[DCRM-L] Question on blank-paper ephemera in books

[Alex Kyrios]

When I started at the Folger, I was delighted to learn that we have a documentation page called “Things in Books<http://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Things_in_books>”. As you can see there, we’re still working out some of our official policies in this area, but in my work, I would almost always ignore and recycle the paper. Then again, I work almost exclusively with post-1831 books—I could certainly imagine that we might give some consideration to ephemera from older books. I would probably ask a colleague if the paper was somehow interesting, but how interesting can blank paper be?

Alex Kyrios
Cataloger
Folger Shakespeare Library
(202) 608-1713
akyrios at folger.edu<mailto:akyrios at folger.edu>

From: dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu [mailto:dcrm-l-bounces at lib.byu.edu] On Behalf Of Kate Moriarty
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 11:16 AM
To: DCRM Users' Group List
Subject: [DCRM-L] Question on blank-paper ephemera in books

Dear colleagues,

You've helped me before with our ephemera procedures. We are refining those procedures and were wondering, do you record/process/or otherwise acknowledge blank pieces of paper found in books? If so, do you do it across the board or does your practice depend on the paper or the age of the book or the collection the book is a part of? Or do you ignore or remove blank paper (there's only so much time in the day)?

On the one hand, blank paper doesn't carry information beyond the type and age of the paper. On the other, papers do vary and they are evidence of reading practice.

Our general current practice is to keep ephemera in place in the book, enclosed in glassine, and record their presence in a note in the bib record. We identify three types of ephemera in the bib record: manuscript ephemera, printed ephemera, and ephemera (catch-all for everything else).

Thanks for any information you can share,
-Kate

--
Kate S. Moriarty, MSW, MLS  |  Rare Book Catalog Librarian  |  Associate Professor  |  Pius XII Memorial Library  |  Room 320-2
Saint Louis University  |  3650 Lindell Blvd . |  St. Louis, MO 63108  |  (314) 977-3024 (tel)  |  (314) 977-3108 (fax)  |  moriarks at slu.edu<mailto:moriarks at slu.edu>  |  http://libraries.slu.edu/
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