Immigrant and Ethnic Publishing and Print Project

Summary

Immigrant and Ethnic Publishing and Print Project (IEPPP) materials were published or collected by immigrants from 1890 to 2000. They were accepted by IHRC in clusters primarily from 1967 to 2000, in support of the IHRC's ethnic newspaper, serial, calendar, monograph and jubilee album holdings. Because of limited cataloging capacity and staffing, at time of donation these materials were boxed, shelved and described only by donor name, ethnic grouping, date received and genre. Most IEPPP materials date from 1910 to 1970. Donors include scholars of American immigration and ethnicity; publishers and immigrant libraries; and organizations and immigrants themselves. Many donors also provided archival collections to IHRC. Two pilot projects in 2010 helped us to estimate that items to be retained by IHRC will include 5% original and 20% copy cataloging -- with about 5% of the latter existing at fewer than 3 US institutions. About 10% of IEPPP is exceptionally rare. IHRC will select and catalog or describe print to be retained, provide a low-cost system for online access, and distribute historically significant duplicates or out-of-scope items to repositories capable of ensuring access. IEPPP prioritizes cataloging resources, integrates retained print into archival-like collections with finding aids, allows bibliographical control, and facilitates distribution of overage to other repositories to increase preservation and access options for rare materials.