Collection Management Policy - Appendix 2: Special Collections Holdings

Collection Management and Retention Guidelines

A. Management

Special Collections is currently responsible for the curatorship of

4. Support collections

1. a range of reference sources (manuscript, printed and electronic) to support the effective and efficient use of the collections; and relevant project and research activities
2. the S Collection (on bibliography and the wider aspects of (western) print culture and manuscript production)
    

B. Purposes of the collections

The fundamental purposes of the collections and resources under the immediate responsibility and curatorship of Special Collections are to

preserve and provide the resources necessary to:

1. strengthen, support and encourage the University’s research, learning, teaching and outreach activities (SL&A will take particular note of statements of departmental and/or school and/or faculty research if/when available) 
2. stimulate new research, learning, teaching and outreach initiatives
3. permit the effective undertaking of aspects of the University’s administrative business, in so far as older institutional records may be called upon (e.g. student records,  Edilis Committee, Court and Senate minutes, records relating to land tenure and lease)
4. assist in the promotion of the University

the above (a-d) undertaken in a manner consistent with the University’s Strategic Plans

and all subject to the department's overriding responsibilities.

Because Special Collections holds specialised collections of printed, archival and manuscript material of recognised wide scholarly importance, the department also has a recognised responsibility to provide access to these resources to the broader higher education community.

C1. Development of the collections

‘The department cannot afford to be a warehouse, storing material in the pious hope that it may one day be used; nor can it be a treasure-house, indiscriminately accepting the rare and the beautiful. It is essential that the purchase, storage and administrative cost of every acquisition be justifiable in terms of its likely use’.

The principle determining the development and growth of those collections (whether archives (of whatever format), manuscripts, or printed books) under the responsibility of Special Collections is that any acquisition (by purchase, gift, deposit, or transference from current collections) should:

1. strengthen or support areas of research, teaching and outreach promoted (or to be promoted) within the University (including research on its own institutional history and development)
   (this may entail the acquisition of complete new collections, or the acquisition of material to enhance the strength of existing collections)
   
   or
2. strengthen (by reflecting the research and teaching portfolio of the University) collections already frequently called upon as points of first referral, e.g. Local Collection
   
   or
3. reflect the University’s commitment to the preservation and appreciation of the cultural heritage of the region
   
   or
4. reflect the role of the department as the University's official repository for its own older institutional records.

(for all of which, see Section B, above.)

C2. Consultation on acquisition

Minor, day-to-day, acquisitions will be made by the staff of Special Collections on the basis of professional assessments of the costs of acquisition (including, e.g. purchase price, cataloguing/listing, conservation and processing) and the value of the material to the University. Decisions on such acquisitions rest with the Head of Special Collections and the Deputy Archivist, in consultation with the Librarian if appropriate.

Academic staff, and/or appropriate committees, will be consulted on all major acquisitions (or deacquisition by transfer) for/from Special Collections. Where appropriate, liaison and consultation will also be conducted via the Information Consultants, and/or with senior staff of the Library.

Depending on the types of material to be acquired (e.g. not only documents but also equipment, specimens) it may also be appropriate to consult with one or more of the senior curators of the University’s museum collections.

Modern (University) institutional records are currently transferred to the curatorship of Special Collections after consultation with, and request from the University Secretary’s Office.

Material is acquired by Special Collections on the basis that it will be expected to have long-term teaching, research or outreach uses within the University

Special Collections will respond sympathetically to requests from academic staff, students and other users to acquire material, whilst recognising the realities of constrained financial resources and limited space, but will also undertake broader consultation on such requests if necessary.

The acquisition of archival/manuscript material will, where appropriate, be undertaken in full consultation with, and in full recognition of, the statutory and otherwise determined responsibilities of local authority archival repositories (e.g. the statement on Archives Collection Policy of Aberdeen City Archives).

D. Accrual policies: printed books (summary)

More detailed collection descriptions are available 

1. Chronological collections
   Incunabula: highly selective. (See, primarily, C1.i above; also sect. d.5, esp. d.5(v) below.)
   p: highly selective (See, primarily, C1.i above; also sect d.5, below.)
   SB: selective (See C1.i-iii above; sect d.5 below.)
   SBL: active (See C1.i-iii above; sects d.3, d.5 below.)
   LibR: selective (See C1.i & iii above; sect. d.5 below.)
   
   Note: Staff in Special Collections monitor the appropriateness of the criteria for the transfer of material (see esp. sect A1(a-c)) above) from current collections to the curatorship of Special Collections.

2. Named collections
   Bernard Lloyd Walter Scott Collection: selective (See d.5 i-iii(a) below)
   Bibliotheck of Kirkwall: highly selective (only if item(s) can be linked to the Bibliotheck itself)
   Cairngorm Club: selective (purchases made by the Cairngorm Club itself)
   Juvenile: highly selective  (by transfer, or donation only; and only if reflects the original parameters of the Collection (i.e. predominately nineteenth-century publications))
   Local: selective (See d.2 below; also C1.iii above).
   MacBean: active (See d.1 below)
   Marischal Museum: selective (additions to stock determined by Marischal Museum staff)
   O'Dell: selective (See d.4 below)
   S Collection: selective (See A4 above)
   VL and VP Collections: highly selective.  Acquisition mostly by gift or transfer from current collections.

3. Closed collections (no further accrual)
   Aberdeen University Press Printed Archive
   Aldroughty House
   Alford Mutual Improvement Association
   Sir Alexander Greig Anderson
   Barth
   Biesenthal
   Boyndlie
   Brown-Lindsay
   Chapman
   Christ’s College
   Diocesan Library
   FL (Fixed Location)
   Gavin
   Gordon of Cairness
   Gregory
   Henderson
   Hilary Jenkins
   J. Murdoch Henderson
   Keith
   Lambda
   London Missionary Society
   Meldrum House
   Melvin
   Phillips Pharmacology
   Robinson
   Simpson
   Society of Friends
   Stationers' Hall Music
   Taylor Psalmody
   Theological Library
   Thomson of Banchory
   Thomson, Herald and King Pamphlets
   Watt
   Wilson

4. Specifics

1. Among collections of printed books, priority is given to the continuing development of the MacBean Stuart and Jacobite Collection, which should be maintained as comprehensively as possible, whilst exercising discretion with regard to reworkings of Jacobite history aimed at a popular readership.
2. The Local Collection should be maintained as a unit in Special Collections, and developed selectively, reflecting an academic interest in the history, topography, culture and administration of the North-East of Scotland.
   
   In acquiring local literature, the department should, where appropriate, seek advice from academic staff. The department should continue to acquire major documents and publications reflecting the work or policies of local authorities.
   
   The collection of certain classes of material, e.g. church magazines, community council publications, genealogical tools (e.g. indexes of parish registers, Census records microforms)  is more appropriately handled by other agencies – in particular, local authority libraries and specialist family history organisations.
3. The SBL Collection of pre-1801 material printed locally will continue to receive a high priority.
   
   Special Collections will give serious consideration to the purchase of

• texts (printed and MS) bound in the nineteenth-century ‘Aberdeen Corner-Square’ style
• other (post-1800) locally printed or published works important because of their design features or history of production   

4. New works of lasting scholarly value on British (and especially Scottish) railways should be added to the O'Dell Transport Collection; and early-published material acquired, when possible, to enhance the value of the collection for academic research.  Donations to the O’Dell Collection should only be accepted if they can demonstrably add academic value to the Collection.

5.  Additions to printed (chronological) collections should be made only after they can be shown to:

i) meet an academic need within the University of Aberdeen

or

ii) support a research thrust within the University

or

iii) enhance existing, recognised research strengths within  

(a) those same collections (e.g. printed editions of Ossian, Bishop Gilbert Burnet, or the works of members of the eighteenth-century Aberdeen Philosophical Society)

or

(b)  other collections under the responsibility of Special Collections

or

iv) support archival collections, themselves the subject of active research work (e.g. printed editions of James Beattie) 

or

v) have been previously owned by (an) individual(s) with significant associations (e.g. as student, teacher or as benefactor) with the University of Aberdeen (or its antecedent colleges).

6. Serious consideration will be given to the purchase of any George Washington Wilson prints or negatives not previously held by the University of Aberdeen.

Similarly, printed photographic albums published by GWW & Co. should if possible be purchased if not already held by the University of Aberdeen.   

Footnotes