National Collections of Printed Ephemera - Those Papers of the Day with Special Reference to the Scandinavian Model

Abstract

There is no general agreement on the definition of the term ‘printed ephemera’. For the purpose of this article it is defined as (1) material issued by corporate bodies describing the current activities of those bodies and (2) material of small size. Owing to the legal deposit legislation of Scandinavian countries, dating back to the 17th century, these countries all have two or more national collections of ephemera. A distinction is made between ‘printed ephemera’ and ‘grey literature’, which is of recent date, and which developed as a result of modern society's need for speedy communication and developments in reprography. A half-library, half-archival system is appropriate for dealing with ephemera. The library tradition of splitting up material into subject groups may be combined with the archival system of arranging material according to provenance. Archival finding aids such as subject guides and indices and archival methods of collective description are appropriate as a general principle, but this should not exclude bibliographic records when such records are needed.