Increasing Online Discoverability of a Mixed-Format Collection

Abstract

The Collection

In 2004, Smithsonian Libraries acquired the mixed-format Russell E. Train Africana Collection for its special collections division. This collection contained items that had broad public appeal and significant historical value. The collection’s diversity of materials has been a source of excitement and challenge since Smithsonian Libraries acquired it in 2004. Judge Russell E. Train created the collection around his decades-long fascination with the history of exploration and wildlife in Africa.

Train acquired materials from historic figures like Theodore Roosevelt during his African Expedition in 1909–1910, as well as explorers David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley. The collection includes . . .