Tying it all together

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.

Issues

Monday marks the first full day of class at RBS. I began the day very pleasantly, dragging a chair from my room to sit beneath the Colonnade on The Lawn. Mug of tea in hand I picked up John Carter's classic, ABC for Book Collectiors. I'm familiar with this book. Pink slips cut from post it notes mark favorite entries, their edges curling from long use. This morning I took the opportunity to dip into Carter at random. The book opened under the letter I, and there I found definitions for Insert, Intaglio, Issue and my personal favorite, Issue-Mongers.

"The issue-monger is one of the worst pests of the collecting world, and the more dangerous because many humble and well-intentioned collectors think him a hero to whom they should be grateful."

Carter certainly had an eye for the well turned phrase. Nicolas Barker, who revised, enlarged and wrote the introduction for the 8th edition of Carter's work, is here at Rare Book School this week as an instructor.

A great deal of ground was covered today in class. Our instructor, Alice Schreyer, discussed definitions of terms such as edition, issue, and impression, among others. The well worn phrase, "what's so special about special collections?" advanced a discussion on the meaning of special collections, trends, digitization, the current environment, and the historical background of special collections. We closed class with a brief overview of bibliography, various definitions of the term bibliography and its uses, particularly in the Hand Press period (approximately 1450 -1800).

The discussion on the history of special collections was most interesting. Alice described the background and emerging ideas on special collections with a decade by decade approach that I've condensed and listed here:

• In the 19th C. historical societies were the first institutions to collect primary source materials that suited their particular focus or mission.
• During the 1890's - Depression, industrialists, robber barons, and other elites formed private collections as a matter of status. These collections often went on to become the foundation of private libraries that served as monuments to the collector, but also made the vast amounts of old world material available for research.
• The decades of the 1920's - 1930's saw the growth of a recognition that books in the open stacks were now valuable and demanded special care. The selected books were separated and secured under very limited access.
• The 1950's saw the rise of the idea that rare book collections should extend beyond storage and maintenance. The decade also saw the formation of friend's groups, preservation ideas and other needs that helped to formalize structure during the post-war decade.
• The mid 1970's brought the idea of profession into prominence. This concept of a new profession would involve acquiring skills to service the collections.
• Late '70's and 80's saw the rise of service and access. The MLIS degree became an important aspect of the profession.
• Today's emphasis is not on special collections as a trophy item but on their use in terms of outreach and public service.

At the end of the class day the entire enrollment for the current session of Rare Book School reconvened for a lecture given by Richard Kuhta, the Eric Weinmann Librarian at the Folger Shakespeare Library. His lecture, "The Future of Research and Rare Book Libraries (and What It Will Take for Them to Have a Future)" focused on the issues facing special collections in today's library environment. Kuhta did not shy away from problems that beset special collections from physical plant woes to funding inadequacies, but he also delivered a message of support for recruiting and developing the next generation of rare book librarians and archivists, new funding opportunities and collection development.

Kunta's lecture was personal and deeply moving as he related some of his most recent tragedies and triumphs. The lecture served as a realistic portrait of special collections today; perfectly reflecting the issues discussed in class and those we will approach during the week.

More on Education and Training

One last look at education and training seems in order before resuming comments on the ARL Final Status Report.

The instructor of the upcoming Introduction to Special Collections Librarianship course at Rare Book School next week, Alice Schreyer, is a member of the task force and the author of Education and Training for Careers in Special Collections: A White Paper Prepared for the Association of Research Libraries Special Collections Task Force, Nov. 2004. (a pdf version can be found on the ARL website: http://www.arl.org/collect/spcoll/SCTEED.pdf).

The goal of the paper is to convey the current employment situation and consider areas of education and training for special collections librarians in the rapidly changing world we work in today. After reading both papers, Rippley's and Schreyer's, the importance of a basic set of core competencies is evident, with the caveat that these core competencies may vary within the skill set of an individual and the needs of the hiring institution. This idea of flexibility, both on an individual and institution basis, is important and greatly needed. Special collections are part of the unique identity of an institution. Pairing librarians with a specific skill set that matches an institutional need is the ideal we'd all like to strive toward. The goal of each one of us as we search for a position is to find that place that not only suits our needs but our skills. A perfect match.

Recruitment is another topic addressed in this white paper. Mid-career librarians and career-changers are considered ideal candidates for special collections recruitment with consideration extended for life skills and work experience. As a career-changer myself, the skills I developed throughout my former career as a bricks and mortar/internet bookseller, appraiser, and collector have proven to be a firm foundation for pursuing a library science degree. These skills have also proven beneficial to my day to day activities in the rare book room.

Qualifications discussed for special collections librarians begin with the masters degree. Graduate study is considered a way to insure competencies with research methodologies and scholarship. Again, language skills are part of the package. A description of general competencies and those that would be considered uniquely suited to particular collections are also discussed.

New to me is a term used to describe a candidate's personality, the "pizzazz factor." For many of us this may be an unexpected requirement for a librarians' skill set but as development and relationships with donors become more important, that "pizzazz factor" becomes increasingly important as well. After all, little of Traister's day, back in 1986, was actually spent in the office.

The balance of the paper addresses educational opportunities, such as those offered at Rare Book School. Training options such as internships, specialized courses and programs are also included.

An emphasis is placed on developing a "shared culture" between rare book librarians and archivists. This is certainly an area that needs to be developed. Some of us may well wish to furthur our training at RBS by taking a new course offered for the first time this year, Introduction to Archives for Rare Book Librarians. I'll be adding this one to my RBS wish list.

That's it for this post. We'll return to our task in the next one.