Week 1: August 3rd-7th 2009

Course: Special Collections Librarianship: Operations & Administration
Faculty: Lynda Claassen, University of California San Diego and David Zeidberg, Huntington Library

Description: An introduction to the principles and practice of special collections librarianship, with an emphasis on rare books.  Topics to be covered include: the definition and role of special collections, audiences and users, collection development, intellectual and bibliographic access, exhibitions and other outreach programs, preservation, physical facilities and security, grants and development, donor relations, ethics, intellectual property issues, and the impact of digitization on special collections operations and services. Institutional politics and culture and their implications for special collections will be discussed.

This course provides a conceptual and practical overview of special collections librarianship. It is intended for those who are interested in special collections librarianship, as well as those who have had limited formal training, instruction, or experience. We will consider how special collections contributes to fulfilling the teaching and research mission of educational and cultural institutions and examine strategies for enhancing and expanding the use of special collections among a variety of constituencies, especially in college, university, and independent research libraries. Current trends in higher education and libraries, including technology, will be considered from the perspective of their impact on special collections. The course will cover opportunities and challenges of the current environment, in particular maintaining core functions of special collections while adding new audiences and activities.

Participants will visit several important special collections libraries in the Los Angeles area; UCLA's Department of Special Collections, the Research Library at the Getty; The Huntington Library, and the Libraries of the Claremont Colleges.

Requirements: In their personal statement, applicants should provide a brief description of their library or special collections experience, the nature of their interest in this course, and specific topics or issues they would like to see addressed.

Course: Rare Book Cataloging
Faculty: Randal Brandt, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Description: Aimed at catalog librarians who find that their present duties include (or shortly will include) the cataloging of rare books or special collections materials. Attention will be given primarily to cataloging books from the hand-press period, with some discussion given to 19th and 20th century books in a special collections context. Topics include:

• comparison of rare book and general cataloging

• application of codes and standards, especially DCRM(B)

• uses of special files

• problems in transcription, collation, and physical description

• setting cataloging policy within an institutional context

This course is restricted to working catalogers experienced in AACR2, MARC 21, and general cataloging principles and practices. No knowledge of early books is necessary. The goal of the course is to provide practice in each of the primary elements of the rare book catalog record, so that students will be equipped to begin cataloging their institutions rare book and special collections materials.

Requirements: In their personal statement, applicants should describe their experience with machine-readable AACR2 cataloging and provide a brief description of the types and date range of materials they expect to catalog with DCRM(B). In addition, applicants are requested to submit 1-3 typical bibliographic records of materials they currently are cataloging, preferably original cataloging of modern books or serials.

Week 2: August 10th-14th

Course: Descriptive Bibliography
Faculty: Bruce Whiteman, The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles

Description: This introductory course is intended for special collections librarians, members of the rare book trade, and bibliographers whose scholarly work requires a practical knowledge of the precise, detailed physical description of printed books. It will address all matters involving the determination and description of a putative “ideal copy”; the correct distinction of editions, issues, states, and impressions; the accurate presentation of title-page, colophon, and other internal information; the identification of paper and watermarks, type, and illustrative contents; and the treatment of other features and circumstances of printing and distribution, including bookbinding. We shall focus above all on getting exactly right the understanding and close description of the format and collation of even the most complex books. We shall be concerned chiefly with books from the hand-press period (from the invention of printing to about 1820), but as time permits we shall also consider some of the earliest significant innovations of the machine age. Each class day will involve an intensive combination of lecture, supervised in-class exercises (largely the writing of full descriptions of progressively difficult original books in hand), and individual guidance.

Requirements: In their personal statements applicants should clearly describe all education, experience (or not), and professional expectations bearing upon this course. Although the course has no formal language requirements, students will benefit from at least some knowledge of Latin and the modern European languages, especially French, Italian, and German. Students are strongly encouraged to have read the course readings in advance and to own their own copies of the basic texts as recommended.

Course: Books of the Far West, With an Emphasis on California
Faculty: Gary Kurutz, California State Library

Description: This course presents an introduction to the history of the book in California and an exploration of classic Western Americana. Topics will include 1) the bibliography and bibliographers of the Golden West with profiles of Robert E. Cowan, Henry R. Wagner, J. Frank Dobie, Carl I. Wheat, Francis P. Farquhar, Ramon Adams, Jeff Dykes, Lawrence Clark Powell, and others; 2) The Zamorano 80 (the most famous list of the important books of the West), Dawson 80, Washington 89, Arizona 50, and other lists; 3) The making of a Gold Rush bibliography; 4) Great illustrated books from Catlin to Landacre; 5) A Southland Bohemia: Charles Lummis to Ward Ritchie and print culture along the Arroyo Seco; 6) The Nineteenth Century book trade with a look at pioneer printing, publishing, and bookselling and early library formation and reading in the west; 7) fine press books and bibliophilic organizations. Some miscellaneous subjects will also be included such as cookbooks and menus; juvenile literature; rare books with local flavor from The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County to Ramona; “From Trains to Planes” and the literature of post pioneer travel; and, last but not least, ephemera. Visits to libraries, an antiquarian bookseller, and a private collector specializing in Western Americana will be an essential part of the course.

Course: Preservation Stewardship of Library Collections
Faculty: Mark S. Roosa, Pepperdine University

Description: An introduction to the principles and practices of contemporary library preservation with an emphasis on development and management of programs that make possible the responsible stewardship of analog and digital collections. Topics to be covered include: the physical characteristics of library materials, factors affecting collections and control strategies, assessing needs and setting priorities, and development and management of a balanced preservation program. Special emphasis will be placed on the role of science in preservation, conservation, reformatting endangered materials, and the safe exhibition methods. Theoretical models and innovative solutions to preservation problems will be explored as will approaches to aligning the library preservation program with the mission and agenda of the university, museum or institution. Participants will visit select libraries, preservation departments, and laboratories in the Los Angeles area and will hear from leading preservation practitioners.

Requirements: In their personal statement, applicants should provide a brief description of their library or preservation experience, the nature of their interest in this course, and specific topics or issues they would like to see addressed.