Frequently asked questions
- Why are SC&A's hours so short?
- Because of the nature of the materials, the SC&A reading
room must be staffed whenever it is open. The staff's other
responsibilities, however, often require either working away from
the main floor reading room or uninterrupted time. Staff are glad
to talk to users about making appointments, since one of the
department's primary goals is to make information available.
Experience has shown that in most cases that goal can be met for
the Wesleyan community and for outside scholars.
- How many of your holdings are represented in the
online catalog?
- Briefly, the CTW catalog includes most monographs in the
SC&A reference, office, and LC and Cutter-classified stacks,
the Davison Rare Book Room, and some of the Bacon and Beales
collections, as well as Wesleyan dissertations and M.A. theses
from 1979. Ongoing projects include addition of newly-produced
records and editing existing online records, as well as adding our
copy-specific notes. The card catalog is still useful.
Not online are more than 300 serials, the
Middletown collection, printed and manuscript materials from the
University Archives, and some smaller collections.
- Why do I have to use this book from storage in the
SC&A reading room?
- SC&A staff review items retrieved from storage to make
sure their condition and/or rarity make circulation feasible.
(Many requests are from Interlibrary Loan, subjecting them to the
added stress of shipping in both directions.) In the end, most
items do circulate. The judgment not to circulate a particular
item stems from the wish to preserve it in its existing condition
for even more users in the future. If you have special needs,
please discuss them with SC&A staff.
- Why isn't this important book in Special
Collections?
- You're welcome to bring such an item to SC&A staff
attention. We may be able to give you reasons, or you may know
more about the subject than we do and persuade us to transfer it.
Selection criteria for special care items are always
evolving.
- How can I find out the value of some old books we
found in the attic?
- The excellent brochure, Your
Old Books by the late Peter Van Wingen of the Library of
Congress, is now available electronically. SC&A also has paper
copies as well as many of the reference titles listed.
- Why does SC&A have the only library copy of this
famous short story?
- Special Collections contains many books or pamphlets from fine
printers in this country or abroad--often popular or well-known
texts printed by hand, possibly on high quality paper, sometimes
with special illustrations. Because of the time and effort
involved in hand printing, the texts tend to be short, and their
titles may be the only such entry in the online catalog. In many
cases, however, the open stacks in Olin Library will have the same
(or probably a better) text. Check the catalogs under the author's
name and then titles such as Works, Best stories, Novels,
Selections, Poems, Essays, Collected prose, Tragedies, etc. Many
online records do not yet include detailed lists of contents
within these "uniform titles."
- Would anybody want our family's/our organization's
papers?
- The University Archives collects papers with a direct bearing
on Wesleyan's history. The Society of American Archivists
distributes brochures on donating organizational or family
papers to a repository; SC&A has copies of each.
- Will the Watkinson Library lend this book to SC&A
so I can read it in Olin?
- The Watkinson Library in Hartford was chartered in 1858 as an
independent research library of non-circulating materials.
Although Trinity College took over its management in 1952, the
original charter, which precludes any circulation, remains in
force. Sorry, you have to travel to Hartford.
- What film archives does SC&A have?
- The 'archives' in SC&A stands for the University Archives,
documenting the history of Wesleyan. At present, any films about
Wesleyan are in the care of the Film Studies Program; videos of
Wesleyan events are made by the Audio-Visual Department in the
Science Tower and are kept there. The University's well-known
Cinema Archives is
an independent specialized subject collection not administered by
the Library and in its own building on Washington Terrace. It
selectively collects paper documentation of the film industry but
not films themselves.
- Does SC&A have any uncataloged American
pamphlets?
- Most of SC&A's original pamphlets may be found in the card
or online catalogs, but every book, pamphlet, or
broadside printed in the United States through 1819 may be read in
the Microforms Center in the series, Early American Imprints
on Microcards. In addition, Wesleyan has recently acquired
copies of publications through 1800 on microfiche. Their authors
and titles do not yet appear in the card or online catalogs.To
find an item, you must have its number. For items published
through 1800, this number may be found in the 2-volume
National Index of American Imprints through 1800 (copies
in Microforms and in SC&A); for items from 1800 through 1819,
consult the author or title indexes to the Shaw & Shoemaker
bibliographies (copies in Microforms and in Reference, Z1215.S48).
The microcard boxes are shelved just to your left as you enter the
Microforms Center; the fiche are in filing cases nearby.
Last updated 13 August 1997.
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