The document discusses the pamphlet collections of four colleges that merged into Dublin City University (DCU) Library. It provides background on the collections, outlines the transition and challenges integrating them, and proposes a plan to catalogue and classify the pamphlets as a special collection at DCU Library. The collection contains over 24,000 items across many subject areas. The plan is to fully catalogue the materials, separate out rare/vulnerable items, group items by publisher/collection, and classify the general materials by Dewey number to improve organization, access, and preservation of the pamphlets.

1. Double or quits?
Investing in pamphlet cataloguing
at DCU Library
David Meehan, Special Collections & Archives

2. Session overview
1. Historical background of collections
2. Transition – Summer 2016
3. Headline collection data
4. Creating a ‘New DCU’ pamphlet collection
5. Conclusions

3. 1. Historical background

4. Overview of holdings and their
sources
 2016 merger (CICE-DCU-MDI-SPD)
 A university and three colleges of education
 Four special collections under one roof: SC&A @ DCU Library
 A chance to integrate diverse materials into more complete and
coherent HSS research collections
 New single collection includes
 EPBs, manuscripts, personal and institutional libraries/papers…
 … and pamphlets
 Higher critical masses by format
 Especially pamphlets

5. Nature of pamphlet collections
 Kildare Place: religion; education subjects (older profile)
 CICE: religion; education subjects
 Clonliffe College (Seminarians’ Library):
 Religion/theology/ecclesiastical, history, literature
 Historical holdings (earlier and 19th century printings)
 MDI: religion, education and humanities
 SPD: education, humanities, Irish language, religion
 DCU: various

6. One collection
 Now at least 17,000 individual pamphlet titles
(estimate)
 Strengths in religion/theology, education, local history,
history, literature, Irish language, politics and health

7. Technical status
 Most ‘DCU’ titles are catalogued (2/3rds)
 DCU, MDI and SPD on Talis/Capita
 80% of MDI records converted from card catalogue in early 2000s
 CICE on Liberty
 migrated earlier 2018 year to Talis/Capita
 Cataloguing
 No minimum cataloguing standard as such
 Combination of downloaded records and original cataloguing
 Many good quality records, some quite basic
 Classification by Dewey

9. Physical aspects – catalogued
materials
 Overall condition
 Physically, generally good
 Limited problems with damp, dust/grime, rusty staples, brittle covers
 Shelving/classification
 From various publishers and producers in lots of shapes and sizes
 Tendency to order when items/records upgraded …
 … but a bit anarchic when not
 Availability/lending
 Most available for borrowing (open shelves; desk request)
 Some special collections items in closed storage

10. Physical state – uncatalogued
materials
 Almost exclusively MDI stock
 No standard collation method or storage location
 Materials stored in nine different rooms at MDI
 Cardboard boxes of various dimensions
 Pamphlet boxes
 Clustered or interpolated on shelves
 Some bound in multi-volumes
 Some dust/grime; very little damp/mould

11. 2. Transition – Summer 2016

12. Strategic approach
 New institution – New directorate (SC&A) –
Risks/opportunities – What to do? – Options
 Minimalist intervention: maintain open shelf/desk request
access; sideline uncatalogued materials
 Tread water: continue cataloguing as resources permit
 Commit to fully fledged development of pamphlets as a
special collection
 OR forget about the ‘pamphlet’ characterisation and simply
file by dimension (i.e. small form/undersize) !?!

13. General policy considerations
 Observe essential management requirements, e.g.
 Preservation needs
 Storage and retrieval aspects, incl. zoned storage
 Security needs
 Prepare for future use, e.g.
 Presentation of sub-sets/collections on web
 Digitisation

15. Addressing legacy issues from
constituent libraries
 Some libraries had pamphlets fully integrated into
main collections
 Others had distinct pamphlet collections, but with
obvious encroachments of non-pamphlet materials
(probably for operation reasons)
 So, to integrate four collections, we needed at least a
guiding selection principle for the pamphlet collection

16. Finding a definition
 What is a pamphlet?
 UNESCO definition formally quite clear
 Softbound booklet
 Between A5 and A6 (circa 18cm height x 13 cm width)
 Between 5 and 48 pages

17. … but in reality
 This definition also very limiting
 Publishers largely stay within the definition
 But formal borders are regularly transgressed
 70-80 page pamphlets very common
 ‘Oversize’ pamphlets quite common
 Harder covers in more modern pamphlets
 Pamphlets regularly in bound volumes, frequently with small
unbound monographs
 The definition of ‘pamphlet’ frays easily at the edges

18. … not to mention problems posed
by publishers
 Modern publishers of small format titles present
selection criteria difficulties
 Religious publishers, e.g. devotional
 Poetry/pocket editions
 Older official publications
 Older institutional reports
 Educational publishers
 Grey literature
 Commercial
 DIY

19. … and by irregular formats
generally
 Where borderlines become grey and there is a
temptation to fall victim to mission creep
 Include all small form titles
 Or small books without spine titles
 Larger stapled informal publications

20. So, what is a library to do?
 Obviously, be sensible
 We’re not talking about
 All small books
 Posters
 Single page leaflets
 Anything bigger than A4

21. ‘Pamphlets’: A working definition
 A softbound document (… but sometimes hard)
 A small, short monograph, without title-bearing spine
 An item likely to get lost/and or damaged on open
shelves among larger form items
 Not part of a set with a collective identity, such as
official publications, teaching sets
 Collections/runs should be generally dominated by
‘pamphlet’ size, but some items can be larger

22. 3. Post-merger data/analysis –
What DCU Library deals with

23. Headline figures
 Total pamphlet items: 24,000
 Unique titles: 17,354 (estimate)
 Catalogued: 11,864 (68%)
 Uncatalogued: 5,490 (32%)
 Duplicates: 5,563 (estimate)

24. Principal subject areas
 Religion, theology, ecclesiastic
 Education
 Literature
 Local history
 History
 Irish language
 Politics
 Health

25. Significant (unofficial!) pamphlet
sub-collections
 Historic collections, e.g.
 Early printed; pre-1850
 Publisher collections, e.g.
 CTSI; Conradh na Gaeilge
 Named collections, e.g.
 Kirwan, McQuaid, Sisters of Sion, Trench
 Subject collections, e.g.
 Irish Rebellion/Revolution; NI/Troubles; Communism; catechisms;
pastoral letters; local history
 + any Dewey range with enough content and interest

27. 4. Creating the
‘New DCU’ catalogue

28. Collection development principles
 Focus on materials
 From Irish publishers
 Of Irish interest
 Supporting DCU teaching and research
 That are historic and valuable
 Assume pamphlets a limited and diminishing resource
 Aspire to completeness
 Plan for future growth/acquisitions

29. Collection management guidance
 Holdings overall are a ‘special collection’
 Prioritise physical preservation and protection
 Ensure ease access and retrieval
 Store in closed access

30. Cataloguing principles
 Catalogue each title
 Apply essential fields
 to enhance the searching and browsing experience
 Apply series fields where appropriate

32. Cataloguing – essential fields
 008: correct info on date, place, language; search functionality
 100: Author – pamphlets frequently short of information here
 245: Title
 260: Publication – different eds.; pamphlets regularly re-published
 300: Physical description
 650: Essential SHs; catalogue groups of items to save labour

33. Cataloguing – valuable extras
 130: Uniform title – subsets like catechisms/pastoral letters
 490/830: Series fields; browsing/linking publishers
 5XX: Sparing use for, e.g. provenance, formatted contents
(multi-titles within a single pamphlet)
 740: Multi-titles – on occasion
 856: Electronic versions

35. Classification – general principles
 Separate out older/vulnerable materials, or items
needing special protection
 Separate classification needed (like EPBs)
 Stored separately
 Find means to collate publisher runs/series and
named collections
 Can bring items of the same dimension together
 Beneficial from a preservation perspective
 Beneficial for ‘marketing’ sub-sets/sub-collections at later point
 Flexible/future-proofed classification system for filing

36. Classification – in practice
 Create early printed/rare collection
 Then group materials, particularly
 By (Irish) publisher, and especially by series
 By (Irish) institution
 By named collection
 Treat remaining items individually, i.e.
 General material to be classified by Dewey
 Keep class numbers as short as practicable
 Use suffixes

37. Classification – at item level
 Shelfmark ‘Sequence’ keeps all pamphlets together
 Use shelfmark prefix (e.g. ‘P/’) to facilitate searching
and physically differentiate items
 Add sub-collection designation after ‘P/’ to keep
publisher or named collections together
 Use available publisher codes (e.g. alphanumeric
catalogue nos.) instead of Dewey
 Recourse elsewhere to simplest Dewey number

39. 5. Conclusions

40.  Pamphlets have come down to us through the decades
and centuries; proven surprisingly robust; valuable, and
culturally insightful
 They are intrinsically valuable; a core format for SC
 They are built for casual, heavy use, not for survival
 Preservation key for a vulnerable and diminishing resource
 Digitisation has to be a core part of a sustainable solution
 They present problems similar to those caused by grey
literature, official publications and casual publishers
 Tricky for libraries to manage; discipline v. flexibility

41.  Even with capacity issues, accept all pamphlet
donations, including duplicates
 Aspire to completeness
 Pamphlets are a perfect candidate for union catalogue
treatment and collaboration on digitisation
 They are a perfect format for both physical and digital
exhibitions

42.  Has our at DCU approach worked?
 Decision to continue cataloguing has been sustainable
 All MDI catalogued pamphlets reboxed and records upgraded
 Classification system proving to be adaptable
 Sub-collections have clear identities
 We’re in a position to take pamphlets to the next stage
 Make available to students and academics
 Develop their web presence
 Tell stories about them
 Use in exhibitions
 Consider collaborations (union catalogue and digitisation)
 We feel comfortably in control of a very large collection

43. Thank you
E: david.meehan@dcu.ie
@DavidMeehanDCU