In my quest to ascertain the need for an ephemera collection, the following notes on the Library of Congress ephemera policy was produced:
Ephemera
- non-commercial, non-book publications
- reflect contemporary socio-political movements and developments in a given area
- quality of physical appearance or content is frequently insubstantial
- should be only selectively retained for the permanent collection
- LOC shall inform other libraries of its ephemera collecting activities and inquire into similar programmes that they may be conducting to co-ordinate and maximise its efforts in this field, avoid duplication, and encourage possible cooperative projects
Selection principles
- collecting of ephemera is organised by target areas of special local circumstances, e.g. rapid political and social change, or ideological trends reflecting economic, environmental or societal pressures
- ephemera collecting should be prioritised i.e. answer need by significant clientele of the library
- ephemera collecting should continue only so long as developments in the are remain of critical interest; therefore there must be periodic review of projects (annually)
- ephemera collections should supplement and enhance existing strong collections of the library; co-operative arrangements are favoured over duplication when another institution holds a strong collection
- limit the collections to representative sampling of available source materials to cater for the repetitive nature of ephemeral content
Representative groups
- special interest groups of varying legal status in their national setting produce ephemeral materials, e.g. homosexual groups
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 2000. Collections Policy Statements: Ephemera.
Washington: Library of Congress [online]. Available at <URL:http://www.loc.gov/acq/devpol/ephemera.html> [Accessed 21 August 2006].
