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I can't think of any pros to doing this. The physical arrangement or storage of archival materials should not have anything to do with their intellectual description. What they are asking you to do sounds like a sure recipe for hindering users in information discovery. This could end up confusing staff later, too. Users may find a piece of the collection's description but not the whole, and even if they do find all the finding aids, they will probably be confused as to why they have been separated and may falsely attribute it to something other than physical location. You will likely have to repeat information in multiple places. When you go to make any adjustment to that information down the line, you'll have to remember to update it in multiple places. In my experience it's not uncommon for items in a collection to be in various physical locations throughout the building, in particular if they are different formats (video in one place, papers in another). I don't see any reason this should change the finding aid. Joyce On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 8:12 AM, Justin Lee Tyler <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi all. I've been asked to make two (or more) separate finding aids for a single collection which is split into two (or more) locations (and by location, I mean different floors in the same building.) > > In other word, Stanton family papers might have two finding aids. One for the first half which is on level A, and one for the second half which is on level B... and so forth. > > 1) Is this common? > and > 2) What would be the pros and cons of doing this? > and > 3) Any additional thoughts? > > Let me know if I'm not being clear. :) > > Thanks, > Justin > > ----- > Justin Lee Tyler > Cataloger / Special Collections and GovDocs > Bibliographic Division > Detroit Public Library > [log in to unmask] > -- Joyce Chapman NCSU Libraries Metadata and Cataloging/ Digital Library Initiatives [log in to unmask]