N. Scott Momaday papers

Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.

This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization.

Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.

This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description. This finding aid was revised in 2023 to add this processing note to contextualize racist and sexist descriptors found in transcribed titles of printed works and original creator-supplied titles. The use of these titles is not an endorsement of the language they contain. Titles of printed works have been retained to promote searchability and discoverability of the collections. Original creator-supplied titles have been maintained to preserve the original context of how the collection creator labeled their files. Please contact Beinecke Library for details or if you have questions or comments about these revisions. For more information on reparative archival description at Yale, see Yale’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.