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 materialItem level cataloging of all audiovisual material Imaging and processing Gould’s born-digital computer mediaImaging and processing Gould’s born-digital computer media Cataloging rare and antiquarian book collectionCataloging rare and antiquarian book collection Scanning rare and antiquarian book collectionScanning rare and antiquarian book collection

5. Audiovisual Materials Variety of media, including: 160 videotapes160 videotapes 271 audio cassettes271 audio cassettes 7 reels7 reels 35 compact discs35 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 Books22 Books Natural History magazine column “This View of Life,” 300 consecutive monthly articles for over 25 years 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 publicationsBook Reviews - Many for New York Review of Books ; as well as other publications Articles & reprints by GouldArticles & reprints by Gould Figures. Illustrations, charts, diagrams, graphs, and other visual worksFigures. 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 FilesSubject Files Teaching materialsTeaching materials Organizations, committees, boardsOrganizations, committees, boards Conferences, lectures,Conferences, lectures, symposiasymposia ResearchResearch BaseballBaseball MusicMusic AwardsAwards Clippings and scrapbooksClippings and scrapbooks BiographicalBiographical FamilyFamily Works by othersWorks by others Oversize materialsOversize materials CVs, endorsements, reviewsCVs, endorsements, reviews

15. Challenges Limited experience working with science-related collections and their unique considerationsLimited experience working with science-related collections and their unique considerations Privacy issuesPrivacy issues Providing reference for this type of collectionProviding reference for this type of collection Processed in two separate phasesProcessed 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)FERPA (student records) HIPAA (family medical records)HIPAA (family medical records) Legal mattersLegal matters NominationsNominations Tenure HearingsTenure Hearings Peer ReviewsPeer Reviews EndorsementsEndorsements

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

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)Machine readable (punch-cards) Computer printouts (greenbar)Computer printouts (greenbar) Field NotebooksField Notebooks

25. Reprints, Reprints, Reprints Considerations: Gould’s own research/marginaliaGould’s own research/marginalia Correspondence accompanying reprintCorrespondence accompanying reprint RequestsRequests Unsolicited submissionsUnsolicited 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 referenceProviding expert collection reference Processing accrualsProcessing accruals Managing related projects in the futureManaging related projects in the future

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