Special Collections (laid-in material)

Summary: Instructions for handling laid-in material, by both CMS and SPC staff. 

Laid-in material refers to ephemeral items left in resources by booksellers, former owners, etc. Some laid-in material may warrant some detailed description by catalogers (see below), but in general, this isn't necessary. Special Collections staff will be providing generic acknowledgements of laid-in material in all cases.

Catalogers

CMS staff should use their judgment in determining whether laid-in materials are significant or relevant enough to warrant detailed description. For instance, materials like bookstore bookmarks, advertisements or coupons, etc., would not require dedicated description in a 561 note.

• Insert laid-in material flag (for all cases of laid-in material)
• For materials requiring further description:
  • Insert field 561
  • Enter a free text note describing the item and its significance
  • Include $5 MiEM at the end.
• Use multiple 561s with $3 at the beginning of each field if you need to provide in-depth description of several pieces of laid-in material.
  • Example:
    • $3 Letter. $a Letter written by author to owner containing information about the first draft ...
    • $3 Photocopy. $a 5 pages of photocopied material from the author's first draft, including ...
• If there are many pieces of laid-in material that warrant description, the cataloger may opt to describe them collectively in one 561 rather than multiple.
• If deemed useful for discovery and retrieval:
  
  • Add any 7xx fields relating to persons or bodies associated with laid-in material

SPC staff

• Insert field 590 with MSS 466 and accompanied by appropriate box number
  • 590 __ Laid-in material transferred to MSS 466, Box #. $5 MiEM
• Insert field 655
  • 655 _7 Insertions (Provenance) $2 rbprov $5 MiEM
• Retain any additional 561 fields created by CMS staff