Non-standard Collection Management

M. Pearce

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780429776861
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

First published in 1992, this volume recognises that it is not unusual, when practising librarianship, to come across small to medium collections within the library, which, because they are different from the main collection, are outside the librarian's experience or are a new type of material not properly managed or exploited. Therefore this volume contains chapters on a range of materials which are united by a certain rarity in the experience of most librarians. It is aimed at those who need to know how to progress from scratch with a collection, but not necessarily to take it into complete specialization. There is information about characteristics of each type of material as well as guidance for their management. Lists of further reading are provided and a note of some important collections.

1
Manuscripts

CHRIS SHEPPARD

Manuscripts

The number of manuscripts that has been created throughout the ages is incalculably vast. Behind virtually every printed book there lies not only one manuscript, latterly perhaps a typescript or word-processor print-out, but also beyond that, normally, earlier drafts and notes and related correspondence. Then, separately for those manuscripts associated with subsequent publications, there is the greater number which were never intended to be for publication: every literate person now and for thousands of years is or has been a potential and probably actual maker of manuscripts of some description.

Little less enormous has been the variety and complexity of manuscripts produced, particularly great in comparison with printed books, which have remained relatively homogeneous in conception during some five and a half centuries of production. Manuscripts have been written on clay tablets, stones, leaves, in the margins and in between the lines of printed books (all too often, librarians might say), on the backs of envelopes and bus tickets and on their authors' hands. In 1980, the planners of The Location Register of English Literary Manuscripts declared their intention to record all fragments they discovered of the papers of literary authors, 'even including their laundry bills' and in the Register's Annual Report 1988-89 the fulfilment of that promise was proudly announced following the recording of an endorsed tailor's bill of Edward Gibbon, the eighteenth-century historian of the Roman Empire's decline and fall.

How large a repository might have been filled with laundry and tailoring bills no longer extant can scarcely be conjectured. Certainly collections of manuscripts that have been preserved differ greatly in size, from the accumulation of millions of manuscript items in the archives of the Public Record Office to the single letter cherished by some private individual. For every single manuscript that has been preserved, countless more have been destroyed and, all being well, are yet to be created.

These observations point to some of the particular problems and opportunities which manuscripts present to librarians. There are so many which might be preserved, even compared with the plethora of printed books. In their great variety, they present peculiar difficulties for disciplined description. Each manuscript is to a greater or lesser degree an individual production and many, in fact the great majority, are unique, thus most manuscripts are irreplaceable, unlike a healthy proportion of printed books, which means that their use must be particularly carefully controlled and that exceptional measures to ensure their continued physical well-being must be taken.

The librarian's work with manuscripts can be deeply satisfying: it involves, frequently, the provision of information which cannot be acquired from any other source and allows a uniquely intimate sense of contact with intellectual and other human activity of the past, be it a thousand years ago or yesterday.

Acquisition

Unlike an archivist whose task is essentially to receive the documents created by the institution or organization which his or her archive serves, the librarian, especially with some access to funds, is a collector.¹ Potentially the manuscripts librarian may acquire material by purchase and by gift and the practicalities of both of these processes will be considered in some detail.

Purchasing

There are broadly three sources from which manuscripts may be bought: firstly, from private individuals or organizations owning manuscripts which may or may not be of their own making; secondly, from professional dealers in manuscripts, who are frequently also booksellers, and thirdly, from auctions. Of course, dealers in manuscripts will have acquired their stock from private owners and from auctions, and both dealers and private owners sell at auction, but so far as the purchaser is concerned, the three sources have distinct characteristics.

However, whatever the manner in which manuscripts are offered for sale, the librarian's initial response will be the same, to consider whether the manuscript material, whether it be an individual item or a large body of manuscripts, is desirable for the library's collections. A judgement must be made on whether the material offered represents a worthwhile end in itself, a self-sufficient resource, appropriate to co-exist with the other holdings it would join; or whether it will add a new element to relevant or closely-related collections already held, extending their significance. The latter kind of judgement may often be made relatively easily, but deciding to develop a new interest for the library, even when it will clearly serve established purposes, is more difficult. A good deal of consultation with colleagues and potential users of the material may be necessary and a measure of imaginative anticipation of how material might be used, when it is not obviously related to the known demands made on the library.

If the desirability, in principle, of the purchase is established, the second fundamental question of whether it can be afforded immediately follows. The question has several aspects.

Does the library have or have access to sufficient money to buy? It may be possible, particularly if the purchasing decision is not urgent, to supplement the library's own resources by raising additional funds, for example by application to a grant-making body such as the Purchase Grant Fund administered from the Victoria and Albert Museum on behalf of the Museums and Galleries Commission. Generous friends of the library may wish to be associated with a particular purchase by giving financial support and even some public appeal for funds may be appropriate. Above all, if an acquisition seems particularly desirable, a library's parent institution or organization should be encouraged to support it with special funding.

Does the purchase have sufficient priority to justify the commitment of funds which may be necessary or desirable for other purposes in future? The question applies even if funds are specifically reserved for manuscripts purchasing. While the opportunity to make a particular manuscript purchase will often be unique and a manuscript in the hand is worth two still to enter the competitive arena of the auction room, the librarian will be aware that other unpredictable opportunities will surely come.

Is the manuscript material available at a price which seems reasonable and appropriate, as well as being affordable? There is no firm, objective measure of the value of manuscripts, since they are unique or virtually so. It may be possible to compare their prices with those of other material of comparable extent, scarcity and significance, by reference to past sales, but demand varies and no index of inflation applies accurately to manuscript prices. A price which seems reasonable to one potential purchaser may not to another; for example, a private collector of manuscripts may be prepared to pay much more, for personal reasons of pride and satisfaction in ownership, than a library for an item the research possibilities of which have already been exploited extensively. In short, a manuscript may simply seem too highly-priced for what it is. Indeed, it may be possible to try to negotiate a lower figure and it is by no means uncommon for an over-optimistic price to be reduced, especially if the librarian's view is subsequently endorsed by the failure of the manuscript to sell elsewhere.

Another less obvious but significant factor affecting the affordability of a potential purchase is the likely expense of processing and otherwise caring for the material involved. The first inclination of many librarians will be to acquire first and worry later about the costly, long-term implications of acquisition, but these expenses cannot simply be ignored.

Purchasing from private owners

It is much more common for libraries to buy manuscripts rather than books from private individuals, certainly as a proportion of their total collections of each class. The reason is, of course, that virtually every person is a private owner of unique manuscripts which may be of interest to libraries, whereas only a few have printed material of comparable potential. Whether such manuscripts as fill the filing cabinets, boxes and cupboards of private owners will have a market value naturally depends on whether anybody wants them. Their appeal may derive from the perceived importance of the people or organizations responsible for producing the manuscripts or of the documented events in which otherwise unremarkable people or organizations have become involved. Their interest need not be universal: if it comes from just one source other than its owners, then the material has a potential market.

When owners of manuscripts decide to sell them, this can be for many reasons. They may no longer be interested in them, or having acquired them from some other source, they may never have been particularly interested. They may still prize the material, but want or need the money it can realize, or they may feel that it should be kept in better circumstances then they can provide.

Having decided to try to sell manuscripts, the owner may, suitably or not, turn to a professional dealer in manuscripts or to an auction house and, if so, the material may enter one of the other categories considered here. However, through advice or of their own accord, the owner may offer the material directly to a library, perhaps with sound reasons for doing so. Typically the library involved may have an established reputation for collecting a particular type of material, or the owner may have strong reasons for wishing to see the material preserved, if possible, in a library of his or her choice. However, there may be no well-developed logic behind a private vendor's approach; an offer may simply be made speculatively to the nearest library supposed to be likely to show any interest in manuscripts, especially if it is believed to have money for making purchases of the kind.

When an offer of manuscripts is made to a library in this way, it may or may not be accompanied by an indication of their price: the would-be seller may name a price, or suggest some rough figure, but equally likely may ask the potential buyer to make an offer. Some vendors will be well-informed about the value of their possessions, especially if they have come by their manuscripts by purchase or have sold similar material before, but in the writer's experience, the less knowledgeable owners are more likely to over-estimate than to under estimate their manuscripts' market value when they suggest a target price. The most tactful way of responding to a worthwhile but overpriced offer – and tact will normally be especially in order when dealing with a private vendor – is probably to plead the inadequacy of available funds and to indicate a sum which is manageable. Equal tact is needed in rejecting an offer outright on qualitative grounds and the most effective way to avoid giving offence will be to plead that no money to purchase is available. If in such circumstances it seems possible that another library might wish to acquire the material, then a more promising kind of library might be suggested, but a specific institution should only be named with its prior approval.

If the material offered by a private owner would certainly be desirable and the library is asked to suggest a price, a figure must be calculated, as we have seen, by reference to the most relevant records available of past sales. As a guide, the prices set by dealers for similar manuscripts in their catalogues should be regarded with caution. Firstly, they will include a significant amount added to the dealer's own buying price, to reflect the costs of maintaining staff, business premises and capital tied up in stock, as well as profit, costs which the private owner does not generally have to meet in relation to a sale. Secondly, the appearance of manuscripts in dealers' past catalogues does not necessarily mean that they have sold at the prices indicated, or indeed sold at all. Prices achieved at auction are a much more reliable guide and the better basis for calculation. Thus in making a financial offer, the librarian should aim at the figure he or she would have been prepared to pay at auction for the same material, including the auctioneer's premium (around 10 per cent). As the seller of manuscripts is thus offered more than he or she might expect to receive from an auction (avoiding also the seller's premium and associated costs) and the buyer pays no more than the supposed 'going rate' (while also saving on costs and with the potential certainty of acquisition), both parties should be satisfied. The seller also stands to gain more than by sale to a dealer, whose buying price has to be low enough to allow a selling price that is not excessively high; likewise the library pays less than a dealer would ask. Having set prices on request for some dozens of private purchases of this kind, the writer's offer has been rejected on only one occasion, which it would be entertaining but improper to specify.

A librarian can play a more active role in the acquisition of manuscripts from private sources by actually approaching their owners with a view to purchasing. The librarian may actually know that a particular individual or organization has desirable manuscripts, or may simply hope so. A courteous enquiry setting out the library's relevant acquisition policy and hinting at the availability of some funds for purchase is likely to receive a courteous and perhaps productive reply: as we shall see, gifts rather than purchases may result.

It would again be invidious to mention some of the individuals whom the writer has contacted to buy manuscripts in their possession for the Brotherton Collection at Leeds University, chiefly in the English literary field. However, it has been the policy to contact possible owners of material which is not widely collected elsewhere, as it will probably be too expensive and too late in the day to set up a rival or even complementary collection, and in any case users of the manuscripts will not welcome the necessity to work in a succession of repositories. One may benefit when established relations between an institution and a source of manuscripts break down. Thus in 1981, when the outstanding journal of the arts, the London Magazine, was faced with a libel case which threatened its existence, its editor Alan Ross announced that the financial crisis was worsened by the inability of a particular American library to continue to purchase the magazine's archives. The Brotherton Collection intervened and has bought the archives regularly ever since; the Collection has benefitted enormously from this association, with many associated literary and publishing papers also being acquired, and at the same time a major contribution has been made to the continued well-being of the London Magazine itself.

Purchasing from dealers in manuscripts

With so many manuscripts in existence and the supply potentially inexhaustible, it is not surprising that there is a very large number of professional dealers in manuscripts, ranging in the United Kingdom from the great London booksellers to remote, one-person concerns. The value of a single manuscript to be sold by one of the former may exceed that of the entire stock of one of their more modern contemporaries. Some dealers specialize in manuscripts to the general exclusion of books and some in manuscripts of a particular period or kind, such as autograph letters. Most dealers issue catalogues of their stock, or more frequently parts of their stock, being recent acquisitions or material assembled on some coherent, unifying theme. Some dealers produce a regular and stately series of catalogues, others only occasional listings as manuscripts come their way. Many libraries will have links with the trade and receive catalogues as a matter of course; dealers new to the business often appear and frequently acquire mailing lists for their catalogues from established firms.

When responding to a dealer's catalogue, it is essential that the librarian acts promptly. Still more than with rare printed books, the opportunity to buy particular manuscripts may never come again and while the librarian makes the necessary judgements and decisions about the desirability and possibility of purchase, any number of other librarians, private individuals and others can be assumed to be acting similarly from their different perspectives at the same time. Only the first purchaser buys. Perhaps inevitably, speed of reaction may adversely affect the quality of decisions and lead to some mistakes being made, but there is at least the consolation, not enjoyed in the case of many printed books, that a duplicate is most unlikely to be acquired inadvertently!

Clearly, a library's procedures must be designed to ensure that without delay catalogues reach the appropriate member of staff, whose duties should allow for swift consideration of them, even at inconvenient times. Most librarians' tasks are divisible into the immediate, the deferrable and the 'same day if possible', and if catalogue scrutiny is not placed in the first of these categories, a library will soon become aware of the obvious consequences for collection building. However, there are circumstances in which some of this urgency in the face of unknown competition can be mitigated. If one has become a valued customer of a dealer, one may receive advance copies or proofs of catalogues ahead of some other libraries; the situation is still likely to be competitive, but at least some advantage is gained. Dealers may also offer material before it is publicly catalogued at all, especially when a library is thought to be very likely to want to acquire it. This can save the dealer the considerable expense involved in publishing a description of the material and lead to a quicker sale, thus giving a quicker return on investment than would otherwise be possible. Hence, it is worthwhile for the library to ensure that key dealers are wellinformed about its major collecting interests. Some offers of this kind must be viewed with scepticism, as it may be that the dealer has almost despaired of making a particular side and hopes the direct approach will be a successful tactic; but this will not matter to the library approached, if the opportunity is considered entirely on its merits, which may include some reduction in the asking price. Undoubtedly, however, there is a measure of genuine goodwill and indeed of scholarly responsibility in some direct offers from dealers; they have even been known virtually or actually to give manuscripts away to appropriate places to clear their shelves. One may also gain extra time, as well as welcome help in making up one's mind, when considering a purchase if it is possible to see the material involved on approval before buying or rejecting. Naturally a dealer will want to give precedence to the definite sale over the potential, but it will normally be accepted that some inspection time is reasonable, particularly for material hard to assess from descriptions alone, if the service is not abused by over-long pondering by the customer.

Anyone who has compared a dealer's buying price for a manuscript at auction with the subsequent selling price in a catalogue appearing only weeks later will know that startling differences are seen: well over 100 per cent is not at all unusual as a mark-up. However, as we have seen, dealers' costs before clear profit is shown may be considerable and though many good manuscripts can be acquired without dealer involvement in the transaction, many more only become available through the dealer's ingenuity in seeking them out or his presence as an acknowledged middle-man. As with private owners, the librarian can try to bargain over a price, but how sympathetically this is received even once, let alone repeatedly, will depend on how good a case for reduction is made and on whether some other potential buyer is prepared to pay what has actually been asked.

Purchasing at auction

Many manuscripts are sold at auction, both by the well-known London auctioneers, notably...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Notes on contributors
• Introduction
• 1. Manuscripts
• 2. Out of print books
• 3. Newspapers
• 4. Serials
• 5. Cartographic materials
• 6. Sets
• 7. Ephemera
• 8. Slides, microfilms, microfiches
• 9. Recorded sources, visual and audio
• Index