Evidence 1 of Competency E
In which I show my competency in designing simple information retrieval system.
McCaffrey Papers database fields and series definition
Related tables of the database
The input form of the McCaffrey Papers database
The report form of the McCaffrey Papers database
The main outcome of my archival internship in the Special Collections of UC Riverside libraries was processing and writing the finding aid for the McCaffrey Papers collection.
The collection arrived at the Special Collections on three occasions. The bulk of material arrived in 1993; in 1995 material arrived related to the book production material for Freedom’s Landing, and in 1997 came a carbon copy of a manuscript of material McCaffrey wrote for a church event in 1957.
Over all, the collection was composed of manuscripts, galleys, notes and correspondence created throughout McCaffrey’s writing career. The material was almost exclusively related to the writing process and research, and related to the subjects of her books. The collection was stored in archival boxes; material was partially processed and placed in archival folders. However, none of the folder information was ever recorded in any kind of electronic format.
My task was to complete processing, create electronic database, enter information and write the finding aid for the collection. A detailed folder list, a part of the finding aid, was generated as a database report.
The images on the left show different stages in a development of the McCaffrey Papers database. Before starting building The McCaffrey Papers Access database, in coordination with the archivist, Chuck Wilson, I needed to make a decision about the type and definition of data that will be entered into the database. A quick look through boxes provided basic information about the format of the material (manuscripts, letters, and maps) and rough scope of her literary work in the collection.
The development of the basic series and sub-series required research into McCaffrey's literary opus. Anne McCaffrey is a very prolific writer with a large amount of written material. Her interest varies from Science Fiction to romantic novels, and she often develops characters from the simple novel to extensive book series, which go on and branch into thematic sub series.
For example, her series Ship Who Sang started as a novel, which then grew to a series of books, a number of which McCaffrey wrote in partnership with other authors. Because the collection was centered around McCaffrey’s books, and the collection series are designed to reflect the bibliographical structure of the material.
Various bibliographies sort books differently and there are no "official" classification of the McCaffrey opus. The final arrangement of books in series and sub-series was simplified for easier data entry. The material was grouped as correspondence, nonfiction or fiction material. The fiction material was further divided by the book series, collection of stories and so on. In the finding aid, each series was individually described and defined.
After developing charts of data fields and series, I created an Access input form. For faster data entry, and to prevent problems with unusually names spellings, a number of the fields had controlled vocabulary lists with drop down menus, shown on the illustration as related tables. After processing, the collection was stored in 66 boxes and has 503 folders.
This web site was developed to satisfy the graduation requirements for
the School for Library and Information Science at San Jose State University California
Text, design, and digital imaging by Vlasta Radan