IPL Q:

Needed by: 11/21/2005
 
Question:
I am taking my students to see a rare book exhibit and would like to
prepare them with a lesson on the history of rare books. Can you find
some good sites for me? Thanks.
 
name: Rochelle Chester
from: rchester@leobaeck.ca
confirm: rchester@leobaeck.ca
location: Toronto, Canada
area: Library
reason: In class with my students.
school: Yes
sources_consulted: I've searched the net, but came up with auction
sites only.

Hello Rochelle and greetings from the Internet Public Library!

Thank you for your question on the history of rare books. I have found some resources that I think you will find useful in preparing a lesson for your students.

First, I went to the IPL home page (http://www.ipl.org/) and on the left side, under Subject Collections, I then selected Arts & Humanities, and then selected Libraries, which put me on this page:

http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum45.00.00/

From here I scrolled down to the entry:

Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web

http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/Online-Exhibitions/

which led me to the Smithsonian Institute. Once there, I clicked in the top right corner on SIL Digital Library:

http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/index.htm

Then in the categories along the top, I selected Special Collections:

http://www.sil.si.edu/specialcollections/index.htm

On the left side is a column that is headed with: Inside This Section. Here I selected Resources/Related Links:

http://www.sil.si.edu/specialcollections/resources.htm

I followed most of these links and it appears that there is a great deal of information here that will be helpful to you! The various links cover many different aspects of rare books and special collections, including information for collectors and specific information (and bibliographies) regarding different forms of rare books (such as comic books, first editions, etc.).

I also thought that the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/) might have some valuable information on this topic. I input the phrase “history of rare books” (without quotations) in the search box at the top of the page. One of the links:

Rare Books and Special Collections: An Illustrated Guide http://search.loc.gov:8765/cs.html?charset=utf-8&url=http%3A//www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/guide/&qt=history+of+rare+books&col=loc&n=2&la=en is a guide with lots of information about rare books (and special collections!) that you can order in printed form.

It seemed as though there might also be some valuable information on Abebooks, so I went to their Rare Book Room:

http://www.abebooks.com/docs/RareBooks/?cm_ven=ggl&cm_cat=us-search&cm_pla=rarebooks&cm_ite=rare_books&afsrc=1

and found under the section marked Collector’s Corner, a link on rare book care and preservation:

Brodart Book Care

http://www.abebooks.com/docs/RareBooks/bookCare.shtml

I thought this might be helpful in giving your students some perspective of what goes in to the preservation and care of rare books and how fragile they can be.

Finally, I conducted a Google (http://www.google.com/) phrase search by inputting “history of rare books” in the search box (with quotations, that way the results returned will contain that exact phrase). One of the results led to this page:

http://www.constantreader.org/printers/websites.html

which is filled with links on the history of the book, book arts, book collecting, etc.

On that same page of Google results, I found an article about preserving rare books in China and how integral this practice is to the cultural history. That article, called “The Chinese Traditional Techniques or Repairing Rare Books and Manuscripts Has an Interrupted Flowing of Long Development” by Yang Xiaoli and Lin Zuzao can be found here:

http://www.ifla.org/VII/s18/pubs/summer03.pdf (scroll about one third of the way down the document to get to this specific article).

I hope these suggestions provide you with the type of resources that will be helpful in putting together a lesson plan for your students. If I have not answered your question or if you need additional information or sources, please feel free to write back!

Thanks for using the IPL!