JTF-HCM Guidelines 2018: Intellectual Units Held

INTELLECTUAL UNITS HELD 

An accurate, up-to-date count of Intellectual Units Held is as fundamental to a description of the repository as the collections are to the repository itself. A count of intellectual units is essentially a title count, which, for all practical purposes, requires the categorization and counting of existing descriptions of collection material. For most repositories, a systematic, well-documented effort to prepare and share a title count is essential to a variety of purposes including outreach, collection development, and resource allocation.

The following three directives are embedded in, and fundamental to, the Intellectual Units Held count that is called for in these guidelines.

Descriptions of collection material should be categorized as one of the following:

1. Archival and Manuscript Material, Published Language Material, Cartographic Material, Computer Programs, Graphic/Visual Material, Moving Image Material, Notated Movement, Notated Music, Objects/Artifacts, Sound Recordings.
2. Collection material that is described online and therefore discoverable should be distinguished from collection material that is not yet described online and is therefore not discoverable.
3. Collection material that is described and managed at the collection level should be distinguished from collection material that is described and managed at the item level

Keeping in mind that what is being counted are descriptions of collection material, and that some of these will not lend themselves to easy categorization, repositories are encouraged to document, as thoroughly as possible, their decisions about how descriptions of particular types of collection material -- scrapbooks, for example, or collections of advertising ephemera -- are categorized for purposes of preparing a count of Intellectual Units Held.  

For all three of the counts and measures called for in these guidelines, collection material that is described online and therefore discoverable is to be distinguished from collection material that is not yet described online and is therefore not discoverable. With the exception of accessioned but not yet processed collections of archival and manuscript material, it will be difficult to obtain a title count for collection material that has not yet been cataloged or otherwise described. For this reason, conducting a count of Intellectual Units Held for collection material that has not yet been described online is considered optional.

The rationale for distinguishing, in the preparation of a count of Intellectual Units Held, collection material that is described and managed at the collection level from collection material that is described and managed at the item level is based on an assertion that a title count that includes distinctions between “collections” and “items” is significantly more meaningful than one that does not.

“Described and managed at the collection level” suggests that the collection material is represented by a catalog record, finding aid, or other description that represents the material in the aggregate. The aggregate is either an organic or an artificial collection, and the description of it is the product of archival description, bibliographic description, or some other process that results in a collection-level representation of the material that can be used for purposes including discovery and identification.  

Similarly, “described and managed at the item level” suggests that the collection material is represented by a catalog record, finding aid, or other description that represents the material as a single exemplar or instance of a manifestation. The exemplar or instance -- the item described -- is either unique or one of multiple copies produced, and may be comprised of more than one physical unit. The description of it is the product of archival description, bibliographic description, or some other process that results in an item-level representation of the material that can be used for purposes including discovery and identification.  

More so than for either of the other counts and measures described in these guidelines, conducting a count of Intellectual Units Held will require that the repository identify and account for idiosyncrasies and variations in its practices for accessioning, describing, and managing collection material. Examples of areas where current and past cataloging practices may need to be considered and accounted for include serials, which may be represented by successive-entry records, latest-entry records, or a combination of both; analytics (when a record is created for something that is a part of something for which a record is also made); and “issued withs” and “bound withs” (when more than one bibliographic work is contained in a single physical item).

Finally, decisions regarding titles held in multiple copies are to be made at the discretion of the repository. If it is preferable (because each copy held is considered unique or important for some reason) and/or practical or convenient (because of how the copies are described), the repository can report each copy held as a separate title.

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