RE: Question for 21 September: How to bridge the gap

[Kathleen DeLaney <kdelaney@acsu.buffalo.edu>]

Steve:

Many academic libraries are now cataloging web sites and providing
URL's on records. A patron may retrieve hits in either format. Some
of the web-based hits may be full-text, or lead to another database.

Because I work in a university archive with large special collections
holdings, as well, we are concerned about mounting finding aids.
For the time being we list our collections according to their
accession numbers (for those not familiar, this can be likened to
a call number).  We provide a scope note (or brief description) of
the collection, perhaps including specific provenance or history
of the collection, and leave it at that.  For a full finding aid
or specific question, we suggest a phone call, e-mail, in-person
visit.  The Archives is a restricted access department (meaning we
retrieve materials) due to the historic and unique nature of the
documents.

For some collections, such as our Love Canal or Frank Lloyd Wright
collections we mount "selected" documents on the web.

Cheers,

Kathleen

By the way, NPR station in Buffalo is WBFO and is affiliated with
the University at Buffalo...this archives is the radio station's
archives.