Printed material in manuscript collections generally is of two types: printed ephemera, ranging from menus to broadsides, and published material, usually books. The latter is most often separated from the collection, and the former is most often retained within its original context in the collection, although there are exceptions on both counts. While the ultimate decision regarding disposition of the material is made by the curator, the archivist is responsible for bringing it to the curator’s attention to ensure that particularly interesting or important printed items can be described to the best advantage.
The archivist may recommend that some printed items remain with the papers. Heavily annotated books may serve as evidence of the creative process; other items may document aspects of a life or career that are not otherwise represented in the papers. Consider the relationship of the item to the collection, and retain material that would benefit research if kept physically among the papers.
The curator reviews printed material and makes one of the following decisions about its disposition:
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Retain items in the collection and arrange and describe them in a manner consistent with the overall level of arrangement and description for the collection. This may or may not involve item-level description in the finding aid.
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Retain items in the collection but have them cataloged separately by the Rare Book Cataloging Unit. This cataloging is usually done after processing is complete. To do this, shelve the collection, and then send the Head of the Rare Book Cataloging Unit links to the finding aid and catalog record for the collection. Provide the box numbers for printed material to be cataloged in place, as well as the number of items to be cataloged.
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Separate items from the collection. These will be either cataloged separately by the Rare Book Cataloging Unit, with appropriate provenance tracings in the catalog record, or flagged as not of interest to Beinecke and discarded. To do this, send the Head of Printed Acquisitions the printed material and information about the collection.