How Do You Build a Library?

How Do You Build a Library?

by Giovanna Forsyth

As current or aspiring librarians and archivists, we’ve all been to a really spectacular library. You know the one I’m talking about: with stairs leading to columns leading to a rotunda leading to a big oak desk, where you pass along all your vital information so that someone will go into a deep, dark cold vault and bring you something terribly old and awesome.  The first time I experienced this, I was in complete awe.  It was all so perfect, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it.  It never really occurred to me to think about how it all started, nor had  I even considered how a library goes about running so seamlessly.

I recently began an internship at the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum in Culver City, California.  This museum was born out of Mayme Clayton’s private collection of books, manuscripts, photographs, posters, films, – and more – acquired over the course of 40 years.  With 3.5 million items and growing, the collection’s whole purpose is to preserve and highlight the accomplishments of African Americans.   
It is really impressive to think that one person amassed such an amazing collection.  Now, think about having to process each individual piece of that collection.  It is a massive undertaking.  I had not worked in an actual library since high school, and I had never considered how a new library gets everything processed .  I imagined thatit was similar to an existing library acquiring a collection, but on a much larger scale. 

During my brief time at this internship, I have spent a couple of hours  looking up Library of Congress numbers and subject classifications – just for a small stack of books. – This does not take into account the person who does the next step in the processing  of entering the Library of Congress number, subject classifications,  and original box number into the database. 

One of my tasks was to prepare hundreds of posters for storage in archival movie poster boxes.  My first step was to unroll and flatten them.  Next, we inventoried and stacked the posters separating them by tissue. Currently, I am working on descriptions for each poster that will later be inputted to the database.

This internship offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to see how it all happens.   Each time I go in, I am tasked with something different and exciting (in a way that only an aspiring archivist can appreciate).  I am learning so much about preservation and cataloging.  It is crazy to think that with all the work that has been done by volunteers and interns, there is still an endless amount of work to do. Seeing this fledgling library get off the ground has forced me to really appreciate just how incredible a working library is, and just how many things go into making it run in the seemingly effortless way we are accustomed to.

Giovanna Forsyth is currently interning at the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum.  She received her BA in English from UCLA, and is currently in her final year in the MLIS program at SJSU.  She is extremely interested in archiving, digitization, and digital preservation.

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