ULA Annual Conference 2025

For beginner catalogers, postcards present a special challenge. Although postcards are a growing collection area for many institutions, few postcard catalog records have been previously added to OCLC, requiring catalogers to create original records for the vast majority of the postcards their institutions collect. Additionally, due to a growing interest in postcards from hobbyists and individual collectors, cataloging postcards often requires applying specialized terminology to catalog records, in order to enhance the discoverability and descriptiveness of catalog records. This presentation aims to make cataloging postcards feel more approachable for beginners by breaking down sample catalog records, pointing out unique features of postcard records that often confuse beginners, and highlighting best practices for applying RDA and LC vocabularies. It will briefly define and differentiate between the most commonly utilized postcard-related jargon (like the difference between chromographs and lithographs, or the significance of Real Photo Postcards). It will even include suggestions for how to notate handwritten messages, date/time stamps, or other copy-specific information in local records.

The Beehive Book Award is going to be undergoing some exciting new changes beginning in 2025, in this session we will explore the changes, discuss why they are being made, and outline how everyone can get involved in the new era of the award. Participants will also have time to ask questions and give feedback about the new processes.

As part of an ongoing floor-by-floor renovation within the BYU Library, subject librarians have been asked to assess their current physical collections. The renovations are currently approaching the Humanities department on the 5th floor and in this session, two Humanities librarians in the BYU Library will discuss their ongoing collection assessment or “weeding” projects. They will speak about the overarching aspects of the assessment, such as specific library priorities and parameters, and how conducting an assessment in the Humanities presents some unique challenges. Additionally, each will discuss their experiences in conducting the assessments in relation to effective processes, selection criteria, time management, student mentorship, as well as lessons learned. This session will offer participants valuable perspectives and insights on collection assessments that can be applied to collections within academic libraries specifically, as well as all libraries generally.

This session will report on research done to better understand the landscape of archival publishing. This research compared the American Archivist with seven regional archival journals. The study used corpus analysis to compare the contents of the journals, an author analysis to understand who is publishing in the regional archival journals versus the American Archivist, and a citation analysis to examine the impact of the regional archival journals versus the American Archivist. The session will discuss how tools like corpus analysis, author analysis, and citation analysis can be used to understand the key issues in archival and library studies.