ASEE 2011 Adriana Popescu Princeton University Gaining Intellectual Control over Technical Reports and Grey Literature Collections ASEE 2011 Adriana Popescu Princeton University

Technical Reports and Grey Literature Collections All academic libraries have them First targeted for space saving Thank you TRAIL! How do we save the rest worth keeping?

Learning from the Masters Special Collections Technical Reports Collections Unique, rare and valuable materials that require special handling Processed using archival standards Processed = productively used for research Require special attention and management Age well, become more valuable as time goes by

How to speak Archival Processing = arranging, describing and preserving the material Minimally, fully, unprocessed Describing = contextual information, physical characteristics, intellectual content

The Project – bringing School of Engineering reports to light Meet, talk to archivists Develop processing plan (arrangement and description, no preservation needed) Borrow tools (free) Hire student help Get to work

Planned outcomes Separate repository of finding aids for Engineering Library Distinct collections created around the issuing body: lab, department, research center Collection is described by an OPAC record – MARC records are generated from AT Finding aid created using Archivists’ Toolkit (AT) Finding aid lists each report affiliated with a collection Finding aid created for each collection using Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard

Archivists’ Toolkit Open source relational database for archival data management Client application installed on library computers (used for data entry by student and librarian) Linked to repository on existing MYSQL database on Windows server (same database used by Special Collections and Archives departments)

The Archivists’ Toolkit

Metadata Collection record Item record Author Report title Date Call number Repository Title Date(s) Extent (size) Creator (Issuing body) Scope content (description) Subjects Access Language Metadata Item record Author Report title Date Report number

How it happened Over the summer months of 2007 and 2008 (July and August) one full-time student was hired Tasks: Identify the distinct issuing bodies (labs, centers, programs) for each technical reports series Build collections around the issuing bodies (Creator) Arrange the contents of each collection (file the reports in a specific collection in order of publication) Once the collections have been identified, the Engineering Librarian would write a collection description and create a Collection Record using Archivists’ Toolkit Create Item Records for each report associated with a specific collection using Archivists’ Toolkit

Reaching the top (or the end) 30 technical reports collections processed 11 collections went online in 2007, 19 processed in 2008 Price tag: $5760 (student wages for 4 months) Increased number of direct and/or ILL requests for reports Access data correlates with the increase in requests received Service to research community – treasures such as Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) reports are now accessible to researchers

Online access numbers for engineering finding aids 2008 2009 2010 Total views Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Technical Reports 346 436 782 Department of Civil Engineering and Operations Research 18 205 174 397 Department of Civil and Geologic Engineering Research Reports 30 186 116 332 Department of Civil Engineering. Engineering-Economics Series Reports 105 221 Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Technical Notes 11 92 103

You can get a gold star too! Tap in and use existing institutional resources and expertise Use expertise of archivist colleagues to conceptualize the intellectual arrangement and set up the processing workflow Use existing infrastructure such as AT and the library’s finding aid repository Use the institutional IT support Call me and I am happy to answer questions!