Today, August 6th, is the final class day for USC's Summer II term. I began the summer session with a preparatory reading list and the expectation of a great week at UVA's Rare Book School. The reading list provided a firm foundation for the comprehensive RBS course on special collections librarianship.
Today I was able to put everything I've learned at Rare Book School into perspective. Arriving at WVU's Rare Book Room this morning I learned from the curator that we were expecting visitors within the hour. Quickly the two of us decided on several books that would meet our groups' interests and highlight some of the strengths of our collections.
Our display covered the breath of the collections. Included were several fine volumes from our extensive Mark Twain collection, a variety of publishers' bindings from the 1870's - 1890's, a bible bound in pigskin and printed in both German and Latin from the 16th century, a 15th century folio missal from a Spanish monastery, assorted volumes from the 19th and 20th centuries featuring fore-edge treatments, a magnificent botanical from the 17th century whose plates are identified in five languages and a couple of 20th century books on local historical events in their original dust jackets.
A dozen septuagenarians and octogenarians, members of a local literary group led by one of the university's English professors arrived shortly for a tour of the West Virginia and Regional History Collection and the Rare Book Room. Their passion for literature and their deep regard for the items on display were evident by the terrific questions they posed about our collections.
Usually our visitors are undergraduate students accompanied by their professors or scholars working on research projects. Today's literary group was an exception to the norm, reminding me of the wide variety of visitors to special collections and the variety of ways we can serve their requests and needs.
The curator and I took turns discussing aspects of the collection, each of us speaking to our strengths and knowledge on specific subjects. Our discussions covered nearly every topic touched on at Rare Book School: collection development, donor relations and gifts, access, outreach and instruction, preservation and conservation.
From my perspective, today's visit proved to be a marvelous way to end the term. Everything discussed at Rare Book School was present and active in a tour tailored to our diverse audience. Our session ended with a note on the importance of special collections as an educational resource for everyone, including one special collections librarian in training.
Showing posts with label Instruction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Instruction. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Back to work
After an entire day spent laboring over mountains of laundry and a bit of relaxation tucked into odd moments I was ready to return to work today.
I don't know if I can adequately describe what it feels like to unlock the door to the Rare Book Room, swing it wide and step inside. It's a Dorothy kind of moment for me. Every day I feel like I'm walking into a land of delights. I've often described this feeling as akin to a settler in an undiscovered country - just so much to explore! I had that same feeling when I entered the RBR, as I call it, today.
Now that I'm home and back at work I've gone through my notes and created some short lists of topics I'd like to explore:
I don't know if I can adequately describe what it feels like to unlock the door to the Rare Book Room, swing it wide and step inside. It's a Dorothy kind of moment for me. Every day I feel like I'm walking into a land of delights. I've often described this feeling as akin to a settler in an undiscovered country - just so much to explore! I had that same feeling when I entered the RBR, as I call it, today.
Now that I'm home and back at work I've gone through my notes and created some short lists of topics I'd like to explore:
1. Instructional ideas:
- Invite new faculty to tour special collections and share the rare book pedagogy model developed by an English professor designed to assist faculty and introduce students to primary source materials.
- Host an open house in special collections for new students during orientation. Students are given a tour of the library, so why not include a visit to special collections?
- Initiate a student book collector's contest. I plan to enter the collector's contest at USC. Offering the contest at my institution will foster scholarship, create a new class of future donors and expose students to the world of books.
2. Guidelines:
- Examine the rules currently in place for the reading room and suggest adjustments, if needed.
- Compare security guidelines to those discussed in class. Consider options addressed during class for adoption, if needed.
3. Archives:
- Seek information about archives and archivists.
- Search for ways to gain experience in archives.
4. Join!
- RBMS
- SAA
- ALA
One of the best ways to meet people, keep current on issues and learn more about a field is to join a professional organization. I spoke with several folks during my week at RBS who had joined one or more of these groups and worked on committees. Everyone of them urged me to participate. It's the next step on the way to my professional development.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Show and Tell
Wednesday isn't just a day in the middle of the week, it means that Rare Book School will soon be coming to an end. When we leave here we'll take our workbooks and notes, our photos and memories, along with the plans we've made to integrate all we've learned into our day to day activities. It's exciting to think about returning to work bursting with new plans to implement and ideas to explore with colleagues.
We explored plenty of new ideas today. We returned to the topic of access, picking up where we left off yesterday. Photocopying was a primary issue in this discussion and several items were proffered to facilitate the process. Face-up copiers were suggested as an excellent means to copy large and delicate materials. Inclusion of copyright statements on photocopies can be accomplished by overlaying a mylar sheet with the copyright statement printed on it, embedding the information on every copy. Scanning images emerged as a trend to supply some photocopying needs such as interlibrary loan requests.
Perhaps the best conversation of the day centered around instruction and collaboration with faculty to enhance classroom pedagogy and use of special collections. Some suggestions included inviting new faculty to view special collections to promote educational opportunities, hosting an open house for students during new student orientation or the first day of registration, and including educational access information on the special collections web page.
Another topic of the day was faceted browsing. This, we were told, is the way students want to navigate a university's catalog. If you've ever used search engines like Clusty, which gathers information in clusters that allow the user to drill deeper into a subject, then you have a good idea how faceted browsing works. The page displays tag clouds of terms on the left, draws the most appropriate hits from all areas such as books, media, e-journals, and pulls up finding aids and special collections. Programs such as Primo and Aquabrowser are the bigger names while open source options are also available.
For me, the best part of the day centered on a presentation from special collections of books from some of their largest donor collections. We were allowed to view a stunning array of titles. Many of the items were associated with Thomas Jefferson including his personal copy, privately printed, of the Notes of Virginia with corrections tipped in on slips of paper written in his own hand.
Two other Jefferson items included the first journal of the first meeting of the Board of Visitors for the University of Virginia, May 5, 1817, and his hand drawn plans and calculations for the Rotunda. The Board of Visitor's journal is in Jefferson's hand. The membership included Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and David Watson. Three out of four members were U.S. presidents. Not bad for a membership group. One short entry was made when the board was apprised of Jefferson's death with the notation that Madison would now assume Jefferson's leading role. The Rotunda plans, amazingly enough, were drawn on paper made by prisoners in the Bastille.
Other treasures included a proof copy of Diderot's Encyclopedia, each page marked with lines. My personal favorite was the salesman's sample of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, the last pages filled with orders. This is the only surviving copy that contains the famous defaced illustration. When the defacement was found, all copies were recalled and destroyed. Somehow this one escaped and it is the sole remaining evidence of a crude joke.
We learned a good deal about ways to "show and tell" our collections today. Everything from the most recent catalog improvements for displaying information to new ways to foster educational opportunities and facilitate patron information requests. And to top it all we got to look at some great books!
We explored plenty of new ideas today. We returned to the topic of access, picking up where we left off yesterday. Photocopying was a primary issue in this discussion and several items were proffered to facilitate the process. Face-up copiers were suggested as an excellent means to copy large and delicate materials. Inclusion of copyright statements on photocopies can be accomplished by overlaying a mylar sheet with the copyright statement printed on it, embedding the information on every copy. Scanning images emerged as a trend to supply some photocopying needs such as interlibrary loan requests.
Perhaps the best conversation of the day centered around instruction and collaboration with faculty to enhance classroom pedagogy and use of special collections. Some suggestions included inviting new faculty to view special collections to promote educational opportunities, hosting an open house for students during new student orientation or the first day of registration, and including educational access information on the special collections web page.
Another topic of the day was faceted browsing. This, we were told, is the way students want to navigate a university's catalog. If you've ever used search engines like Clusty, which gathers information in clusters that allow the user to drill deeper into a subject, then you have a good idea how faceted browsing works. The page displays tag clouds of terms on the left, draws the most appropriate hits from all areas such as books, media, e-journals, and pulls up finding aids and special collections. Programs such as Primo and Aquabrowser are the bigger names while open source options are also available.
For me, the best part of the day centered on a presentation from special collections of books from some of their largest donor collections. We were allowed to view a stunning array of titles. Many of the items were associated with Thomas Jefferson including his personal copy, privately printed, of the Notes of Virginia with corrections tipped in on slips of paper written in his own hand.
Two other Jefferson items included the first journal of the first meeting of the Board of Visitors for the University of Virginia, May 5, 1817, and his hand drawn plans and calculations for the Rotunda. The Board of Visitor's journal is in Jefferson's hand. The membership included Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and David Watson. Three out of four members were U.S. presidents. Not bad for a membership group. One short entry was made when the board was apprised of Jefferson's death with the notation that Madison would now assume Jefferson's leading role. The Rotunda plans, amazingly enough, were drawn on paper made by prisoners in the Bastille.
Other treasures included a proof copy of Diderot's Encyclopedia, each page marked with lines. My personal favorite was the salesman's sample of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, the last pages filled with orders. This is the only surviving copy that contains the famous defaced illustration. When the defacement was found, all copies were recalled and destroyed. Somehow this one escaped and it is the sole remaining evidence of a crude joke.
We learned a good deal about ways to "show and tell" our collections today. Everything from the most recent catalog improvements for displaying information to new ways to foster educational opportunities and facilitate patron information requests. And to top it all we got to look at some great books!
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