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

2. 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?

3. 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

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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)

8. The Archivists’ Toolkit

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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!