Tatyana Popović Archives & Special Collections

Rare Book Collection

• Early and first editions of works in American literature, regional history, and religion
• View titles in the catalog

Daniel J. Biasone Collection

• Historic memorabilia from the Syracuse Nationals ("Nats") professional basketball tea
• Original NBA 24-second shot clock established in Syracuse,  NY by the Syracuse Nationals ("Nats") basketball team

Irish Literature Collection

• Early editions of Irish fiction and Irish history: view catalog entries
• "The Irish Connection," local broadcasts on Irish culture. Finding aid / list of programs

Jesuitica

• Books on history of the Jesuits with a focus on New York State and the Iroquois Confederacy
• View titles in the catalog

Le Moyne Authors

• Books authored by Le Moyne faculty and administrators
• View titles in the catalog

McGrath Music Collection

• This manuscript collection contains  musical scores of church music (masses, motets, piano and organ, and choral works) are the compositions of Joseph J. McGrath (1889-1968) organist and choir director of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse, NY from 1926-1966. McGrath, born in Oswego, NY taught music at Syracuse University and also at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and has hundreds of compositions to his credit. He received an Honorary Degree in 1956 from Le Moyne College. Photographs are also available for viewing.

Transfers and Donations

All decisions to acquire materials are made by the College Archives. Upon acceptance, donations of alumni and student material, as well as faculty papers, must be accompanied by a signed deed of gift, if the monetary value is deemed to be above a designated threshold. Most College Records may be transferred without a formal deed, as they are the property of Le Moyne College.

The Archives reserves the right to decline, deaccession, or dispose of any materials that: 1) do not fit its acquisition policy; 2) already exist within the collection; 3) may be more appropriately housed in another repository; 4) are inaccessible to the public due to copyright or other restrictions; or 5) are too expensive to process, preserve, and store given available resources. The Tatyana Popović Archives & Special Collections welcomes gifts of books and archival materials that fall within the scope of its collecting activities, that will enhance the strengths of its collections, and that support Le Moyne students and faculty in the curriculum. Gifts of materials are accepted with the understanding that, once received, they are owned by Le Moyne College.

Special Collections and Archives reserves the right to determine their retention, location, cataloging treatment and other considerations related to their use or disposition. Materials with restrictions on access or use will generally not be accepted; in some cases, materials of great research value with clearly stated restrictions of limited duration will be considered. Photocopies or scans of manuscript or other original materials are generally not accepted. Individual leaves offered from multi-leaved manuscripts will be reviewed carefully and decisions made on a case-by-case basis.

Special Collections and Archives reserves the right to duplicate, digitize, and make copies for the purposes of preservation, regardless of the copyright status of the item(s). Special Collections and Archives is unable to collect items where resources do not allow us to
meet the collection’s space requirements or preservation needs.

Collecting Priorities: Archives

1. College Records
The College Archives acquires records and publications of enduring historical, administrative, and research value to the Le Moyne College community. Active collection areas reflect the College's functions in the areas of administration, teaching, research, program development, public relations, student support, and cultural enrichment, including the activities of Le Moyne College faculty, staff, students, and alumni.  

Recorded data in all formats is deemed to have enduring value if it documents core components of college policy, strategic planning, curriculum, research, organizational structure, programming, campus life and culture, or the built environment. The Archives does not accept records documenting routine or perfunctory activities (e.g., purchase orders, acknowledgements of receipt), nor does it acquire records containing confidential information protected by federal law.

2. Alumni Materials
The Archives collects alumni material directly related to the College. This includes documentation on student organizations, student activities and social life, student activism, and student publications. Memorabilia is collected selectively. 

Other types of alumni material, including academic work by students, are considered on a case-by-case basis.

3. Faculty Papers
The College Archives may acquire or accept for donation selected papers of current and former faculty members. The decision to accept faculty papers into the Archives collection shall be guided by the following criteria:

The faculty member's position in and relationship to the College, as evidenced by tenure status, chairship, and longevity within the institution;
The faculty member’s scholarly impact on the field of study and on the greater community;
The quality of primary-source materials available at the time of acquisition;
The faculty member's involvement in departmental and/or university affairs;
The extent to which the faculty member's papers enhance the documentation of university history;
Patron demand for the faculty member's papers;
The faculty member's willingness to provide unrestricted access to his/her papers for research use;
The availability of in-house resources for properly storing, arranging, and describing the papers.

Faculty members, or their designated donors, have the right to impose reasonable restrictions on their papers to protect confidentiality. These restrictions, agreed upon in consultation with the Archivist, must be documented in a formal gift, deposit, or transfer agreement. The College Archivist may reject agreements that restrict access to materials in perpetuity or do not specify a future date for lifting restrictions on materials.

4. Publications
The College Archives serves as the repository for College periodicals and newsletters and collects selected literature authored by students. The Archives also collects print versions of Integral honors theses. The Archives acquires or accepts donations of all faculty publications that contain ISBNs.

Selected monographs, anthologies, journal articles, visual and moving image materials of which alumni are the main creators may be accepted into the collection. Self-published materials, indexes, or directories, including websites, are not retained by the Archives.   

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Adapted from Brandeis University Archives Acquisition Policy
 

Collecting Priorities: Special Collections

• Early and first editions of works in American literature, regional history, and religion
• Historic memorabilia from the Syracuse Nationals ("Nats") professional basketball tea

Irish Literature

• Early editions of Irish fiction and Irish history

Jesuitica

• Books on history of the Jesuits with a focus on New York State and the Iroquois Confederacy

Le Moyne Authors

• Books authored by Le Moyne faculty and administrators

The collections contain some content that may be harmful or difficult to view. These materials are preserved for their historic and research value.

Collection materials may be harmful because:

• they may contain language and images that are racist, homophobic, sexist, ableist, or otherwise derogatory and insensitive;
• they demonstrate bias and exclusion in institutional collecting;
• they reflect and reinforce societal power structures.

Archivists, curators, and librarians choose what language to use when describing materials. Finding aids may therefore contain harmful language because:

• some descriptions were written many years ago, using language that was accepted at the time;
• archivists often use standardized search terms, such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings, some of which may be outdated or insensitive;
•  archivists also often re-use language provided by creators or former owners of the archival materials in order to provide context but which also reflect biases and prejudices.

While the College Archives holds these materials as part of the historic record, staff are also actively seeking to balance the preservation of this history with sensitivity to how these materials are described for researchers. Archives staff are committed to a reparative archival framework to do justice to those whose humanity has been harmed, silenced, ignored, or disenfranchised within the historical record. This ongoing work includes identifying harmful items within the collections we hold, assessing and updating descriptions that are harmful, and establishing standards and policies to prevent future harmful language in staff-generated descriptions. We are working to do the following:

• inform users about the presence and origin of harmful content when we find or are made aware of such materials;
• revise descriptions and standardized descriptive terms, supplement description with more respectful terms, or use preferred names for people represented in our collections;
• research the problem, listen to users and communities, and share our findings with each other and colleagues across the archival field;
• evaluate existing processes for exclusionary practices or institutional bias that prioritize one culture and/or group over another;
•  make a commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

Due to the large volume of collection materials in the Archives, the reparative work of our staff is ongoing, and we often need to rely on our patrons and researchers to assist with these efforts. You can help us in our reparative work by reporting potentially harmful language in our finding aids or potentially harmful collection material not already identified in our finding aids. Please email us at archives@lemoyne.edu or speak to our staff. TPASC will determine whether or not we will change or remove terms from archival descriptions. We will weigh potential harm against considerations such as input from affected communities, accurate preservation of the historical record, professional best practices, and allocation of staff resources.