Library Policy #31: Special Collections Collection Management Policy

It is the mission of the College of Charleston Library to support the undergraduate and graduate academic programs and to make available records consistent with the present and anticipated teaching, research, and service programs of the College community. The primary mission of Special Collections is to evaluate, acquire, organize, preserve, and make available the archival materials including the College archives, related collections and library materials that are rare, valuable, or fragile.

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The Head of Special Collections has the primary responsibility for the collection development of Special Collections. The Head of Special Collections in consultation with the Dean of Libraries and/or the Curator of the Jewish Heritage Collection and the professional archival staff will work together to accept or reject materials.

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The Material for the collections may be donated, solicited, purchased, or exchanged. Loans are ordinarily not accepted. Microfilm of rare books and manuscripts is transferred to and made available in the bound journals and microforms area of the library.

Before an item will be accepted into Special Collections, the professional archival staff must evaluate it. A temporary custody form must accompany all material considered for acquisition.

Librarians, staff, faculty, students, and the public are free to recommend material that they think would be appropriate for Special Collections.

Special Collections wishes to avoid donations that are accompanied by any restrictions on access or that require separate housing or special handling.

In order for material to be acquired, it should:

• Fall under Special Collections' acquisition priorities.
• Undergo archival evaluation and be recommended for retention by the professional archival staff.
• Be free from access restrictions or legal encumbrances that will diminish its research potential.
• Become the property of the College of Charleston or the College of Charleston Foundation, to be administered as they see fit.
• The depositor must be authorized to transfer the title.
  

A. Specific factors to be considered when deciding whether to acquire an item or not include:

• Age - Materials in the collection before 1865 will be retained (unless the material in question would require resources that are beyond the capacity of Special Collections).
• Volume – Manuscript collections over 50 linear feet will be accepted only if funding will be provided for microfilming the entire collection so that material without intrinsic value can afterwards be de-accessioned. Only original material with intrinsic value will be retained.
• Local Availability – The availability of an item among local Charleston institutions will also be considered. Since the College of Charleston has limited resources, it cannot retain, for example, photocopies of originals that are available at other area libraries.
• Completeness – The completeness of a group or series of items will be a factor in determining its retention.
• Costs – Materials whose cost of arranging, describing, indexing, or providing reference is prohibitive will not be acquired or retained.
• Quality – The quality and character of the visual and sound materials will be a factor in determining their retention.
• Use – The potential current and future use of an item to members of the College community is an important factor in the decision whether or not to or acquire an item.
• Appropriateness – How and item will fit into the College of Charleston Library’s Collection Development Policy is a significant factor in the decision whether or not to retain or acquire an item.
• Condition – Since Special Collections cannot afford to fund extensive conservation treatment for any of the materials that it safeguards, items that require costly preservation treatment will not be acquired. Items currently in the collections that require costly preservation efforts may be withdrawn from circulation and replaced by copies.

B. General criteria to be considered when deciding whether to acquire an item or not include:

• Rarity – Any item that is rare, in the sense that only a few copies are known to exist, will be retained by Special Collections. If the item is not appropriate to the collection, every effort will be made to find an appropriate institution for the item.
• Research Potential – How well a record or group of records documents the current or past functions and activities of an organization is a factor in determining whether to retain archival material or not.
• Priority – Relatively small collections with high research potential will be given priority for acquisition.
• Cooperation – When material offered to Special Collections would be more often used if it were located elsewhere, an attempt will be made to place it elsewhere.
• Artifacts – Ordinarily, items which are more appropriate to the collection of a museum will not be acquired.

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College of Charleston’s Special Collections is primarily interested in acquiring materials that will add value to the existing collections. Generally Special Collections cannot, under existing circumstances, adopt new subject areas to specialize in unless a major core collection is donated.

4.1 College of Charleston Archives

The College of Charleston Archives is a major component of Special Collections. Special Collections has the responsibility for the preservation of various College records and publications. A separate records management program will identify the College records and publications of permanent administrative, legal and historical value. The College records of permanent value will be transferred to the College Archives when they are no longer used on a regular basis by the offices that created them. Priority will be given to documenting the primary administrative functions of the College and to the acquisition of records in danger of destruction.

The following materials are included in the College Archives: minutes of College committees; records of campus offices and organizations; papers of College presidents; College publications, photographs, and other significant papers and memorabilia.

4.2 College Related Records

The loss of many official College records over the decades necessitates reliance upon other sources for information about the College’s operations. Special Collections will collect the papers of trustees, administrators, faculty, staff and former students as well as material in private collections that directly relate to the history of the College.

The types of material it is feasible to collect for the faculty and alumni include unpublished manuscripts, usable research with the potential for publication, and basic biographical information. Special Collections cannot collect and make available genealogical information, business records, additional large collections of political papers and similar types of unpublished manuscripts that other institutions exist to collect. Vertical files will be limited to materials relating to the College of Charleston.

4.3 Book Collections

Special Collections is responsible for the collection of material relating to South Carolina and particularly to the Lowcountry. Efforts will be made to acquire materials as they are published as well as out-of-print materials as they become available. Not everything obtained will be placed in Special Collections. Only items that are rare or have a potential to become rare will be placed there for research purposes. Duplicate copies of books should be in the circulating collection and available for reference in Special Collections.

Ordinarily a book collection should be accepted with definite plans to build upon it as one of the library’s special strengths, and when possible, a restricted endowment should be made available to continue to enhance the research potential.

Primary book collections in Special Collections include:

• John Henry Dick ornithology collection
• Colonial Library of Ralph Izard
• Mitchell King Library
• College of Charleston's antebellum library
• James Warley Miles Library
• Wendell Levi Library
• Staats Book Arts Collection
• Grimke collection of nineteenth century pamphlets
• Charleston imprints
• Caroliniana materials on South Carolina history, culture, and architecture
• Eighteenth and nineteenth century British and American magazines and journals
• South Carolina writers
• Early natural history works
• Derrydale Press collection
• First editions of R.B. Cunninghame-Graham and Mark Twain
• Early Greek and Latin texts
• Dr. D.L. Frampton Library
• John Mackenzie Library

4.4 Manuscript Collections

Special Collections will continue to collect manuscript materials that relate to the College or that support the College’s academic programs.

Special Collections has several important collections:

• Jewish Heritage Collection
• Spoleto Festival Archives
• Papers of Burnet R. Maybank
• Papers of L. Mendel Rivers

4.5 Non-Book Collections

Special Collections has some non-book collections:

• World War I and World War II Posters
• South Carolina Maps
• Joel Hanshu antiquarian coin collection
• Middleton Family Artwork
• John Henry Dick's artwork and photographs

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The main criteria for selecting materials for Special Collections are the need to supplement or improve existing collections.

Types of Materials:

• All College of Charleston records of historical importance
• All faculty publications
• Senior papers and master's theses of the College of Charleston graduates
• Books relating to the book arts and the history of the natural sciences
• Unpublished materials, diaries, collections of journals or accounts, manuscripts, architectural drawings, maps and other primary materials about South Carolina that are relatively small in size and high in research potential
• Foreign imprints before 1820; American imprints before 1865; South Carolina imprints before 1945
• Donated rare materials of high monetary value
• Materials that require special storage and handling

 

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Approved: Librarians July 7, 1997
Approved: Director July 10, 1997
Revised: Marie Hollings January 2001
Reviewed: Administrative Group February 21, 2001
Reviewed: Librarians February 21, 2001
Approved: Director February 21, 2001
Revised: Marie Ferrara June 2006
Reviewed: Librarians June 2006
Approved: Director July 2006

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Mailing Address: 66 George Street, Charleston, South Carolina, 29424