special Collections Department when the circumstances of the loan or deposit are advantageous to the Earl K. Long Library in terms of, e.g., duration of deposit, availability to researchers, and research value to students and faculty.

Closed Collections
The Louisiana and Special Collections Department normally will not accept collections which are closed to public access in perpetuity or for lengthy periods of time, and those which routinely require the donor’s or depositor’s permission for examination. Collections encumbered by restrictions of a reasonable nature (e.g., closed for a brief, specified period of time) are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Documentation of Transfer of Ownership
Acceptance of donations of manuscripts and other rare materials to the Louisiana and Special Collections Department is conditional upon a legal transfer of title, a deed of gift or deposit, or other official document of transmittal. See Appendix C, “Documentation of Transfer of Ownership.”

Purchases
Allocation of the library’s book budget is done primarily by academic department. Before the annual departmental allocations are computed, however, separate funds are created for a number of areas, including Louisiana publications, rare books, and the UNO Faculty Authors Collection. Collection development librarians in other subject areas are encouraged to alert the Louisiana collection development librarian when they discover publications about Louisiana and/or the archives and manuscripts collection development librarian regarding books written by members of the UNO faculty.

Currently available publications pertaining to all aspects of Louisiana history, development, and people are considered for purchase as additions to the collection. First copies are designated as noncirculating. In addition, other collection development librarians may purchase one or more circulating copies, when they consider such action to be warranted. Of highest priority are publications that deal primarily with the New Orleans metropolitan area.

When rare and other out-of-print publications are not available as donations, they may be acquired by purchase from dealers’ catalogs or direct offers, at auctions, and from private individuals or organizations. Purchases are funded by gifts from the Friends of the UNO Library and other sources, grants, and library appropriations.
Under most circumstances, the library does not purchase manuscripts. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis if the rare books collection development librarian and the Dean of Library Services concur.

Deaccessioning
“Standards for Ethical Conduct for Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Librarians” (1992) of the Association of College and Research Libraries states, “In the deaccession of rare books and manuscripts, the special collections library must weigh carefully the interests of the public for which it holds the collections in trust, the interests of the scholarly and cultural community, and the institution's own mission. The institution must consider any legal restrictions, the necessity for possession of valid title, and the donor's intent in the broadest sense. Procedures for the deaccession or disposal of materials must be at least as rigorous as those for purchasing and should be governed by the same basic principles.” With knowledge and support of these caveats, the Louisiana and Special Collections Department reserves the right to deaccession any manuscript and archival materials in its collections subject to the conditions of acquisition and the notification of the donor or donor’s heirs. When a collection contains multiple copies of printed materials, surplus copies may be placed in the general stacks or offered to other libraries which have pertinent collecting interests.

PRESERVATION AND SECURITY

According to the ACRL’s “Standards for Ethical Conduct for Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Librarians” (1992), “Special collections libraries have as a primary responsibility the safeguarding of their materials. The institution of policies and procedures to protect and preserve the materials is an institutional responsibility of the highest order. The physical integrity of the materials must be protected; the materials guarded against theft, defacement, alteration, and physical damage; and measures taken to insure that their integrity and meaning are not impaired in consequence of conservation treatment, arrangement, or use.”

Toward that end, a major element of the Louisiana and Special Collections Department’s mission is to house and preserve library materials which require special handling or supervised use because of scarcity, vulnerability, unusual format, or monetary value. The library may deny or limit access if it would impair the physical or intellectual integrity and safety of an item or collection, and implements special procedures for the use of such materials. These procedures include requiring researchers to fill out registration forms, to present identification, to check their belongings, to refrain from consuming food and beverages and from chewing gum in the Reading Room, to use pencil (no ink) to take notes, and to wear cotton gloves (supplied by the department) when handling photographs and negatives. Information acquired from researchers’ registration forms or obtained in the course of assisting them is considered to be confidential and may not be disclosed to or discussed with other researchers.

Upon request, staff members will photocopy manuscripts, rare books, and other special collections materials deemed sturdy enough to withstand the procedure. Library users may make photocopies from many of the Louisiana-related publications. Circulating books about Louisiana are available for interlibrary loan, and periodicals may be photocopied for that purpose. Other materials in the Louisiana and Special Collections Department may not be lent, except by special arrangement for exhibition at other institutions for specified periods of time.

Other measures to protect materials include maintaining closed stacks, ensuring the constant presence of an attendant in the Reading Room, monitoring the environment, disaster preparedness, limiting key access to storage and reading areas, copy-specific cataloging of rare books, and preservation microfilming, photocopying, and digitizing.

PROCEDURES FOR MONITORING DEVELOPMENT AND REVIEWING COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES

This collecting policy is intended to facilitate achievement of the goals of the Earl K. Long Library and the Louisiana and Special Collections Department. Its effectiveness will be re-evaluated in conjunction with periodic review of the library’s Collection Development Policy. Interim revision may occur as necessary to meet the goals of the university, the library, and the department. The Louisiana and Special Collections Department reserves the right to change the preceding policies without notification to donors or donors’ heirs.