Presented to the Temple University Barnes Club to make students of public history aware of newly available archival collections in their fields of study.

1. PACSCL “Hidden Collec0ons” Processing Project
Temple University Barnes Club
November 18, 2010
Holly Mengel, Project Manager
Courtney Smerz, Project Archivist

2. What is PACSCL?
Philadelphia Area Consor0um of Special Collec0ons Libraries
– CooperaEve group of special collecEons libraries with shared goals for their
collecEons
– Founded in 1985 with 16 member libraries
– Today, PACSCL is composed of 35 member libraries
• 4,000,000 rare books
• 260,000 linear feet of manuscripts and archival materials
• 9,000,000 photographs, maps, architectural drawings, and works of art on paper
• BUT, PACSCL itself, does not own collecEons
– Long history of consorEal work
www.pacscl.org

3. Hidden Collec0ons Project
• PACSCL developed and administered
• Funded by Council on Library and InformaEon
Resources’ (CLIR) Cataloging Hidden Special CollecEons
and Archives iniEaEve
www.clir.org/hiddencollec0ons/
• Process and make accessible for research approximately
200 hidden collec*ons of manuscripts and archives
• 23 parEcipaEng PACSCL repositories
• 27 month‐long project

4. What are hidden collec0ons?
• Hidden collec0ons:
– Unprocessed or under‐processed collecEons
– NOT research ready
– NOT adverEsed to the researching public
– 1000s of hidden collecEons in Philadelphia

5. Why are they
NOT research ready?
• Not physically or
intellectually accessible
• Have been on the shelf for
a long Eme
– Repository staff does know
what’s in them

6. The problem with hidden collec0ons
• Managing archival collecEons is Eme
consuming
• BACK LOG of work to be done
• BUT ‐ If no one knows its there, and no one
uses it, why keep it?

7. How PACSCL is dealing
with Hidden Collec*ons
• Follow‐up to PACSCL survey project,
2006‐2008
• Processing / making accessible 200
hidden collec*ons
• Processing:
• The act of arranging an archival
collecEon,
• Providing archival quality housing,
and
• Describing the collecEon, or wriEng a
finding aid
• Finding aid: a catalog of the collecEon, which communicates to
archivists and researchers what is in the collecEon and how to access
the materials quickly and easily

8. Experimenta0on, archivally speaking
• Using “MPLP”
– Processing at a less intensive rate
– CollecEons range from the 17th to the 21st centuries
• Use student labor
• Use the Archivists’ Toolkit database
• Create a model to eliminate processing BACK
LOGs

9. …Making collec0ons
research ready…
Before archival processing AXer archival processing

10. …And easier to find
• Created a central online finding aid site
– Developed by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries
– Finding aids from all 23 repositories in one place
– We are adding new finding aids all the Eme
– We are NOT digiEzing collecEons
findingaids.pacscl.org
• Related collecEons all over Philadelphia
– i.e. the Wister family, women’s history, horEcultural collecEons,
etc.
• CollecEons and informaEon in unexpected places
– Word War II photos at the Academy of Natural Sciences

12. Searching capabili0es
• Search across repositories
• Search in a singular
repository
• Keyword searching
• Faceted searching
– Select as many or as few
facet categories as you like

13. One year in…
74 unhidden collecEons in 13 repositories:
Academy of Natural Sciences
Bryn Mawr College
Chester County Historical Society
College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Drexel University Archives & Special
CollecEons
Drexel University College of Medicine
Free Library of Philadelphia
Haverford College
Independence Seaport Museum
Library Company of Philadelphia
Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia
Temple University, Urban Archives
Wagner Free InsEtute of Science

14. Upcoming processing work
• Another 70 collecEons to go
Temple University, Special
CollecEons
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Presbyterian Historical Society
Philadelphia Museum of Art
University of Delaware
NaEonal Archives
Rosenbach Museum and Library
This is just the 0p of the iceberg

15. What are we processing?
• The American RevoluEon
• The Arts: Fine Arts, Music, Performing
Arts, and WriEng
• Business and Commerce
• Colonial History
• EducaEon
• Family Histories and Genealogy
Just about anything! • History of Philadelphia Cultural
All with a HIGH research value InsEtuEons
• Law, PoliEcs and Government
• MariEme History
clir.pacscl.org • Medicine
• Military History
• Race and Ethnic History
• Religion
• Science
• Travel and Tourism
• Women’s History
• WriEng, Publishing and Bookselling

16. Favorite finds
• American Women’s Hospitals photographs, Drexel University
College of Medicine
• Lubin Manufacturing Company records, Free Library of
Philadelphia
• Samuel George Morton papers, Library Company of Philadelphia
• Samuel X Radbill papers, College of Physicians of Philadelphia
• Vaux family papers, Haverford College
• Upcoming… William Penn family papers, Cox TransportaEon
collecEon, Pennsylvania Ballet records, Presbyterian missionary
papers…

17. How to find us…
…and the collec0ons
clir.pacscl.org
findingaids.pacscl.org
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www.pacsclsurvey.org/
www.pacscl.org
www.clir.org/hiddencollec0ons/