The journey begins

The road to Special Collections Librarianship has indeed been long and winding, but each step takes me on to my desired goal.

I began this journey as a book seller who wanted to know more about the rare books that came my way. I attended the Antiquarian Booksellers Seminar in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 2003. This was a terrific seminar and I learned a great deal. During the course of the week one instructor suggested acquiring some hands on experience by volunteering at a local library. This struck me as a superior idea. I have the good fortune to live near a major university whose library owns a fine group of special collections including a spectacular rare book room and rare book collection.

I began my volunteer activities in November, 2004. My initial task in the rare book room was to describe and research a recently donated collection spanning the 15th - 20th centuries. I loved delving into these volumes, turning the ancient pages, discovering the authors, the events in their lifes that inspired the book I held in my hands and the life the book itself had over the years and centuries since its publication. This was remarkable! This was what I wanted to do!

My next course of action was to take a class at the University of Virginia's Rare Book School. I loved this as well and I began to consider graduate school for a degree in library science. I enrolled in USC's distance program in Fall 2007 to continue my journey.

This blog will serve as a diary of the next leg of my journey as I attend Rare Book School for the third time. The course is called Introduction to Special Collections Librarianship and will be taught by Alice Schreyer, Director of the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Come along with me as I continue the journey.