To Summarize

Summer Session II has been an invigorating and exciting term of study. Having the opportunity to incorporate a course at UVA's Rare Book School into an independent study at USC has been of tremendous value to me. It can be difficult, as a distance student with the goal of becoming a rare book/special collections librarian, to fulfill those needs within the general plan of study. Flexibility at the institutional level as well as a desire to meet student needs is of profound importance. I have been the beneficiary of both at USC.

The RBS course on special collections librarianship, taught by Alice Schreyer, focused on several important themes:

• Beginning with a definition of the term "special collections" and its use in the institutional context and culture; we consider special collections our cultural heritage community.
• Collection development exercises via book practicums helped us to develop an eye for collection needs and collection strengths.
• Access and public services are subjects of primary importance. These needs can be met through a variety of tools including reference, outreach, and instruction.
• Security as an issue to be considered when setting up exhibitions, public programs, and reading room rules and guidelines.
• Development as an increasing role of the special collections librarian, with a focus on donor relations and grants.
• Processing. Bringing hidden collections to the fore, cataloging materials, and providing metadata.
• Digitization. This is an area that will only increase over time. Libraries are no longer looking for the "special topic" for an exhibit but making digitization of materials an every day occurance for all special collections materials, not just the glitzy ones.
• Preservation and conservation. Definitions of these often interchanged terms and how best to assess and provide for the items under our care to ensure their use by future generations.
• The profession of special collections librarianship. The history, development and future of the profession.

This is a lot of ground to cover in a week's time. The reading list provided a strong background for the subject at hand. The workbook students received in class covers all the week's topics as well as documents and references that will prove to be an important on-the-job resource.

This class has provided each of us with a truly comprehensive look at the role of special collections in institutions and what it means to be special collections librarians.

There's a lot to do. Let's get started!

Best of the Blogs

At the beginning of the summer term I noted that blogging was completely new to me. This blog is my first and I have to say that I've enjoyed blogging immensely. Using the blog as a tool to convey lessons I've learned from the reading material and from my class time at Rare Book School has been, not only a fun approach to my education, but an excellent way to review the day's materials and collect my thoughts into a format that I can use and share with others.

As we're at the end of the semester, I thought I'd take a few moments to share some of my favorite library oriented blogs. The list is in no particular order.

1. Confessions of a Curator: A blog about Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University. http://niurarebooks.blogspot.com/. This blog, written by Lynne Thomas who serves as the Head of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University, is an excellent example of the type of rare book blog I'd like to work on as my next project. I'd love to report on new arrivals and old favorites from the rare book and special collections at WVU.

2. Free Range Librarian: K.G. Schneider’s blog on librarianship, writing, and everything else, since 2003. http://freerangelibrarian.com/. I've enjoyed reading this blog. I first learned of the song about a reference librarian, Addie Will Know, by the indie pop group SNMNMNM. Yes that's right, it's not misspelled. Really cute song. I think you'll like it.

3. The Lipstrick Librarian. http://www.lipsticklibrarian.com/. Fashion is very important to me too! Wearing 3 inch heels while negotiating a tricky book cart with a runaway wheel through the stacks? No problem. I've been there - time and time again. It's worth it. And as the blog says - She's bold, She's sassy, She's helpful! Yes, folks, she's our lipstick librarian!

4. Rare Books Sojourn. http://rbssojourn.blogspot.com/. Turns out another student in my class at Rare Book School was blogging his experiences too. I asked if I could link to the blog so I could share it with you.

5. Confessions of a Book Plate Junkie: http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com/. This blog is one of my favorites. I've recently become interested in bookplates. They can tell us so many things about the people who owned the book. Several binding designers also designed bookplates and I've been able to discover plates by two prominent women binding designers from the late 19th century, Margaret Armstrong and Bertha Stuart, in the rare book room collection. I can't wait to find more!

These blogs are enjoyable but they also manage to inform. And that's something we librarian types love, to be well informed on a wide range of subjects. Keep on bloggin'!