Southern History Department
Inventory and Collection Management Project

Respect for the Past
Foundation for the Future

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn. ~Joseph Addison

 Challenge ▪ Task ▪ Process ▪ Task Force ▪ Promise

From Generation to Generation

In 1927 the Birmingham Public Library looked back to the 18th century for a quotation to carve in the limestone frieze of its new building. Today these words still guide the library and the management of the collections now housed in the historic Linn-Henley building.

Over the years the celebrated building has undergone extensive modification, renovation, and restoration. To serve the needs and wants of an ever-changing public, the collections have grown and changed considerably as well, including the reclassification of the materials, the establishment of a separate department for government documents, and the creation of an archives.

At the turn of the millennium, computer technology brought new opportunities and challenges to the librarians to make the library’s collections more accessible and the materials more secure.

• Patrons who come to the library expect an online catalog that is more current and convenient than a card catalog.

• Remote users expect accurate information about library materials before they make the trip to use them.

• And the Internet generation expects authoritative and substantial online content.

The Challenge

In the last half of the 20th century, due to generous funding, the focus of the Southern History Department was on acquiring material about the South. The challenge today is making the collection accessible and accurate in an online environment. The other challenge is to make sure that materials are properly housed and their locations identified, such as stacks, the main room, or the microform room.

To direct the growth, the Collection Management Policy 1998 narrows the collecting scope to genealogy and local history for Birmingham, Jefferson County, and Alabama, and concentrates on managing the existing collection. To expedite and improve bibliographic access, the library uses cataloging technologies and resources not available before.

When the library went online, not all of the special collections came along. Records for many of the books and maps were absent, inaccurate, or incomplete because of a failure to convert to a machine-readable format or to the Library of Congress classification. Unique and rare pamphlets and clippings lacked online records. Concerns for security and obligations to provide accurate catalog records necessitated an accounting of the collection to match each item to its catalog entry and to add records as necessary.

The staff knows the collection and can suggest and find material for patrons, but the online catalog leads users to the library and its treasured resources. This electronic guide needs to be as helpful and accurate as the staff.

The Task

The task is to make the catalog as correct as possible, to make the materials accessible as well as secure, and to keep the promise of this collection to future generations. To accomplish this project requires:

• Complete hands-on inventory

• Correction or addition of thousands of catalog records

• Discovery of missing, superceded, or duplicate items

• Binding, microfilming, and digitization for preservation

• Designated locations for all items

• Reallocation of limited space

• Replacement and updating of information altered by use, the passage of time, or the change in format

• Addition of HeritageQuestÓ online

The Process

The inventory is underway and includes books, periodicals, and ephemera in the open reading room, the closed stacks, the vertical files, and other spaces used to house material. At the end of the inventory, every item will have a unique identity.

Catalogers are correcting inaccurate records and adding records for almost two thousand un-cataloged rare and unique pamphlets purchased in the 1980s.

Librarians are identifying and addressing gaps in the collection and replacing lost or missing books.

Librarians are systematically gathering and preparing loose periodicals for permanent binding to secure them for the future, identifying clippings and other ephemera for digitization, and providing indexing online.

A team from many library divisions developed a plan to reallocate the space in the main room to prevent further damage to the material from tight shelving. The shelves were cleaned, disassembled, and repositioned, and all the materials shifted.

The purchase of scanners and software accelerated the effort to digitize heavily used, loose documents of historic local importance.

The discovery of deteriorating reels of microfilmed Birmingham newspapers led to a huge purchase to replace almost 75 years of local history.

The Task Force

Librarians are stewards trained to manage the growth and change that libraries require. The librarians assembled to conduct this massive project were selected for their skills and experience. Most were born and raised in Birmingham and bring their knowledge of local history and culture to the project.

• 13 MLS librarians

• 3 with archival training

• 6 with double master’s degrees
  (3 history, 1 education, 1 music, 1 MBA)

• 1 with three master’s degrees

• 3 Southern History librarians

• 1 with BA in foreign languages

• 2 former Southern History employees

• 1 former Archives employee

• 8 with more than 25 years experience

• Almost 300 combined years of library experience

The Promise

The Birmingham Public Library pledges to

• Maintain the historical integrity of the collection

• Protect, preserve, and provide the information for future generations

• Build on the foundation of past generations

• Manage the collection so that it is useful, accessible, and relevant to the community it serves

PDF version