Special collections
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Special collections (often abbreviated to Spec. Coll. or S.C.) is the name applied to a repository, sometimes within a public or academic library. Often this collection of works contains rare or old materials including books, theses, incunabula, handwritten manuscripts, archives, photographs, audio-visual materials, and other documents.
The principal purpose of a Special Collections department is to keep said material safe and secure and to make them accessible to interested researchers. The material is often 'non-circulating' and ideally should be stored in stacks where the room temperature and moisture in the air are carefully monitored.
Special Collections departments are most always managed by a professional librarian, archivist, or curator. Other staff are often called upon to conduct physical restoration, preservation, (or 'conservation') of books and manuscripts.
Special Collections often have special reading rooms where the material can be consulted by library users in a supervised environment. Since items in special collections are often unique, and sometimes fragile, researchers may be asked to wear gloves, use pencils, and comply with other types of regulations.
Quite often, complete collections of hundreds or even thousands of books will be bequeathed to academic libraries in wills on the condition that the collection not be dispersed to various areas of the library. The Special Collections department are often able to cater for such requests.
[edit] Trivia
- The Special Collections department of the British Library holds, among other famous documents, the Magna Carta.
- The protagonist of the 2004 novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, Henry De Tamble, is a Special Collections librarian for the Newberry Library in Chicago.
- Tabitha Merengue is a keeper of Special Collections in The Indefatigable Mr. Bookdrop Jones.
