September 5, 2002 Essays on Book Collecting and Special Collections Libraries Published by the Library of Congress

“Collectors & Special Collections: Three Talks,” a 56-page booklet of presentations at the first Library of Congress Rare Book Forum has been published by the Library of Congress. The forum took place on April 4, 2001 and was sponsored by the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. The booklet’s publication was sponsored by the Center for the Book.

The three presentations in the booklet are: “Elective Affinities: Private Collectors and Special Collections in Libraries,” by librarian Alice D. Schreyer, director of special collections, University of Chicago Library; “What Have You Done for Me Lately? Collectors and Institutions in Modern Times,” by book dealer William S. Reese, president, William Reese Company, New Haven, Conn.; and “Will the Book Collector of Today Be the Donor of Tomorrow?,” by collector Robert H. Jackson of Chicago.

In his introduction, forum organizer Daniel De Simone, curator of the Library’s Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, observes that the three talks get to the heart of contemporary relationships among librarians, private collectors, booksellers, and scholars. Key questions addressed by all three writers include: “How does the library reach the modern collector? How can philanthropy, collection development, and preservation, traditional values associated with special collections, be presented to contemporary collectors in such a way as to offer the market dynamics that have dominated the rare book trade for the past 20 years? How can the trust between collector and librarian which was so evident during the 1950s and 1960s be reestablished? How will the special collections librarian of tomorrow be prepared for dealing with the young collectors of today, who form their libraries through Internet purchases?”

“Collectors & Special Collections: Three Talks,” is available for $10 from Oak Knoll Press, 310 Delaware St., New Castle, DE 19720; telephone (302) 328-7232; toll-free (800) 996-2556. (ISBN 1-0844410166, Oak Knoll order no. 71687). It can be ordered online at: www.oakknoll.com.

The booklet continues a long series of Center for the Book publications about books and libraries. The center was established in 1977 to use the resources and prestige of the Library of Congress to stimulate public interest in books, reading, and libraries. For information about its publications and its national reading promotion program, see the Center’s Web site: www.loc.gov/cfbook.