Microformat Collections
Scope
This overview focuses on the general microform collection in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division (HSS). This includes any item--single titles and collections--which would normally be part of the classed collections. The HSS general microform collection consists of original micropublications and microfilmed materials primarily in the fields of arts and humanities and the social sciences. It includes books, serials, pamphlets, dissertations, manuscripts, personal and organizational papers, government and international organizations documents, memos and correspondence, transcripts of radio broadcasts, oral histories, college, trade, auction and exhibition catalogs, playbills, scenarios, in fact, anything of research value that is microfilmable. It also includes the hundreds of guides, indexes and other paper reference materials essential to effectively use this vast collection. The Library's main text/fiche collection (a hybrid book-microfiche publication) is also part of the collection.
Size
The total count of individual pieces of microform is: Microforms: 5,368,229 pieces; Text/Fiche: 450 (est.) items
No overall count of the number of titles this represents has been maintained. Most of the microform collection is made up of discrete collections. A rough estimate of the number of collections is 800 and growing. The size of specific collections varies greatly. A collection can have 20 individual titles, or 200, or 200,000 or more. For example, we currently receive more than 30,000 dissertations per year.
General Research Strengths
Because it is a "format" collection the research strengths of the HSS microform collection are spread over a wide range of disciplines. Within this universality there are numerous areas of specific research strength. The most notable (and largest) single collection is the collection of American doctoral dissertations microfilmed by University Microfilms International. No other research institution has a full set. Discrete microform collections make up the bulk of the collection and are often mini-libraries in themselves. Groups of related microform collections multiply the research strength in numerous areas, or subjects including: British and American studies, early imprints from Great Britain, the United States, Latin America, Russia and Western Europe including periodicals, history of economics, African-American history, biblical, patristic and medieval European manuscripts and manuscript books, dramatic works, women's studies, history of religion, works of fiction including dime and early science fiction novels, government and international organizations documents, pamphlets and other ephemera, labor and labor history, oral history transcripts, education, and much more.
Areas of Distinction
A selected list of notable microfilm collections includes:
- Early state records
- British manuscripts project
- Western Americana, 1550-1900
- Archive de Hidalgo del Parral, 1631-1821
- Joint Publications Research Services reports
- Dutch underground press, 1940-1945
- Library of Congress: a documentary history
- Mother Bethel AME Church.
- Historical Museum holdings Early American orderly books, 1748-1817
- Irish genealogy
- MLA reproductions of manuscripts and rare printed books
- Goldsmiths'-Kress library of economic literature
- American culture series
- Spanish drama of the golden age
- Archives of the Japanese ministry of foreign affairs, 1868-1945
- Confidential U.S. State Department central file (many countries)
- Temperance and prohibition papers
- History of women
- Schomburg Center clipping file, 1925-1974
- Portuguese pamphlets, 1610-1921
- Russian imperial government publications
- History of photography
- Archives of the Fabian Society
Weaknesses/Exclusions
Because this is a "format" collection covering a wide range of disciplines it can not be discussed in terms of "subject" weaknesses. Furthermore, a number of its largest, most important collections are of a "type of material" (e.g., all books published in Canada before 1900). Sheer size is not its weakness but rather a strength. Nevertheless, there has not been an overall plan, or comprehensive philosophy of acquisition specifically for this collection. The primary factors affecting the growth of the collection are availability of funds and the issue of copyright deposit of microfilm collections. Its main weakness is probably not in what is or is not in the collection, but the quality of access. It does not matter how good the holdings are--and they are outstanding as they are--if researchers and even staff have difficulties in accessing its contents, or even knowing what is there.
