Cataloging the special collections of Allegheny college

Scholars have long noted the significance of Allegheny College’s special collections to American cultural and educational history. Special collections have value to colleges and universities as publicity devices to draw scholars, students, and funding to the institution. Catalogers have an important role to play in marketing the library and the college through improved bibliographic access to these collections. Rare book and manuscript cataloging presents many challenges to catalogers, especially at smaller institutions. This report traces the evolution of Allegheny College’s catalog, from book format in 1823, through card format, and finally to online. It also explores the bibliographic challenges created as the library moved from one format to another. ********** The recent library science literature has few articles about retrospective conversion, commonly known as “recon.” Recon projects were a hot topic for many years as libraries retrospectively converted their card catalogs to machine readable records for access in online catalogs. Despite the absence of attention over the last ten years, recon projects are still necessary for archives and special collections at many institutions in North America. (1) Often the catalog records for these collections presented unique problems and were excluded from comprehensive conversion projects. Sometimes, the records were nonstandard–handwritten cards, or perhaps book catalogs, or simply inventory lists. These collections have value to colleges and universities as publicity devices to draw faculty, students, outside scholars, and even funding to the institution. Catalogers can play an important role in promoting and marketing the library and the college through improved bibliographic access to these collections. Recon of special collections presents a challenge to catalogers because of the nature of the materials, the format of previous catalogs and finding aids, the lack of copy cataloging records from bibliographic utilities, and difficulty in identifying edition information in the material at hand. Other factors that may complicate the cataloger’s job include the archivist’s or special collections librarian’s concerns for the security of the collection as well as different systems of shelving and organizing material in closed stacks. Even after catalog records have been created, rare book and manuscript records often require additional note fields to describe each item’s provenance or establish its identity from bibliographic sources. (2) Smaller institutions with such collections often lack the resources to devote to full-time conversion. Outsourcing is usually not an option due to the cost and complexity of the project and the nature of materials. Such projects may languish as more immediate concerns consume the catalogers’ time. Frustration and fatigue may set in as the projects drag on. Incentives to carry the project through to completion can come from recognition of the importance of the project, the marking of milestones, discovery of rare works thought to be lost, or citation of the library’s copy of a book in a scholarly work. This account of the successful completion of one such project may provide encouragement to other catalogers through documenting problems encountered and discoveries made. Allegheny College and Its Library Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1815 by the Reverend Timothy Alden, Harvard class of 1794. It is the oldest college in continuous existence under the same name west of the Allegheny Mountains. Alden used his connections at Harvard and the American Antiquarian Society to secure books for the college library from the Reverend William Bentley, Judge James Winthrop, and publisher Isaiah Thomas. Their gifts and other smaller donations collected by Alden made Allegheny’s library second only to that of Harvard among academic institutions in the country at that time.