Go ahead, judge these books by their covers!

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection.

One of the many pleasures of working with this collection is the amazing graphic nature of the cover art on books, newspapers, and magazines that we encounter on a daily basis.  After seeing the success of Scanning Key Content, a Harvard Library Lab project that aims to scan selected content at the point of cataloging, we decided to implement a pilot project for JMSD materials being cataloged for Widener.

Scanning of covers will aid in the discovery of the materials in our catalog particularly for items that have multiple publications, editions, or other variant printings.  There is also a strong potential for research value since the cover can reflect popular sentiments of the time, topics, or even a relationship between the author and creator of the cover art.

We are especially interested in providing better access to serial publications which can often be difficult or confusing to locate in the catalog.

 

We are happy to report that we successfully cataloged and scanned about 500 items from Widener’s collection of JMSD materials.  The image links are available to view in the cataloged records for both Hollis Classic and Hollis+.  In Hollis Classic the links are located on the same page as the bibliographic record.  In Hollis+ you can view images in either the View Online tab or if you are in the Details tab go to the links on the right hand side of the page (near the image of the bookplate).

This would not have been possible without the very generous assistance and support of our colleagues involved in the Scanning Key Content project: Karen Nipps, Debbie Funkhouser, Amy Benson, Nell Carlson, and Corinna Baksik.  Thanks to everyone and we will keep scanning!

From the belly of the whale / by Clinton White. Plainfield, N.J. : Logos International, 1972, ©1970. 

The black candle / by Emily F. Murphy “Janey Canuck.” Introd. by Brian Anthony & Robert Solomon. Toronto, T. Allen [1973].

Reconstruction in China ; a record of progress and achievement in facts and figures … Shanghai, China united press, 1935. 

Le Petit parisien. Paris [France] : Verdien, 1876-1944.

Lloyd Thaxton’s tiger beat. Hollywood, Calif. : New Asbury, [1966-]. 

Drugs and the other self : an anthology of spiritual transformations. Edited, with an introduction, by Chaman Nahal. New York : Harper & Row 1971. 

Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager, for contributing this post.