Scope: As part of the accessioning process for books, miscellaneous manuscript material found laid into the books is often removed. This material ranges from ephemera and receipts to substantive correspondence. It is returned to the technical services staff and is usually filed with an existing accession for that collection, or within the collection itself. 

Contact:  Katerina Dimitriadou-Shuster

Unit: ATS/RMC

Date last updated: March 2025

Date of next review: March 2026

Separate materials 

  1. Identify and flag books and other printed material in archival collections 
  2. Contact curator to review for a decision whether to keep them in the collection, or separate them
  3. Heavily-annotated printed items and a variety of printed pamphlets and other ephemera (clippings, invitations, etc.) may be kept within the archival collection.
  4. Create a Separated Materials list with Author, Title, and Date:
    1. If an inventory exists, add it to the accession file and make note of it in the accessioning form. Use this list for the “separated material” note. 
    2. If there is no inventory the processor or a student to creates the separated materials list. 
  1. Add the list as a “separated material” note in ASpace.
  2. Make a note in the accessioning form that there are separated materials
  3. Transfer materials to the Rare Book Catalogers, with appropriate provenance tracings for individual cataloging

Keep materials in the collection

In certain cases it may be preferable to keep the printed material within the collection. In these cases, handle them archivally: depending on the quantity, create a new series or keep interfiled with the rest of the papers.

Separate materials returned to collection

Any separately-cataloged printed item returned to a manuscript collection must either have its Folio record deleted or, in the case of records retained, modified to reflect the item’s new location in the collection.