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I contacted the Smith Library of Regional History in Oxford, Ohio for assistance in obtaining information on a person who had taught at the local university in the 1830's. In turn, they contacted the university's archives which sent them a two page paper that had been prepared at some point in the past which extracted and compiled references to this person from the university's board of trustees' meeting minutes journals and various other publications about the university. This two page paper was then forwarded on to me as an attachment to an email from the regional library manager. From the little bit of information I was given, this paper came from the faculty files maintained at the univerity's archives. I'm trying to come up with an appropriate citation. I wasn't planning on retaining the email as it didn't contain any pertinent information but was simply a vessle for deliverying the attachement.
I recently purchased the new 3rd edition of Evidence Explained and I couldn't find anything that quite fit my document as an example. Using Chapter 3, Archives & Artifacts, as my model this is what I came up with:
"Collected Data on Thomas Armstrong, Class of 1830," undated; loose paper, Miami University Historical Faculty Files; Miami University Archives, Oxford, Ohio. Extracts from various Miami University publications and journals citing Thomas Armstrong, alumni class of 1830 and professor of languages.
Thanks for any suggestions to improve this citation.
Nancy
Hello, Nancy.
Hello, Nancy.
When a source comes from a university archive--directly or through a library--it's incredible that the recipient is not given an adequate citation of the document, file, and collection.
Before we jump in blindly, we must clarify one point: You show a document title in quotation marks. Does that exact title appear at the top of the loose paper, or is that your own description of the contents that you've had to had for want of a title?
Also, do you have the identity of the university archive staffer who transmitted the document and, theoretically, should be able to identify for you the file and collection in which the original of this paper appears?
The title that I put in
The title that I put in quotes is the exact title as appears at the top of the page.
I have sent an email to the staff member at the university archives to try to get more information if possible. Hopefully she can provide me more detail as to the file and collection as well as the date that the document was originally created.
Thanks for the clarification.
Thanks for the clarification. If you hear directly from the archivist, you should be able to simplify your citation. In the meanwhile, the one significant item missing from your proposed citation is the provenance or custodial history of the item that speaks to its authenticity. It's understandable that you would feel the letter of transmittal from the library to you really isn't important to the substance of the document; but until and unless you can cite it more directly to the university archives, that intermediary needs to stay in your identification of provenance. The result would be something of this sort:
"Collected Data on Thomas Armstrong, Class of 1830," undated loose paper extracting Armstrong references from various Miami University publications and journals, provided [date] by [name of archivist], Miami University Archives (Oxford, Ohio), to [name of your contact at library], [name of Library], [City, State—in parentheses as with Oxford, Ohio]; forwarded [date] by _______ to Nancy ______ (your City, State); citing Miami University Historical Faculty Files, Miami University Archives, Oxford.
I think I have a similar
I think I have a similar issue. I have been trying to figure out how to cite a copy of a speech given by a Chickasaw Governor. On the first page of the copy it says originally in the possession of someone (I don't have the copy right in front of me). I accessed it at the Holisso Research Center at the Chickasaw Cultural Center in a 3-ring binder named, "Collection of Chickasaw Governors." There are a few items for each governor, but it's just been collected and put into this binder. There's a table of contents, but it's just a list of the item titles in order, it doesn't have page numbers. Each Governor has random items, newspaper articles about them, speeches, letters written by them, etc. Would I use the same type of template above? It would've been created by several of the archivist that work there, not just one and no single person is identified as the creator.
K. Cain:
K. Cain:
Citing a binder of material would not be the same as citing "loose papers." Citing material you personally accessed at a library is also different from citing something sent to you in the mail by an archivist from a facility you never visited.
Have you considered the "bound manuscripts" examples at EE 3.22 and 3.40? The major difference between these and the description you give is that there is no known compiler for the manuscripts in that binder. Several passages in EE demonstrate and discuss how to approach works with no known author or compiler—for example, 2.29, 2.48 and 12.12.
Ok, so I haven't gotten
Ok, so I haven't gotten around to crafting a source citation for the binder I originally asked about, but I ran into a similar problem today. At my local public library, there was a binder that I assume was unpublished, there is no publishing information and it looked like some pages had been added at a later date. The creators may have created others, but I assume it was not for commercial purposes. It had a title page, but the title on the title page did not match the outside binder title, which was "Love County Cemeteries." So I am conflicted about the title to use. I want to use the title the authors used, but I know that if someone is trying to find the binder, they should probably look for or ask for "Love County Cemeteries." I decided to go with the example at 3.40:
Source Entry:
Evans, Ralph and Helen. "Graveyards of Love County." 1987. Publicly held by the Ardmore Public <indent>Library, Grand Avenue at East Northwest, Ardmore, Oklahoma. 2015
1st Reference Note:
<indent>1. Dibrell Cemetery Entry in unbound binder titled, "Graveyards in Love County," by Ralph and Helen Evans, p. 27, Rosyanne E. Driggers; publicly held by the Ardmore Public Library, Grand Avenue at E. Northwest, Ardmore, Oklahoma, 2015.
Thanks!
K. Cain
Katydid, have you seen 5.17,
Katydid, have you seen 5.17, 5.22, 7.31, or 8.37? All of these deal with unpublished typescripts at libraries, including two examples for cemetery transcriptions.
Disagreement between the spine of a shelved book and the title on the inside title page is a frequent situation, particularly with a binder to which libraries add a variety of data. With a published book, the convention (covered at EE 12.1) is to cite only what is on the title page, because that is how the book will be identified in every library catalog. However, with individual items in a one-off binder—one that exists only in that library, will likely be cataloged under the binder title, and will likely have other items added to it—we would treat that like a chapter in a book and cite both titles. A First Reference Note citation would be this:
Ralph and Helen Evans, "Graveyards in Love County," in binder "Love County Cemeteries" (typescript, n.d., Ardmore Public Library), 27, Dibrell Cemetery entry for Rosyanne E. Driggers.
You´ll notice a couple of other differences between this and your draft.
EE-
EE-
I'm going to try and read through the whole book instead of searching and checking the index before I post in the forum again.
I noticed that you didn't put a date. Is that because other library patrons have added to the binder, we cannot assign a date to it? The original pages are numbered. Patrons have added a few pages of entries of people who have been buried in cemeteries after 1970. So a large cemetery might be pages 3-5 and then someone typed up a list and put the page numbers as 5a, 5b, etc. There are also several written notes throughout the "book." So you can tell what was originally there from what has been added. The entry I'm concerned with is in a cemetery that is historical and actually had all the stones removed in the late 1970s, after the "book" was complied. Should I include a date accessed note in case future changes are made to the book?
I think I know of another place that would have a copy of this item and it's in a manuscript room where people couldn't make changes to it. I will probably go have a look at it to verify the original condition and end up citing it from that location.
Thanks,
Kati Cain
Kati, with a binder of
Kati, with a binder of assorted items that are placed into the binder at various times, the important date is the date on the individual item (manuscript, typescript, etc.), if one appears there. If the "title page" or first page of the item does not carry a date, then we would do just what you've wisely done: analyze the item for clues to a date. With an item like this, that is continually changing, then adding a date of access to the citation you create in your working notes is also wise. A publisher might eventually decide that is not essential; but your working notes can and should contain anything that will help you evaluate your findings.