Interview with Cass Hartnett
Cass Hartnett is the US Government Documents Librarian in the Government Publications department at the University of Washington. We met a few times throughout the quarter to discuss my research, direction, the collection, and resources. She acted as my onsite adviser during the course of the virtual practicum.
In my first meeting with Cass, we discussed the scope of the project, and to learn about the management of the FDL documents in the UW libraries. Cass pointed me to some areas of the collection in which I can start my search. The UW owns the entire Readex Non-Depository Collection printed in Micro-print format. We used the printed 1955 MoCat to find a document marked as published by GPO but not distributed through the FDLP (no black dot and item number, a process that began in the printed MoCat in 1943), and found the item in the collection of Raedex cards. We used a Universal Microprint reader to check the card for the item we found so that I could understand the process of searching through the MoCat, finding the material in the stacks, and viewing it on the equipment. The Micro-print machine is not the best tool to use for viewing these materials. The Microfiche readers in the Newspaper department are capable of reading these cards. These machines are newer and will provide a better display for examining the cards in this collection.
Cass also explained the call numbering system for items that arrived without a designated SuDoc number (a classification scheme developed by Adelaide Hasse from 1985-1903). These documents were given a SuDoc number by the librarians, based on the SuDoc system, and the call number ends with an X after the SuDoc stem. We walked through the stacks to find a section of these documents as an example and discovered an entire shelf in ES 3.6/18 with call numbers ending in X. I plan to do a shelf walk through the stacks to conduct a visual search for these materials. I can use the guide to US Publications (2011) available in the reference section to cross reference the SuDoc stem with the corresponding agency to gain an understanding the agency referenced and create a list of agencies that produced documents the library collected that may not be in the FDLP program.
In my second meeting with Cass, we discussed the approaches I’ve been using so far to delve into the collection. She showed me the online Monthly Catalog through ProQuest that UW subscribes to as an easier method of search. The print Mocat is still important because of the value of the handwritten notes marking receipt of the documents. Cass also walked me through the process of finding out about the selective percentages through the registered user account section of the FDLP desktop and some of the features there which will be useful to understand for anyone approaching this project, who could also access user tools on the desktop.
I discussed my intended foray into the Suzzallo stacks and asked her opinion on where to start. She said to think about the items that would have come from the Natural Sciences and Marine Fisheries libraries, which were closed a few years ago. The collections were moved into the general Suzzallo stacks. In the days before online catalogs and the ability to request an item and have it sent to another library for pick-up, many of the libraries on campus kept duplicates of items that were held in other parts of the collection. She said that as items were absorbed into the Suzzallo collection, duplicates were re-distributed or discarded following FDLP rules on document discards. I was advised to check for depository stamps on the items, and where there weren’t stamps, the items probably came from a commercial vendor. I searched the catalog for NOAA (I chose NOAA because I assumed there would be a large amount of material and these would probably be known to GPO as the NOAA Central Library is very active in cataloging items and publishing the holdings to OCLC. I do not know if the librarians also work with GPO to get records into the CGP since these libraries are not designated as FDLs.)
We meet one more time on Wednesday 11th, to meet with Blynne Oliviere from Special Collections to discuss the preservation and treatment of the rare and historical documents in the UW collection, as well as preservation methods for materials kept in the open stacks. Our discussion with Blynne is mentioned in the status report for week 7.
In my first meeting with Cass, we discussed the scope of the project, and to learn about the management of the FDL documents in the UW libraries. Cass pointed me to some areas of the collection in which I can start my search. The UW owns the entire Readex Non-Depository Collection printed in Micro-print format. We used the printed 1955 MoCat to find a document marked as published by GPO but not distributed through the FDLP (no black dot and item number, a process that began in the printed MoCat in 1943), and found the item in the collection of Raedex cards. We used a Universal Microprint reader to check the card for the item we found so that I could understand the process of searching through the MoCat, finding the material in the stacks, and viewing it on the equipment. The Micro-print machine is not the best tool to use for viewing these materials. The Microfiche readers in the Newspaper department are capable of reading these cards. These machines are newer and will provide a better display for examining the cards in this collection.
Cass also explained the call numbering system for items that arrived without a designated SuDoc number (a classification scheme developed by Adelaide Hasse from 1985-1903). These documents were given a SuDoc number by the librarians, based on the SuDoc system, and the call number ends with an X after the SuDoc stem. We walked through the stacks to find a section of these documents as an example and discovered an entire shelf in ES 3.6/18 with call numbers ending in X. I plan to do a shelf walk through the stacks to conduct a visual search for these materials. I can use the guide to US Publications (2011) available in the reference section to cross reference the SuDoc stem with the corresponding agency to gain an understanding the agency referenced and create a list of agencies that produced documents the library collected that may not be in the FDLP program.
In my second meeting with Cass, we discussed the approaches I’ve been using so far to delve into the collection. She showed me the online Monthly Catalog through ProQuest that UW subscribes to as an easier method of search. The print Mocat is still important because of the value of the handwritten notes marking receipt of the documents. Cass also walked me through the process of finding out about the selective percentages through the registered user account section of the FDLP desktop and some of the features there which will be useful to understand for anyone approaching this project, who could also access user tools on the desktop.
I discussed my intended foray into the Suzzallo stacks and asked her opinion on where to start. She said to think about the items that would have come from the Natural Sciences and Marine Fisheries libraries, which were closed a few years ago. The collections were moved into the general Suzzallo stacks. In the days before online catalogs and the ability to request an item and have it sent to another library for pick-up, many of the libraries on campus kept duplicates of items that were held in other parts of the collection. She said that as items were absorbed into the Suzzallo collection, duplicates were re-distributed or discarded following FDLP rules on document discards. I was advised to check for depository stamps on the items, and where there weren’t stamps, the items probably came from a commercial vendor. I searched the catalog for NOAA (I chose NOAA because I assumed there would be a large amount of material and these would probably be known to GPO as the NOAA Central Library is very active in cataloging items and publishing the holdings to OCLC. I do not know if the librarians also work with GPO to get records into the CGP since these libraries are not designated as FDLs.)
We meet one more time on Wednesday 11th, to meet with Blynne Oliviere from Special Collections to discuss the preservation and treatment of the rare and historical documents in the UW collection, as well as preservation methods for materials kept in the open stacks. Our discussion with Blynne is mentioned in the status report for week 7.