The Group for Literary Archives and Manuscripts has created a range of guidance and support for people working in the sector.
GLAM Cataloguing guidelines
These practical guidelines aim to assist all cataloguers of literary archives, especially those who are not professionally trained archivists. The guidelines include:
Archival Description Guide a practical guide that explains archival data elements using literary examples.
Thesaurus of Preferred Terms a comprehensive thesaurus to standardize terminology.
Glossary: a glossary to accompany the thesaurus for clearer understanding of terms.
The GLAM Cataloguing Working Party was created to develop practical guidelines for cataloguing literary archives and manuscripts. We extend our gratitude to all GLAM members who contributed to drafting these documents.
GLAM guidance for authors
Authors and their Papers is a guidance sheet for writers. It gives advice on what records a writer should keep, how they should keep them, and how they might be transferred to a repository. The document was developed following workshops held by the Diasporic Literary Archives Network (DLAN). DLAN members put together an initial draft, which was then edited and expanded by members of GLAM from the perspective of literary archivists, and by staff from the Society of Authors to reflect the authors’ viewpoint.
GLAM constitution and reports
Survey of Literary Archive and Manuscript Holdings in the UK and Ireland (2006 – 2007)
GLAM’s first major project was a comprehensive survey of literary archives and manuscripts in Britain and Ireland. This survey aimed to:
• Collect Policy Details: Gather information on the collecting policies of various institutions to explore the feasibility of creating national collecting strategies and identifying gaps in collection efforts.
• Analyse Recent Acquisitions: Compile data on significant literary archives and manuscripts acquired over the past five years, identifying patterns in collecting, the role of gifts, deposits, and purchases, and any challenges faced in acquisitions.
GLAM Constitution documents:
The full GLAM constitution is available here