National Union Catalog of Manuscripts Collection

Among the courses recommended for graduate students at CUA who are pursuing an MSLIS is a practicum. Kind of old school, I am more accustomed to the term internship, and I had to look this up online to see what the difference was. The bottom line is, they're pretty much the same thing. Catsup vs ketchup--it comes in different varieties and can be pronounced differently, but you get the idea.

Because I am looking to

1) Refresh my existing skills,
2) Gain new skills and professional experience,
3) Network,
4) Create a product which can be added to my resume, and
5) Ultimately position myself for a career more aligned with archives and historical research....

I pursued a practicum with the Library of Congress (LOC)'s National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC). So far, I'm really enjoying it.

To give a brief history, NUCMC has been around since 1959, but the beginnings of NUCMC can be traced back to 1947 or 1951. (Here's a timeline.)

But what is NUCMC? Well, as the name implies, it's a national...catalog...of...(manuscript) collections. These days, researchers can visit a library's website and type a subject or keyword in and a collection may pop up, or researchers can make use of sites like Google, Bing, Connexion, and cross their fingers. The point is, thanks to the internet, information is easily accessible. That's a no-brainer. However, libraries in general, tend to hold mass-produced items (books, magazines, videos, music, etc.--but that's fading thanks to increased used of digital formats). 

However, rare and unique items are housed in archives and special collections--and here's where the problem starts. Unless a collection is arranged and described and a finding aid is created, then the repository housing the collection has no idea what kind of treasure it may have. Now, imagine someone did create a finding aid 30-40 years ago, and it sits, deteriorating in an old folder in a forgotten filing cabinet. Because that bit of information remains untapped, then no one knows what's in the collection, and it may go unused. Imagine that collection has letters by Lincoln, Washington, or some other famous historical figure (or of events of historical significance).

From the 1950s to the 1980s, NUCMC was the primary means of making such collections accessible. Every year, a new catalog was published--featuring newly-documented collections from surveyed repositories (special collections and archives at universities and historical societies were the primary beneficiaries). Accompanying these catalogs were indices which provided a list of subject terms arranged alphabetically. Researchers and librarians could use the indices to locate a listing in the catalog based on its NUCMC identification number, and then, upon reading the description in the catalog, determine if they wished to visit the repository or contact the staff and learn more.

So what am I doing?

While the Internet, Google, and OCLC have improved access to unique collections. Access is only available if the staff elects to create the records and make them available online. This requires time and money. For repositories which do not have those resources, NUCMC can prove to be a valuable resource as it furthers two objectives for archives and archivists: access and outreach.

For my part, I am conducting research onto the fifth and final chapter of the Civil War (1865) and the first chapter of World War I. After collections from participating repositories have been identified, I will be working with LOC staff and archivists at the participating repositories to include information on the NUCMC website for both pages. Once all the information is finalized, I will create the pages using Dreamweaver.

So far, it's been an exciting and enjoyable experience. I've been going back to books I used when studying for the comprehensive exam (C. Vann Woodward, Eric Foner, James McPherson, etc.) and conducting searches using Project MUSE and JSTOR to locate themes relating to 1865 and beyond. Ultimately, I'm hoping to create a diverse body of collections which represents both strengths of the participating repositories and also informs/enlightens visiting users and researchers.