[SFCC] Duke RPG collection, and RBMS panel

[Will Hansen]

Hello all,

I wanted to let you all know that we at Duke have just completed processing of the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Role-Playing Games, an archivally processed collection of thousands of boxed RPGs, printed materials (modules, adventures, campaigns, rulebooks, serials, and the like), card games, manuscript records of gameplay, miniatures, and the like.  It's a truly massive collection, from the first printed D&D rulebooks to games continuing the tabletop/pencil-and-paper tradition in the 2000s.  The finding aid (which still awaits a few tweaks- for instance, we plan to attach a downloadable spreadsheet for ease of sorting by date, game system and universe, and other fields) is viewable at http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/murrayrpg/inv/

We held a "Game Night" earlier this week to celebrate the opening of the collection-you can see a few pictures on our blog at http://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2011/12/15/snapshots-from-game-night/.

Related to this, Meghan Lyon (who processed of the collection) and I proposed (and had accepted) a panel on the process of collaborating on "nontraditional" collections like this at the 2012 RBMS Preconference in San Diego.  Melissa Conway will also be on the panel, but we are looking for one more participant (or duo of participants).  Our proposal for the panel is below; feel free to get in touch with me if you have experience with collections of realia, digital/physical hybrid collections (such as video games), or other nontraditional formats for special collections and are interested in being on the panel.

"From Dungeons to Dragons: Collecting, Processing, and Accessing Nontraditional Formats"

This panel will examine the processes through which staff working in collection development, technical services, and public services acquire and make available unusual popular culture collections (i.e., realia, ephemera, or object-based collections).  For example, the Duke presentation will focus on perspectives from technical services and collection development on the acquisition and processing of a large collection of role playing games (RPGs) and related materials.  These collections can present unique challenges for numerous aspects of special collections libraries, including collection management, preservation, security, photoduplication, and unorthodox research uses.  Nontraditional formats require collaboration among staff across departments to confront these challenges and balance various needs for donor relations, useful description, researcher use, and security.  We hope to address and spur discussion on such questions and problems as:

 -Who should be involved in decisions on acquisition of collections featuring nontraditional formats?
-How can we be effective in talking with donors about special collections libraries as homes of such materials?
-How do we balance the need for documentation of a topic against problematic and/or costly storage and usage of realia?
-What are the options for processing and describing these collections?  How can we think creatively about description of such materials?
-What are the parameters for use of such collections?  Are policies on "appropriate use" of these collections needed?

Best wishes,

Will Hansen
Assistant Curator of Collections
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Duke University
206F Perkins Library, Box 90185
Durham, NC 27708-0185
Phone (919) 660-5958
William.hansen at duke.edu


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/sfcc/attachments/20111215/c971a631/attachment-0001.html