Workspaces - smith-special-collections/sc-documentation GitHub Wiki

Navigating Neilson Library

Smith College Special Collections (SCSC) is located in Neilson Library, with storage areas and workspaces on four of the five levels of the library, as well as supplemental storage areas in Alumnae Gym and the Five College Annex.

Level Storage space(s) “the stacks" SCSC workspaces
Ground floor G cube—primarily rare books, some archival material; Room 003—archival material, including flat files and other oversized materials
First floor First cube—archival material Room 106, technical services and scanning rooms
Second floor Second cube—archival material Room 206, reference services and staff offices
Third floor Third cube—archival material, including passthrough space Room 306, reading room and staff offices
Fourth floor

Call slips

We use call slips anytime we pull a box from the stacks. Note that you do not need to use call slips when pulling materials from swing spaces (primarily row 109 or row 160 in first cube).

As an example, let’s say that you need to pull box 67 in the collection “Libraries records”. Figure 1 shows what a completed call slip for this box should look like. In the first two boxes, simply write your name and the date. Next write the collection title and the collection number.

Figure 1

Figure 1: completed call slip

Figure 2 shows the resource record (collection-level) on the staff interface of ArchivesSpace. Here you can find the full collection title and the collection number. In the "collection #" field, check off the repository (CA, SSC, or MRBC) then write down the last five digits of the collection number.

Figure 2: Resource record for the Libraries records

Next write the box number and the location on the call slip. Figure 3 shows an instance record for box 67 of the Libraries records. Here you can find the location of the box, Neilson Library, Second Cube, Row 193, Bay E, Shelf 3. Check off cube 2 on the call slip and write below the row number, bay letter, and shelf number.

Figure 3: Instance record for box 67

Navigating “the stacks”

In Special Collections we typically refer to the places where we store archival materials and rare books as “the stacks”. As seen above, locations are listed in ArchivesSpace by room, row number, bay letter, then shelf number. Let’s continue with our example and find the location for box 67 of the Libraries records, Second Cube, Row 193, Bay E, Shelf 3.

Row numbers are displayed outside of the movable stacks. Since row numbers are never repeated, they are typically higher numbers such as 193. Figure 4 shows row 193 in second cube.

Figure 4

Figure 4: Row 193 in second row, outlined in yellow

Next we need to locate bay E within row 193. Figure 5 shows how bays A-F are defined vertically. Bay E is highlighted in blue.

Figure 5

Figure 5: Bays A-F of row 193 color-coded

Finally, we need to locate shelf 3 within row 193. Figure 6 shows how rows 1-7 are defined horizontally. Row 3 is highlighted in yellow.

Figure 6

Figure 6: Shelves 1-7 of row 193 color-coded

Now we know how each location within row 193 is described and we can narrow down the location of box 67 to the small area of row 193, bay E, shelf 3. Figure 7 shows these locations, row 193, bay E, shelf 3 is highlighted in yellow.

Figure 7

Figure 7: Each location in row 193 labeled, with the location 193-E-3 highlighted

Every location shown in figure 7 will be labeled with a sticker naming the location (ex. 193 E 3) and a barcode.

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