1. Cataloging Archival Collections: Grouping Collections to Aid Retrieval
Susan O’Brien, MLIS, Cataloger
University Archives & Historical Collections
October 14, 2016
Introduce self
Catalog tactic/action that I learned and adapted to collocate collections based on collection/research guides that the archivists have created to aid researchers. Tactic is defined as a strategy or action carefully planned to achieve a specific end.
Began work at UAHC in early My first professional cataloging job. In my search in the literature for ideas about cataloging archival collections, I found the following article.

2. Cataloging and Digitizing Ephemera: One Team’s Experience with Pennsylvania German Broadsides and Fraktur Ann Copeland, Susan Hamburger, John Hamilton, and Kenneth J. Robinson, Library Resources and Technical Services, Jul 2006; 50; 3; ProQuest Research Library
Team of Special Collections Cataloging Librarian, Manuscripts Cataloging Librarian and Cataloging Specialists
Special challenges of cataloging mixed collections of ephemera
Multiple sets of cataloging rules
Historical interpretation of the materials
Specialized reference and research materials
MARC cataloging decisions
Collocating the material to aid online searching
Documented decisions to ensure consistent cataloging to ensure bibliographic control
But I did found this article from 2006 about the challenges of cataloging PA Dutch broadsides and fraktur by PSU Special Collections where they discussed the unique facets of cataloging archival collections.

3. Civil War Collection Guide
We have a number of collection guides that the archivists have created to aid researchers. Subject based – World War I, World War II, LGBTQ, Student Activism, Vietnam Project, etc. They are on the archives webpage. How to collocate these collections within the Marc records?

4. Collocating the material to aid online searching
MARC field 773 – Host item entry
Not a hyperlinked field – dead end
Wanted a field that would display as a hyperlink
Find one, you find them all!
How to make this work in WorldCat and the MSU Libraries Catalog
This one intrigued me. The authors stated that this was one of the most important decisions made by the team. “Using the 773 in this way aids retrieval by grouping collections for patrons and public services representatives.” Hmmmmm….. We weren’t doing this but we had ready-made collections grouped by subject – our Civil War Collections, to start with. So I decided to try it out. So I tried it and it didn’t display properly. Bummer. Had to display properly in WorldCat and the MSU Library catalog.

5. Serendipity MARC 710 2# Kentucky Folklife Program
So I kept this in the back of my mind and then one day I stumbled over this bib record in WorldCat. What is the Kentucky Folklife Program? I looked up the bib record in OCLC and they are using 710 2# for this heading. And there are 142 archival collections grouped by this heading. This is what I want to do and how I want it to display to the public in WorldCat

6. Edwin R. Havens papers,
I added a 710 2# field with the information that I wanted to collocate the collections in our Civil War Collections.
Can have multiple 710 fields if the collections belongs to more than one group.

7. Display in WorldCat
Two places in the bib record will show the 710 link – here at the top and also in the middle of the bib record

8. Display in WorldCat
Clicking on the link will take you to all 143 collections in our Civil War Collections. This is also helpful in making sure that you have all the collections cataloged here and in your local catalog and that the number agrees with what is on our research guide which is updated frequently by Ed.

9. Display in MSU Libraries catalog
Consulting with the head of cataloging at the library dictated the following changes in Sierra: 710 changed to 810 AND $b Civil War Collections changed to $t (minor changes)
(Using 810 in OCLC breaks each part of the heading into 3 separate links which is not what I wanted it to do – and the heading doesn’t control either)

10. Display in the MSU Libraries catalog
Click on the link and you’ll see there are 143 collections – woo hoo!

11. Display in the MSU Libraries catalog
And here they are in alphabetical order

12. Links for Finding Aid and Digitized Collection
Going back to Edwin Havens papers Link to finding aids were already in place in our records.
We can now add links to digitized collections in MARC – just played around with the language until I was happy with how it displayed to the public

13. WorldCat Display of MARC 856 41
This is how it displays in WorldCat

14. And clicking on that link will take you to our Civil War website.

15. Links for Finding Aids and Digital Items
Same fields used in Sierra but with MSU Libraries specified language “View… -- All Users”
Hopefully our researchers have found this useful also.

16. Questions? Feel free to email me at