It’s Not Rocket Science—Oh Wait, Actually It Is: Cataloging the Stafford Space Archives
Proposal Description
The Al Harris Library received a generous donation of the archive of deceased astronaut General Thomas P. Stafford. This continually expanding collection now includes more than 200 boxes containing NASA reports, professional and personal photographs, videos, and other materials. Among the highlights are approximately 700 books used by Stafford and his co-author, Michael Cassutt, for research while writing "We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race" (2002). About half of these volumes focus on the Soviet-era Russian, or USSR, space program. Cassutt has described this as the most comprehensive collection on the Soviet space program, with roughly half of the books written in Russian.
This program will explore the challenges of cataloging materials in a language unfamiliar to the catalogers and the creative solutions developed to ensure accuracy. Speakers will include Katherine Loving, Collection Management and Technical Services Librarian, and Phillip Fitzsimmons, University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, will discuss the contents of the Stafford Collection and provide an overview of the General Thomas P. Stafford Archives housed at the Al Harris Library on the Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) campus.
It’s Not Rocket Science—Oh Wait, Actually It Is: Cataloging the Stafford Space Archives
The Al Harris Library received a generous donation of the archive of deceased astronaut General Thomas P. Stafford. This continually expanding collection now includes more than 200 boxes containing NASA reports, professional and personal photographs, videos, and other materials. Among the highlights are approximately 700 books used by Stafford and his co-author, Michael Cassutt, for research while writing "We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race" (2002). About half of these volumes focus on the Soviet-era Russian, or USSR, space program. Cassutt has described this as the most comprehensive collection on the Soviet space program, with roughly half of the books written in Russian.
This program will explore the challenges of cataloging materials in a language unfamiliar to the catalogers and the creative solutions developed to ensure accuracy. Speakers will include Katherine Loving, Collection Management and Technical Services Librarian, and Phillip Fitzsimmons, University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, will discuss the contents of the Stafford Collection and provide an overview of the General Thomas P. Stafford Archives housed at the Al Harris Library on the Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) campus.