History Microfilms

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• History Microfilms
• The Library web sites Guide to History
  Microfilms, comprised of a series of pages
  divided by categories, contains about 1,100 items
• Each item may consist of just one (Minute Books
  of the Owenite Societies) or as many as hundreds
  of reels of microfilm (Records of British
  Legation in U.S., 1903-1918 1,240 reels)
• Different in some ways from other microfilm
  collections (e.g., newspapers, periodicals) since
  the source is frequently a manuscript or other
  special collection
• Each collection may cover a number of different
  subjects, and incorporate multiple types of
  documents
• Can be valuable for students, but can also be
  difficult to identify and assess

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• History Microfilms
• Goal is to supplement the information provided on
  the collections in Voyager and make the
  intellectual content more accessible
• The Guide, at present, is the culmination of the
  work of several people who compiled its contents
  over many years
• Was in need of being updated and revised in its
  format, since last major update was done in 1996
• The planned revision was two-fold
• To build a database of history microfilms that
  would help people to search more easily for
  relevant microfilms
• To revise the web page Guide in order to make it
  more conducive to browsing

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• History Microfilms
• Primary difficulty in presenting intellectual
  content of microfilms is the issue of
  exhaustivity of indexing
• Because of diversity of subjects and document
  types, not easy to present exhaustively a
  collections intellectual content in the Voyager
  catalogue
• One major asset of a new database for history
  microfilms is the ability to supplement the
  cataloging with keywords that more fully describe
  the contents of the microfilm copy of a
  manuscript collection
• An example Albert Gallatin Papers

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• History Microfilms
• Database -
• Present status
• Database contains 1,125 records
• Keywords have been entered for Papers of American
  Individuals and Families collection and American
  History to 1900 collection

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• History Microfilms
• Web page Guide
• The four pages with the largest number of items
  have been revised and updated
• United States Presidential Papers
• Papers of American Individuals and Families
• 20th Century U.S. Foreign Affairs, Military
  Security, Intelligence
• Western Continental Europe

• Revision consists of
• Inclusion of print guides, where available
• Re-ordered presentation of material
• Additional bibliographic information (dates,
  etc.)
• New acquisitions