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Inventory of the Hoover Institution Library Pamphlet Collection
PamphColl
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Title: Hoover Institution Library Pamphlet Collection
Dates: 1822-1995
Collection Number: PamphColl
Creator: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace.
Collection Size:
54,787 pamphlets
Repository:
Hoover Institution Library
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: This inventory lists 54,787 pamphlets held by the Hoover Institution Library. The pamphlets relate to twentieth-century political,
social, and economic issues around the world. Although the pamphlets are in many different languages, about 33,000 are in
English, 10,000 are in German, and 3,000 are in Russian.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library
Languages: In various languages, including 33,000 pamphlets in English, 10,000 in German, and 3,000 in Russian.
Administrative Information
Collection is open for research.
Alternative Forms of Material Available
All pamphlets listed available on microfilm
This inventory lists 54,787 pamphlets held by the Hoover Institution Library in its pamphlet subject collections (e.g. French
literary works related to World War I : pamphlet collection). The pamphlets relate to twentieth-century political, social,
and economic issues around the world. Although the pamphlets are in many different languages, about 33,000 are in English,
10,000 are in German, and 3,000 are in Russian. They are not cataloged individually in Stanford’s online catalog.
This inventory does not include pamphlets held by the Hoover Institution Library that have been individually cataloged and
are found online in the Stanford online catalog. It also does not include many more pamphlets that are part of archival collections
in the Hoover Archives. Pamphlets in archival collections are not individually cataloged, but may be noted in the finding
aid describing each collection.
For each pamphlet the inventory lists the title, author, publication date, publisher, language, subject headings, number of
pages, call number, microfilm number, and other information.
Unfortunately, the pamphlet descriptions were affected by a data loss that cut off the endings of the descriptive information.
The pamphlet title, call number, publisher, corporate author, subject headings and other fields were affected. Despite this
loss, we believe the descriptions are still a useful source of information about these pamphlets, which are not individually
cataloged in Stanford University's online catalog.
There are two identification numbers for each pamphlet, the call number and the microfilm number. The call number (e.g. PAM
DA588 or S.P. USA) is a unique designation assigned to each subject collection in which individual pamphlets are located.
The microfilm number, which always begins with NX (e.g. NX4694), is shared by a group of pamphlets that are all available
on one reel of microfilm. Usually the pamphlets are all from one subject collection, although sometimes more than one subject
collection may be included on a reel, or in the case of a very large subject collection, the pamphlets from such a collection
may be split among two or more reels. Most of the call numbers lost their final digits in the data loss, but the microfilm
numbers remain whole and complete.
Although each pamphlet in this inventory is not individually described in Stanford's online catalog, each microfilm number
has a record in the catalog (for the subject collection). By searching on the microfilm number in the catalog, you can retrieve
the catalog record(s) for the subject collection(s) on that reel of microfilm. The catalog record provides a general title
for the group of pamphlets (e.g. Women in Germany pamphlet collection), their date span (earliest and latest date of publication),
and the number of pamphlets in that particular collection.
The microfilm copy of a pamphlet collection can be requested by providing the microfilm number at the Hoover Library circulation
desk. These microfilms may only be used on site in the library, or may be requested through interlibrary loan. Except for
interlibrary loan, microfilms do not circulate outside of the Library. The original pamphlets may also be requested at the
Hoover Library circulation desk, but because their call numbers were truncated by the data loss, retrieval is sometimes difficult.
In addition, due to their fragile nature, the pamphlets are for library use only.
This inventory does not include all the pamphlets held by the Hoover Institution Library and Archives. Some have been cataloged
individually in Stanford's online catalog, others many be found in pamphlet collections by subject, cataloged only at the
collection level. There are also many pamphlets that remain to be cataloged in the Library. It also does not include many
more pamphlets that are part of archival collections at the Hoover Archives. Pamphlets in archival collections are not individually
cataloged, but may be noted in the finding aid describing each collection.
The data in this inventory was originally entered into the "Hoover Pamphlet Index" and stored on Hoover's VAX computer. The
data was saved when the VAX computer was eliminated in the 1990s. In the mid-2000s the data was migrated into a mySQL database
and posted on the Hoover website, where it was known as the "Pamphlet Database." A MySQL, PHP, and Apache software upgrade
in 2008 seems to have caused data losses in several of Hoover's databases, including the Pamphlet Database. The data loss
caused data in many fields to be cut off, the backups failed, and there was no way to recover what was lost.
In this inventory, pamphlets are arranged by the first subject given, then by title, those two fields being the most common
fields to be completed for each pamphlet. See the Key to Index for a sample record of what types of information each pamphlet
record may contain. Please contact the Hoover Institution Library if you have further questions.