American Textile History Museum

Member Spotlight

Stories of the Past, Visions of the Future: American Textile History Museum’s Osborne Library, Lowell, MA

The American Textile History Museum’s Osborne Library, with one of the largest collections of its kind in the world, uses 21st-century tools of technology and collaboration to expand access to its rich collection of printed, pictorial, and manuscript material on America’s textile industry to users and researchers worldwide.

• Technology – ATHM developed the Chace Catalogue, using MIMSY XG, a museum collections management system that was adapted to accept MARC records. “The very unusual part about the Chace Catalogue is that it is a consolidated database of both the museum’s curatorial collection and the library collection catalogue,” said Margaret Duggan, cataloguer. The Chace Catalogue provides access to museum artifacts, including textiles, sample books, costumes, spinning wheels, tools, machinery, and decorative arts, as well as the library collection of books, manuscripts, postcards, trade literature, images, and periodicals.

The Chace Project began in 2004 with a grant from the Chace Foundation of Providence, Rhode Island, to upgrade its collections management software and develop a web-based catalogue. An IMLS grant in 2008 enabled the library to proceed to Phase II of the project, an upgrade of the web component of the new database, which was not adequate for the needs of online users, and to make trade catalogues, advertising ephemera, broadsides, trade cards, and textile labels available online.

The upgraded catalogue has already had an impact on the library’s usage as researchers, students, and genealogists discover the museum and library collections on the web, “like the man who said ‘found my great grandfather’s business records in your collection! Now I want to do genealogical research.’ I’m always amazed that these calls are coming from California or the Southwest,” said Clare Sheridan, librarian.

Margaret Duggan said, “Because of our relationship with OCLC, our records are in WorldCat and are discovered on Google. We’ve seen a lot of response from folks who Google us and find us on WorldCat and FirstSearch.”

The library is now in the process of finalizing improvements to the catalogue’s design, search capabilities, and authority files; and is seeking funding for Phase III, which will include the accessioning, cataloguing, and scanning of prints, photographs, and paintings.
 
• Collaboration – The library has partnered with the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Simmons College, Boston, MA, on an innovative project that acts as a new type of bridge between museums and libraries. This IMLS-funded project builds a curriculum designed to produce cultural heritage professionals who can successfully manage digital resources and provide online services in museums, libraries, and archives. The project provides intensive, hands-on internships to 30 students, preparing them to work in these settings. The curriculum and the collaborative efforts are supported by a digital laboratory that equips students with the specialist skills needed in the digital convergence environment.

At ATHM, Simmons GSLIS students will work to create a model process for the library’s postcard collection, solving problems like time-dating, best scanning method, accessioning, and cataloging of the materials. For the curatorial collection, students will work on model processes to catalog and scan company sample books and reformat and add metadata to old CDs.

“As a small institution with a small budget, we’re lucky to be in the Boston area so we can trade on these other institutions. It’s a necessity. Otherwise we wouldn’t survive,” said Clare Sheridan.

Clare Sheridan welcomes questions and comments from LYRASIS members and may be contacted at csheridan@athm.org or 978.441.0400 x228.