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CNES Slide LibraryBackground The CNES slide library was begun in the 1960’s by Professor William McDonald in order to support specialized courses on prehistoric and classical Greece. The collection grew modestly through the early 1990’s, with the most significant additions being the purchase of slide sets offered by the Biblical Archaeology Society and the development of a small set of slides for Classical Mythology. CNES never systematically amplified or organized the slide library because faculty had always been allowed to borrow from the broad slide library owned by the Department of Art History. In 1998 Art History moved to the West Bank, which meant much increased preparation times for many CNES faculty. In response, CNES received a three-year slide library improvement grant from CLA (plus a one-year extension) with which we could amplify and organize our collection to accommodate our curriculum. When we began work in spring 1998, CNES owned about 2000 slides, including the glass-mounted collection of Greek and Roman archaeology and the BAS slides, all still in their various individual boxes, without explanatory labels, and in cardboard mounts. As of this writing (August 2002) CNES owns 15,997 slides (including all of the original collection), all fully integrated into a single filing system, all labelled and housed in glass mounts, and all recorded in an accessible data-base. This is a wonderful resource whose value will be maintained as long as everybody who uses the collection does so in a responsible manner. What follows is an explanation of the library’s organization along with instructions for using the accompanying data-base in order to find and refile slides.
The CNES slide library drawers are organized as follows:
Within these drawers, slides are organized according to one of the following two principles:
1) By SITE (alphabetically) WITHIN MODERN COUNTRY/COUNTRIES, whenever possible. In other words, ALL of the finds from or most relevant to a particular site&endash;whether architecture, sculpture, pottery or other minor arts&endash;are filed with the site. (This is the single most significant difference between the CNES slide library and Art History’s, where the medium of an object (eg., sculpture, painting, etc.) is the primary organizing principle.) Site categories may be further subdivided as necessary, by area and/or building, period, type of representation (maps and plans, views, reconstructions), etc. Examples:
2) By SPECIFIC MEDIUM WITHIN COUNTRY/CULTURAL GROUP, when site provenience is unknown. Each medium is further subdivided as necessary, by artist, subject, period, etc. Examples:
The slide library is available to all CNES faculty and graduate students.
Before any individual can begin to use this resource, s/he must consult
with the department’s slide librarian in order to acquire “drop
cards” and an individually labeled return basket. Drop cards are
small squares of colored cardboard, cut slightly taller than an individual
slide. A drop card MUST be inserted in the place of EVERY borrowed slide.
Empty slide boxes of various sizes may be found on the tall shelves in
the back corner of the room. It is better to use a box even when borrowing
only a few slides, since they remain cleaner and in less danger of breakage.
Every single slide in the CNES collection is recorded in a FileMaker Pro data base. This data-base is web-accessible, either from the computer housed in the slide library itself or from any computer with web access. The data base is completely searchable on any field simply by typing in a country, site name, artist, etc. N.B. The data base is NOT case-specific, nor do you need to type in a complete name or word for the data base to perform a search. For example, if you are searching for the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, you may simply type "siph" in the subject field, or "delp" in the site field. Each individual record includes the following fields:
The "SLIDE ORIGIN" field allows users to locate any of the slides from the original (pre-1998) slide library. Two different systems are listed here. The first is the alpha-numeric system originally created by Professor McDonald and continued by his successors. This system assigned a series of numbers and letters to every slide, and each designation represented a different site and/or aspect of the site. (A hard-copy record of this system appears in four large loose-leaf binders situated above the light table in the slide room.) By typing the "old" designator (or any part of it) into the "SLIDE ORIGIN" field, one can locate where the slide is in the new filing system. The second system recorded in the "SLIDE ORIGIN" field is the Biblical Archaeology Society’s slide set designators. The BAS slides originally came in enumerated sets with explanatory booklets containing brief descriptions of each slide, arranged in numerical order. The BAS booklets are all in the slide library, on the shelf above the light table. The slide sets and booklets had individual names and abbreviations, and these abbreviations along with specific slide numbers are listed in the "SLIDE ORIGIN" field. By typing the BAS designator (or any part of it) into the "SLIDE ORIGIN" field, one can locate where the slide is in the new filing system. One can also correlate a given slide with its explanation in the appropriate booklet. The BAS slide sets and their abbreviations are as follows:
The final two fields-"FILE" and "KEYWORD"-have been added to facilitate refiling and general searches. These fields are works in progress. They are not complete, and they may contain errors. Please pass on any and all suggestions and corrections to Professor Andrea Berlin (aberlin@umn.edu).
The "FILE" field provides the name and section of the drawer in which the slide belongs. Not every slide has been entered into this part of the system yet. The drawers that have been finished (i.e., that have information in the "FILE" field on the data base) are:
The drawers that have NOT been finished (i.e., that do not have information recorded in the "FILE" field on the data base) are:
In addition to the filing information that appears in the "FILE" field, we have begun to put labels on the backs of the slides with a copy of this same information. Thus, if you have a slide with a backing label, that label directs you to the appropriate drawer. Currently, only slides for Athens have backing labels. We plan to create and attach labels to the backs of all slides. Once all slides have such backing/refiling labels, it will no longer be necessary to consult the data base for refiling information.
The "KEYWORD" field is designed to help users locate slides according to various names and categories that do not show up in any of the other identifying fields, or to facilitate finding groups of slides. By typing any of the following keywords into this field, the data base will list all slides in the collection that depict that subject. The following keyword names and subjects are currently in the system:
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