n.materials comprised as an artificial collection, often of an ephemeral nature and used for ready referenceBrinton 1947, 38As a result we have accumulated a series of clippings, cartoons, printed pamphlets, and mimeographed papers such as is known in library parlance as “Vertical File Material.”Pinkett 1959, 422This inspector also held that vertical files were more naturally expansible to meet new requirements in filing and reported that there was a tendency to adopt vertical filing methods despite some official instructions to the contrary. Moreover, he contended that a vertical system could provide a uniform method of “transferring” (i. e., retiring) noncurrent records once a year whereas the horizontal system tended to make this process occur only at irregular intervals when drawers became full of records.Yates 1989, 58As the above quotation suggests, however, vertical files were presented and apparently generally used as a means of bringing together in a single folder the previously scattered documents on a given subject or company, whether incoming, outgoing, or internal.Jacobs 1993, 3Call it a vertical file, an information file, a pamphlet file, or give it any one of a number of more creative titles. Regardless of its name, this file is likely to be the place in your library that will offer the best and most workable storage for what are commonly called “ephemeral materials.”Altermatt and Hilton 2012, 193–194Project archivists also provided an alternative solution to adding to the Printed Ephemera Collections by suggesting that staff consider creating a new set of vertical files for the specific purpose of retaining nonarchival materials for reference purposes. This might help eradicate confusion over what qualifies as printed ephemera and what does not. Individual archivists at Tamiment should still maintain their own vertical files or ready research files for researchers. The contents would include actual vertical file materials—reprints, newspaper clippings, items printed from online resources, papers written by students: anything that is not archival. Such files are often created during processing to assist archivists in writing finding aids, and there is no reason to discard these materials, but it would be useful to centralize these files and provide researchers with access.furniture used to hold folders containing documents and designed to provide access from the short sideLevy 2001, 68–69Melvil Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, adapted the idea of the library card catalog . . . to produce the vertical filing system we still use today. In this system, consisting of hanging file folders and stored in file cabinets, it was much easier to add documents to folders, to add new folders, and to move folders around. Vertical files also took up considerably less space than flat files. . . . The new vertical filing system was much acclaimed; it won a gold prize in the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
