A Natural History of the
Stephen Jay Gould papers at
Stanford University
Libraries
Jenny Johnson, Stanford University Libraries
Society of California Archivists
Annual General Meeting - Berkeley, California 2013
About Stephen Jay Gould
• Paleontologist
• Evolutionary biologist
• Historian and philosopher of
science
• Harvard faculty and New
York University adjunct
faculty
• Rare and antiquarian book
collector
• Author, both popular science
essayist and scientific texts
• Activist
• Baseball fanatic
• Musician
Project Overview
Nearly 600 linear feet of material, including:
• Textual materials (manuscripts, correspondence,
juvenilia, teaching materials, subject files, data)
• Photographs (prints and slides)
• Artifacts, specimens, memorabilia
• Audiovisual materials
• Born-digital computer media
Processed in two separate phases:
First phase: manuscripts, correspondence, and juvenilia
Second phase: Everything else (a sprint to the end!)
Team consisted of one Project Archivist and one Processing Assistant
Parallel Projects
• Item level cataloging of all audiovisual
material
• Imaging and processing Gould’s
born-digital computer media
• Cataloging rare and antiquarian book
collection
• Scanning rare and antiquarian book
collection
Audiovisual Materials
Variety of media,
including:
• 160 videotapes
• 271 audio
cassettes
• 7 reels
• 35 compact discs
Born-Digital Materials
Computer media:
1,180 files
(52 megabytes)
Variety of media including:
• 3.5 inch floppy diskettes
• 5.25 inch floppy diskettes
• Punch cards
Rare & Antiquarian Book
Collection
Scanning & Delivering Gould’s
Rare Book Collection
Correspondence
Manuscripts
•22 Books
•Natural History magazine column “This View of Life,”
300 consecutive monthly articles for over 25 years
•Book Reviews - Many for New York Review of Books; as
well as other publications
•Articles & reprints by Gould
•Figures. Illustrations, charts, diagrams, graphs, and
other visual works
Juvenilia
Artifacts, Specimens,
Memorabilia, and Ephemera
Specimens and soil samples from research trips
Photographs
Everything else
• Subject Files
• Music
• Teaching materials
• Awards
• Organizations, committees, •
boards
•
• Conferences, lectures,
•
• symposia
•
• Research
•
• Baseball
•
Clippings and scrapbooks
Biographical
Family
Works by others
Oversize materials
CVs, endorsements, reviews
Challenges
• Limited experience working with science-related
collections and their unique considerations
• Privacy issues
• Providing reference for this type of collection
• Processed in two separate phases
First phase: Manuscripts, correspondence, and juvenilia
Second phase: Everything else
Limited Scientific
Knowledge
Issues Specific to Scientific
Collections
Privacy Issues
• FERPA (student records)
• HIPAA (family medical records)
• Legal matters
• Nominations
• Tenure Hearings
• Peer Reviews
• Endorsements
Lack of Familiarity with Gould
and his Corpus of Work
Solution: The Power of
my Library Card!
Solution: Set up
a Google Alerts
notification.
Identifying Manuscripts
Solution: Google Books useful for comparing
manuscripts to published works
Appraisal
Correspondence Crisis
Justifying Juvenilia
Dealing with Data
Data: both raw and observational, including:
•Machine readable (punch-cards)
•Computer printouts (greenbar)
•Field Notebooks
Reprints, Reprints, Reprints
Considerations:
•Gould’s own research/marginalia
•Correspondence accompanying reprint
•Requests
•Unsolicited submissions
Making Sense of Specimens
Making Meaning of
Born-Digital Materials
Data Visualization projects created by Peter Chan, Digital Archivist
Promoting the Collection
Promoting the Collection
to an Even Wider Audience
THE MENDEL
NEWSLETTER
Archival Resources for the History of
Genetics & Allied Sciences
I S S UE D B Y T H E L I B R A R Y O F T H E A M E R I C A N P H I L O S O PH I C A L S O CIE T Y
New Series, No. 19
November 2012
IN THIS ISSUE
Stephen Jay Gould Papers at the Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University
— Jennifer Johnson and Myrna Perez
The Amram Scheinfeld Papers at Columbia University — Nathan Q. Ha
3
9
The Walter M. Fitch Papers in the American Philosophical Society — Charles Greifenstein
14
Collections at the Center for Biology and Society — Nathan Crowe and Stephanie Crowe
19
2013–2014 Resident Research Fellowships in Genetics, History of Medicine and
Related Disciplines
22
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY LIBRARY
Philadelphia
The Drawbacks of Project
Work
This is a pervasive challenge for our profession,
however, it’s specifically challenging for
specialized collections in terms of:
•Providing expert collection reference
•Processing accruals
•Managing related projects in the future
Conclusion
Questions? Email jenny.johnson@stanford.edu