Forging the Future of Special Collections

September 15, 2016

What has endured? What is different? What may become obsolete? With these questions, contributor Daniel De Simone of the Folger Shakespeare Library sums up the musings of the contributors in this collection, an outgrowth of the 2014 colloquium, "Acknowledging the Past, Forging the Future," organized by Case Western University. The expanded essays are arranged by theme: Communities, The Enduring Object, and From Periphery to Center. The importance of nurturing relationships (donor stewardship) is examined within the context of an aging population of traditional book collectors and the growing interest in visual resources among both scholars and the general public. Computer-processed drafts are changing the nature of literary research, often cloaking a writer's thought processes. While digital storage can reduce clutter, it may endanger long-term preservation of and access to manuscript material. The writers argue that special collections will continue to be repositories for cultural heritage artifacts but must expand their role as teaching centers, finding innovative ways to support digital scholarship. VERDICT Recommended for archivists, special collections librarians, and administrators of the same, along with book collectors and sellers.--Betty J. Glass, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno

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