Ambassadors of the Book: Competences and Training for Heritage Librarians 9783110301502, 9783110301274

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International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Fédération Internationale des Associations de Bibliothécaires et des Bibliothèques Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen Международная Федерация Библиотечных Ассоциаций и Учреждений Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas

About IFLA

www.ifla.org

IFLA (The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) is the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. It is the global voice of the library and information profession. IFLA provides information specialists throughout the world with a forum for exchanging ideas and promoting international cooperation, research, and development in all fields of library activity and information service. IFLA is one of the means through which libraries, information centres, and information professionals worldwide can formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect their interests, and find solutions to global problems. IFLA’s aims, objectives, and professional programme can only be fulfilled with the cooperation and active involvement of its members and affiliates. Currently, approximately 1,600 associations, institutions and individuals, from widely divergent cultural back-grounds, are working together to further the goals of the Federation and to promote librarianship on a global level. Through its formal membership, IFLA directly or indirectly represents some 500,000 library and information professionals worldwide. IFLA pursues its aims through a variety of channels, including the publication of a major journal, as well as guidelines, reports and monographs on a wide range of topics. IFLA organizes workshops and seminars around the world to enhance professional practice and increase awareness of the growing importance of libraries in the digital age. All this is done in collaboration with a number of other non-governmental organizations, funding bodies and international agencies such as UNESCO and WIPO. IFLANET, the Federation’s website, is a prime source of information about IFLA, its policies and activities: www.ifla.org Library and information professionals gather annually at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress, held in August each year in cities around the world. IFLA was founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1927 at an international conference of national library directors. IFLA was registered in the Netherlands in 1971. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library), the national library of the Netherlands, in The Hague, generously provides the facilities for our headquarters. Regional offices are located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Pretoria, South Africa; and Singapore.

IFLA Publications 160

Ambassadors of the Book Competences and Training for Heritage Librarians

Edited by Raphaële Mouren

De Gruyter Saur

IFLA Publications edited by Louis Takács This book was published with financial support from the École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques, Lyon, France and the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section

026.3--dc22 2010019674

ISBN 978-3-11-030127-4 e-ISBN 978-3-11-030150-2 ISSN 1868-6891 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston © 2012 by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, The Hague, The Netherlands

∞ Printed on permanent paper The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard – Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) Cover image: The Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library, Toronto, Canada. Courtesy of the library. Photographer: Gordon Belray Typesetting: Dr. Rainer Ostermann, München Printing and binding: Strauss GmbH, Mörlenbach Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com

To the Memory of Richard Landon (1942‒2011), former director of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto, former chair of the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section

Contents Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9

Pierre Delsaerdt Introduction Ambassadors of the Book: the Conference Theme and its Background. . . .

11

Jan Bos All Books Are Equal, but Some Books … Towards a Modern Vision of Special Collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15

Deirdre C. Stam Competence Assessment: Challenges for Heritage Librarians . . . . . . . . .

25

Jan Bos Twenty-First-Century Librarianhood: Training Specialists or Generalists? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

43

Per Cullhed Transience in Old and New Librarianship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

Mark Purcell ‘A Great Number of Useful Books’: the National Trust and its Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

Stefan Strathmann And Claudia Engelhardt Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation: Results of a Digcurv Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

63

Nicholas Pickwoad An Unused Resource: Bringing the Study of Bookbindings out of the Ghetto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

83

Katie L. B. Henningsen Preparing Librarians Technologically for the 21st Century . . . . . . . . . . .

95

Hélène Richard Cultural Heritage Education for Librarians in France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

8

Contents

Susan M. Allen Educating Heritage Librarians on the Pacific Rim: California Rare Book School – the Past, the Present, and the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Monique Hulvey Preparing Heritage Librarians to Welcome Readers 1: From the Librarian’s Point of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Raphaële Mouren Preparing Heritage Librarians to Welcome Readers 2: From the Library School’s Point of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Giliola Barbero Cultural Heritage and IT Competence at the Catholic University, Milan. . . 137 Anne Welsh Experiential Learning in Historical Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Diederik Lanoye and Susanna De Schepper The STCV Workshop: Practical Training in Analytical Bibliography for Staff of Heritage Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Adriana Paolini Writings and Books: History and Stories to Enhance Rare Book Collections and to Promote Reading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Gillian M. Mccombs The Scholar/Librarian Goes Digital: New Times Require New Skills and Aptitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Index of Names and Institutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Table of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Abbreviations ACRL/RBMS ALA CalRBS CILIP CRL ENSSIB ISBD LIS MA LIS OCR OPAC STCN STCV UCL

Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries (American Library Association) American Library Association California Rare Book School Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Center for Research Libraries, Chicago École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques International Standard Bibliographic Description Library and Information Science Master of Arts in Library and Information Studies Optical Character Recognition Online Public Access Catalog Short Title Catalogue Netherlands Short Title Catalogue Flanders University College London

Introduction Ambassadors of the Book The Conference Theme and its Background It seems trivial, these days, to state that libraries have been challenged by recent technological, social and economic developments. On the other hand, these developments have not minimized the library’s mission as a memory institution, quite the contrary. Among the many roles that libraries will continue to play in the 21st century and beyond, their responsibility for the preservation of written heritage is perhaps the least questioned. This role of libraries, ancient as it may be, implies that library staff be adequately trained to meet the specific requirements of their heritage collections. These requirements are multiple. Expertise in preservation and conservation is a major one, but it certainly has to be supplemented – and perhaps even preceded – by other competences such as insight into heritage policies, a familiarity with the material aspects of books and manuscripts, a profound knowledge of the history of libraries and book collecting, experience with the management of collections and acquisitions, a mastery of techniques of bibliographical description and digitisation, an awareness of the need to open the collections to the public and of the challenges of digitisation, an understanding of the marketing of heritage collections … Will heritage librarians who are equipped with such diverse qualities be able to serve as the future ambassadors of the book? This question was central to the two-day conference that took place at the University of Antwerp on February 1-2, 2012. It is perhaps relevant to explain what the organizers had in mind when they started to prepare this event, and why it was organised in Antwerp. In 2008, the Flemish government – i.e. the government of the Dutchspeaking part of Belgium, which is responsible, among other things, for all cultural matters – created an organization called the Flanders Heritage Library (Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek). It was designed as a collaborative network bringing together six libraries with important special collections. Its assignment comprises several tasks regarding collection profiles, conservation and preservation, bibliographic description, digitisation and the promotion of public awareness. For the first time in the history of Belgian libraries, a public authority recognised that those with special collections – heritage libraries – had their own goals, rationale and needs. For the first time as well, a more structural and consistent approach was made possible for activities that are at the core of

12 Introduction

heritage librarianship, but which had previously only been undertaken as shortterm projects. The STCV (Short Title Catalogus Vlaanderen) was one of them: it began in 2000 as a retrospective bibliography of Flanders and gradually gained a strong reputation among librarians, bibliographers and historians in spite of the fact that it was largely the work of only one bibliographer. In 2008, the STCV-project became part of the activities of the Flanders Heritage Library. It is still the work of only one bibliographer (the financial resources are indeed very limited), but at least her work is now integrated in a more general structure. We look for synergies with other activities, and new collaborative projects have been launched to expand its scope to collections that had not been previously included in the strategy. With its collaborative approach and its strong emphasis on integration and long-term planning, the Flanders Heritage Library brought about a small revolution to the Belgian library world. A collaborative digitization project called Flandrica.be has recently been launched as the most visible manifestation of the new dynamics. From the start, the Flemish authorities suggested integrating the Department of Library and Information Science of the University of Antwerp into the structure and even the managerial board of the Flanders Heritage Library. The result of this decision was that the academics in charge of its curriculum considered it both a duty and an opportunity to create a new optional course on the management of heritage collections in libraries. Creating an opportunity is one thing, but realizing all its implications is quite another one. I thus began wondering what subjects should be included in such a course. What would be the most efficient way to convince my future audience that heritage collections have their own logic, their own raison d’être, and that they therefore need a specific range of knowledge and competences, distinct from – or even better, in addition to – the competences that can be expected of every librarian? I had interesting discussions with experts who had faced similar questions in the past: Caroline Peach at the Preservation Advisory Centre of the British Library, Raphaële Mouren at ENSSIB in Lyon, Marian Lefferts at CERL, the Consortium of European Research Libraries, Bettina Wagner at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich, and Elmar Mittler, the former head librarian of Göttingen University Library and president of CERL until 2011. From these talks, I gained a sense of the broad approach that is needed when addressing an audience of university students who aim to take up managerial responsibilities in heritage libraries. Additionally, I was encouraged by Raphaële Mouren to organize a conference that would bring together specialists from different countries, because she assured me that the question of competences for heritage librarians was of great relevance to current library practice. The many answers to our call for papers and the presence of more than eighty participants coming from thirteen different countries proved that she was right, as did the generous support of so many partners: the University of Antwerp and its University Library, the École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’infor-

Introduction

13

mation et des bibliothèques (ENSSIB, Lyon), the Flanders Heritage Library, the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, the LIBER Steering Committee for Heritage Collection and Preservation, the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL), Anet Library Network Antwerp, LIBISnet Library Network Leuven, FARO–Flemish interface centre for cultural heritage, the Plantin-Moretus Museum and the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library in Antwerp. On the other hand, a young colleague did an international survey of existing courses and educational programs on the management of heritage collections in the specific context of libraries. In the course of one month, Sam Capiau – who is now working for the Flanders Heritage Library – contacted an impressive number of Library and Information Science departments in Europe and North America to ask if they had any courses on heritage issues. He also digested lots of Web sites and articles and in doing so, discovered that the subject had already raised a lot of attention within the American library world during the first years of the new millennium. This explains why the keynote speeches at the start and the conclusion of the Antwerp conference were delivered by American experts, Professor Deirdre Stam and Professor Michael Suarez, both of whom continue to play an important role in this context. In Flanders, we discussed these matters for the first time in 2010, when our colleagues at FARO set up a series of workshops called ‘Heritage Scholars’ (Erfgoedgeleerden) focusing on the changing profiles that apply to heritagerelated professions like museum conservators, archivists and indeed librarians. During the last workshop in the series, Garrelt Verhoeven, head of special collections at the University Library of Amsterdam, concluded his presentation by saying that in short, every librarian responsible for heritage collections should be an ambassador of his library. In my opinion, this expression summarizes very well some essential competences or qualities of heritage librarians. Yet in order to further stress the specific character of heritage libraries, I decided to replace ‘library’ with ‘book’. It may no longer be fashionable to speak about books in a library context, but I like to live dangerously and so it was under the heading ‘Ambassadors of the Book’ that the Antwerp conference took place. In a concern for transparency and clarity, the general theme of the conference was divided into two distinct parts: the first day was devoted to discussing the relevant competences, whereas the second day, the speakers went a step further and discussed the ways in which these competences can be transferred through education and training. Together with my fellows at the conference committee Raphaële Mouren (ENSSIB & IFLA-RBMS), Marjan Lefferts (CERL) and Monique Hulvey (Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon), I am happy to say that the papers published in these proceedings are not purely academic or free of engagements. On the contrary, we are confident that this international

14 Introduction

and multidisciplinary publication will increase our awareness, and perhaps even inspire us to develop better suited programs in order to train the ‘ambassadors’ of the future. Pierre Delsaerdt University of Antwerp – Flanders Heritage Library ‒ KU Leuven

All Books are Equal, but Some Books … Towards a Modern Vision of Special Collections1 Jan Bos Head of the Collections Department Koninklijke bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands

In 1537, King Francis I of France issued a decree that one copy of every book that was printed on French territory should be sent to the King’s library. This act is considered to be the first legal deposit act in the Western world. The argumentation for this decree by Francis I was the following: “… pour avoir recours aux dits livres si de fortune ils étoient cy apres perdus de la memoire des hommes ou aucunement immués ou variés de leur vraye et première publication”.2

That is: “… to have these books as a resort if they happen to have been lost from the memory of man, or would have been corrupted or changed from their true and original publication”.

So each text should be preserved in its original and uncorrupted form. This sounds like a very early recognition of what we would now call caring for our cultural heritage, or – to use a more precise term – for our documentary heritage: preserving books in their original form to prevent their loss from the memory of men. King Francis I foresaw that these books would become important remnants of his time. Of course there was also another side to this measure: control of the dissemination of ideas by the printing press, or – in other words – censorship. Books that were not in line with the monarch’s belief or ideology could immediately be banned and burned. In centralistic 16th century France, control of what was going on and which ideas were circulating in the country was very important. For us, nowadays, the effect of Francis I’s measure, which by the way was copied worldwide by many, many rulers in later centuries, is twofold as well. 1 2

A version of this paper was presented at the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section session, 77th World Library and Information Congress, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Francis I, Ordonnance de Montpellier, 28 December 1537.

16 Jan Bos

On the one hand, thanks to this decree many books have been preserved that otherwise, no doubt, would have been lost forever. On the other hand, lots of books have been destroyed because they were ‘spreading false doctrines’. They were considered heretical or too controversial in other ways – and no copy exists. And many more books have never been published because of selfcensorship. Why publish a book if it would be burned anyway? Not to mention the personal risks for the authors and publishers. Nevertheless, the decree by Francis I has been endowed with such importance that in 2009 the archival copy of the decree was inscribed on the international UNESCO Memory of the World Register.3 The Memory of the World Programme of UNESCO aims to preserve the world’s documentary heritage. The international Memory of the World Register is the showcase of this programme, just like the World Heritage list is the showcase of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.4 Documentary heritage – that is what we are all dealing with. But what is documentary heritage? Which items belong to it? Or, to make the question a bit more specific: which publications do we preserve in our special collections departments? Which items does the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section care about? With some irony we may call ourselves the “keepers of old stuff”, but we all know very well that there is much more to it. Francis I did not make a distinction between books that he did or did not want to preserve. He wanted them all in his library. At least in this respect (maybe the only respect) we could call him a democrat. To use George Orwell’s terminology: “All books are equal.”5 Is it the same for us? Would we echo these words? Or would we have to say, again like George Orwell, “All books are equal, but some books are more equal than other books … ” Let’s have a look at the brochure of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, IFLA, which is available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Russian on the Section’s Web pages, and also in Chinese on paper. It reads: “Rare books and manuscripts are part of the global cultural heritage. Their significance as intellectual creations, historic collections, and objets d’art exceeds boundaries of language, state or period. Scholars, librarians, book and art historians, bibliophiles, and library users from all over the world read, study, and admire them. Special collections departments preserve these treasures with great care … ”

3 4 5

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/fr//ev.php-URL_ID=27187&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SEC TION=201.html, accessed 14 July 2012. www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project-activities/memoryof-the-world/register/, accessed 14 July 2012. George Orwell, Animal farm: a fairy story (London: Secker and Warburg, 1945).

All Books are Equal, but Some Books …

17

That’s fine, but it doesn’t tell us exactly which publications belong to “Rare Books and Manuscripts”. Moreover, by reading this phrase and also by using the words ‘rare books and manuscripts’ one may quite easily get the impression that the materials are limited to old printed books, together with bibliophile editions and artists’ books, and medieval manuscripts, perhaps including some very important written documents from later centuries. But as every special collections curator can attest, there is much more to it. To give one nice example: Friday, August 12, 2011, at the satellite meeting that was organised by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section and PAC, the IFLA Preservation and Conservation core activity, Frances Salmon, librarian at the University of the West Indies, talked about the beautiful and highly interesting Cousins Hereward Postcard collection in the library in Mona, Jamaica. And Frances Salmon was not only referring to postcards when she said: “In my library everything that is not a book after 1900 belongs to the special collections.” Then, could every document that is not a regular modern printed book belong to the special collections? And if so, wouldn’t it be appropriate to even change the name of the section? Time for discussion! So, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (I still use the old name) dedicated a three-hour workshop to the issue, ‘What is rare material in libraries and what are the consequences for actions?’ Let me first of all remark that it was a very useful workshop with lively discussions and fresh input from participants from countries that included Africa, Europe (also Eastern Europe), North America and the Caribbean. It proved to be an almost common experience that all kinds of collections – or even individual items – could be regarded as special collections, depending on the perspective and the collection policy of an individual library. And we realized that this broad scope was very well reflected in the LIBER Statement of Principles: European Research Libraries and their Commitment to Special Collections.6 This statement was approved by the LIBER Annual general meeting in 2007. It was also endorsed by the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section in Durban in the same year. Where the text says “Europe” or “European” please read: “in the world”. LIBER is the European Association of Research Libraries, but the statement is applicable around the globe. Moreover, a major part of its content has been derived from a similar statement by the RBMS section of the American Library Association. The LIBER Statement begins as follows: “Most academic and research libraries in Europe hold collections of rare and special materials, which may be variously defined [my emphasis]. These encompass a wide range of documentary formats and other media, including historic and modern books, manuscripts and archives, music and maps, ephemera, photographs and sound recordings, and digital archives.” 6

www.libereurope.eu/sites/default/files/d5/LIBER%20STATEMENT%20ON%20SPEC%20 COLLS%20FINAL%20DRAFT_0.pdf, accessed 14 July 2012.

18 Jan Bos

I don’t think this list pretends to be complete and exhaustive. It doesn’t contain postcards, it doesn’t contain book bindings, it doesn’t contain stone tablets with hieroglyphs, it doesn’t contain many more things. But the intention is clear: many items can be included in special collections. The LIBER Statement continues: “As primary sources, or significant accumulations of materials relating to particular topics, they are essential for research across a range of disciplines.”

This phrase mainly relates to the options for research on the materials in special collections. Talking about “primary sources” one might first think of older materials, medieval codices, early printed books and ancient archives, but of course modern materials are included as well. Personal archives, collections of letters and other ego-documents, and even born-digital materials, may serve as primary sources. It’s also elementary that all disciplines are included. Special collections are not only there for book historians or art historians. They may also contain the sources for research on music, on daily life, on social or scientific developments, on spiritual and religious phenomena. “They have artistic, historic or research importance beyond their purely textual content that justifies their preservation as artefacts whatever surrogates may be available.”

This is a very important element, which I’d like to illustrate with an example. ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’. ‘This is not a pipe’. I’m sure you all know this painting by René Magritte, ‘La trahison des images’, ‘The Treachery of Images’. No, it’s not a pipe. It’s a painting of a pipe. And what you’re looking at if you go to the presentation of the painting on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Web site is in fact a digital photograph of the painting of a pipe.7 And this is not a book. This is the digital photograph of a book. It is the title page of one of the most famous books by one of the most famous Dutch authors, Mare Liberum, The Free Sea, by Hugo Grotius. Yes, you can read it this way. You can browse through the pages. But it is not a book. There are all kinds of things that you can’t do with the digital reproduction of a book. You can’t study the way it has been made, printed or written, bound and handled. You can’t study the paper with its watermark, or the ink. But there is more to it: the way of reading a text on screen is different from reading a text in a book. This text was written to be read in a physical, printed book with paper pages of a certain size and a certain layout and a certain ‘look and feel’. I’m sure that Hugo Grotius would have written a different text, using different words, a different style, different headings, a different layout, if he 7

http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=34438;type=101, accessed 14 July 2012.

All Books are Equal, but Some Books …

19

Figure 2.1: Hugo Grotius, Mare liberum siue de iure quod Batauis competit ad Indicana commercial dissertation (Lugduni Batauorum, Ex officinal Ludouici Elzeuirii: 1609). The Hague, The Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KBH 893 G 6

had written his Mare Liberum as an e-book! The message would have been the same, but the book would have been different. And finally, to many readers the digital copy of a book lacks what has been called: ‘the magic of the book’. This picture does not present the historical sensation of the original, which in this case is 400 years old, and – as you can see, but not feel! – was owned, read and used by many people before us. So, books are more than their content. They have a textual and a material aspect. They are content and container, and that cannot be divided. Of course for some types of use, for some types of research, the content alone or the materiality alone may be sufficient. But it should never be acceptable that, e.g. after digitization, the originals are thrown away. A digital copy, useful as it is – no doubt about that! – can never be a substitute for the original. And many curators of special materials have experienced that after digitization the physical copies are being consulted more often than ever before. I return to the LIBER Statement for the last time. The final sentence of the first paragraph reads:

20 Jan Bos “They [the special collections] provide important evidence for our material, intellectual and cultural heritage and reflect our human diversity.”

Heritage is a very important concept in special collections. In fact in some countries it is quite common to speak of heritage collections instead of special collections. UNESCO uses the term ‘documentary heritage’ to cover all the information materials that are worth safeguarding, be they carved, written, printed, graphic, audiovisual, digital or of any other format. Heritage also means that someone has attached value to something. But who is this someone? Whose heritage is it anyway? Of course there can hardly be any doubt about many old, rare or precious materials, about materials with great historic, aesthetic, literary, social or cultural value; about items that are the first of their kind, that testify to important persons or events. Usually this is what in the Netherlands we call: ‘Culture with a capital C’, highbrow culture, sophisticated culture, culture for the elite. But it is not everybody’s culture. How many people in the world would know who this is?

Figure 2.2: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Hague, The Koninklijke Bibliotheek

And how many people in the world would know who this is?

Figure 2.3: Walt Disney Co., Donald Duck

All Books are Equal, but Some Books …

21

And yet, in my library, the National Library of the Netherlands, there are plenty of editions of all the works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, including very rare first editions and other special copies, and even some autographed letters. But I could not provide you with all the issues of the Dutch Donald Duck magazine. Quite a number of them have never been included in our collections – much less in our special collections. Nevertheless there are a lot of people for whom Donald Duck, or maybe comics in general, are the only documentary heritage they have. And we shouldn’t be too late in filling in the gaps. It’s a strange thing that popular culture only becomes interesting for library collections once it is almost completely gone. Through the centuries there have been enormous numbers of schoolbooks, prayerbooks, songbooks, popular novels, childrens’ books, magazines, almanacs and the like. “The more there were, the less there are” is a famous saying about popular books, and it’s true. For many of these books we only know the titles, or perhaps only one copy of the second or third edition has been preserved. We are very happy if we can add an old songbook or a complete popular magazine to our collections. When it comes to documentary heritage in the form of popular culture or mass culture in particular, it will be very hard or even impossible to assemble complete collections. In these cases the principle of representativity may be of great help. If it is impossible e.g. to collect and preserve every popular magazine, is would be wise to collect magazines that are designated as representing their time. If you can’t collect everything, collect the items that are most representative. Coming back to the workshop, we have seen that all kinds of materials and all kinds of subjects can belong to special collections: manuscripts, old books, modern books, maps, music, popular books etc. Does this mean that all books in every library are special and that they should all belong to special collections? No, of course not. But it does mean that it is up to libraries to decide which collections they consider special. If the library has a reason, a specific perspective in collecting particular items, then this reason or this perspective makes the items and the collection special. The same item can belong to a special collection in one library and to the general collection in another. If a library specializes in e.g. gastronomy, an ordinary modern recipe book will be part of their special collections. The same cookbook will be part of the general collection in another library, or will not be collected at all. The implication is that it is a necessity that a library has a collection policy. This collection policy may be based on various principles such as the history and the traditions of the library, the kind of users, the desired visibility of the library, existing strengths, agreements with other libraries, and of course the strategic plan of the library. A well defined collection policy will support the library in acquiring or not acquiring special materials, in accepting or re-

22 Jan Bos

fusing gifts. In this respect librarians could learn a lot from archivists, who have a much longer and stronger tradition of selectivity. I would like to call particular attention to born-digital special collections. Several libraries have already started collecting digital archives of famous scholars and authors. Just as we are happy to preserve and give access to the paper archives of some ancient writers, scholars, scientists, and politicians ‒ to their correspondences, the first drafts of their publications, their speeches, their diaries, the annotations they made in the books of other authors – in the same way we now preserve (or we would like to preserve) the digital research data, the powerpoints, the Weblogs, the emails, and even the tweets of the important writers and scientists of our times. And just as these physical personal archives and ego-documents are usually part of special collections, the digital archives and ego-documents also belong to special collections. But to collect them we must be very pro-active and make arrangements with these people before they delete all their digital files. Or before their computer crashes without a backup … There are already some examples of digital archives being preserved in the special collections of research libraries. The Bodleian Library in Oxford created BEAM: Bodleian Electronic Archives and Manuscripts.8 Among the digital archives already available are those of the British conservative party, of the philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin and of several politicians. In Project AIMS four American and British institutions will create an inter-institutional framework for born-digital content.9 And Emory University in Atlanta is preserving the large digital archive of Salman Rushdie. These are just some examples, I know there are more. But they create an impression of a rather recent trend that not all special collection curators are yet familiar with. And how about Web sites? Yes, they are publications too. Moreover, they are the incunabula of our still very young digital era. And they are all unique. Then, shouldn’t special collections departments deal with them too? Shouldn’t they be preserved? But in what form? They may change every minute. And should we preserve all of them? There are billions! Are they all special? No, but just like other types of publications, libraries may declare some of them special if they fit into their collection strategy. Some countries harvest all Web sites with the respective country code in their URL on a regular basis: every month, or three or six months, or every year. In other countries or in other libraries a selection is made. But I wonder if special collection curators are often involved in the process of selecting, preserving and cataloguing Web sites. I believe that it is going to become part of the job. Dealing with born-digital special collections, but also with many of the 8 9

BEAM, www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/beam, accessed 6 July 2012. AIM, www2.lib.virginia.edu/aims/, accessed 6 July 2012.

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new elements that I have mentioned above, requires new knowledge and new competences for special collections librarians. You may have noticed that I still call it the ‘Rare Books and Manuscripts Section’. Haven’t we thought of another name? Yes, we have. Indeed several suggestions have been put forward:     

‘Documentary heritage collections’ ‘Special collections’ ‘Special collections of documentary heritage’ ‘Rare and special collections’ ‘Rare materials and special collections of documentary heritage’

As you can see, we have been circling around and around the same elements, but there is no consensus yet. Well, like Shakespeare said: ‘What’s in a name?’

Competence Assessment: Challenges for Heritage Librarians Deirdre C. Stam Rare Book and Special Collections Program, Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Long Island University

Our topic today is competence: what you need to know and do to qualify for a professional position as a heritage librarian. The issues are hardly new. We’ve been training, hiring, promoting and firing librarians for centuries based on judgments about competence and suitability, largely defined. From oral history we have the famous story of a cataloguer fired from the Newberry Library around 1924 for whatever reasons, now lost in time, of inadequacy, malfeasance, indolence, or personal peculiarity. The story goes that Edwin Eliott Willoughby, to remind the Library of their loss of his valuable skills, presented increasingly costly books to the Newberry annually on the date of his firing. As a twenty-fifth-year memorial, he gave the library an incunable, neatly rebound in the cloth from the tie he was wearing on the day of his termination. I’m happy to report that Mr. Willoughby found success elsewhere, becoming a respected Shakespearean bibliographer and scholar at the Folger Library among other institutions. Within the past few years, the library field, trying to codify these kinds of judgments, has adopted a highly structured approach in the form of “competence assessment”. There exist numerous examples of “competence” lists put forth in library literature, addressing the various needs for specializations including among others music, art, legal, school, and even “special collections” librarianship, a field known to many Europeans as “heritage librarianship”. It is no secret that many heritage librarians have regarded this evaluative approach as inadequate in capturing the full range of their contributions to the library world and to the larger scholarly world of which they consider themselves an integral part. Given the unavoidable political pressures on libraries and librarians to use this approach for staff evaluation and for other purposes, the challenge to heritage librarians is to seize hold of this tool and recast it to serve the special needs of their profession and its institutions. And yet this recasting must result in a form that is still recognizable and acceptable to the wider library profession as part of the “competence assessment” approach.

26 Deirdre C. Stam

Competence Assessment in Library Education for Special Collections Professionals Of particular interest to us in this context is the effort to apply competence assessment to educational programs that prepare students for careers variously known as “heritage” or “special collections” librarianship. The collections that such librarians oversee might include printed materials, manuscripts and archives of cultural significance, and even three-dimensional objects related to print culture. One of the best-known lists of “competencies” for “special collections librarians” was developed in 2008 by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL/RBMS), a part of the American Library Association (ALA).1 The special collections competencies document concerning specializations within special collections librarianship was built upon a more general statement from ALA, which set forth the minimal “basic knowledge” that all professional librarians must “know and, where appropriate, be able to employ”. The ACRL/RBMS categories of specialization relate quite closely to the ALA list of basic library functions, seeming to represent an expansion of basic knowledge for all librarians. The special collections competency document section here is in three parts. The background section mentions a relationship to the guidelines for research librarians in general, stating that it would be unnecessary to repeat in the ACRL/RBMS document the information regarding research competencies that is pertinent to special collections librarianship [see Part I of the document]. ALA’s Core competences of librarianship 1. Foundations of the profession 2. Information resources 3. Organization of recorded knowledge and information 4. Technological knowledge and skills 5. Reference and user services 6. Research 7. Continuing education and lifelong learning 8. Administration and management ACRL/RBMS “Specializations” competencies for special collections professionals [Part III]  Collection development  Information technology  Management, supervision and administration 1

“Guidelines & standards”, Association of College and Research libraries, American Library Association, www.ala.org/acrl/standards, accessed 1 May 2012.

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ACRL//RBMS “Specializations” competencies for special collections professionals [Part III] (continued)     ‒

Preservation and conservation Processing and cataloguing Promotion and outreach Public services Teaching and research

Table 3.1: “Guidelines & standards”, Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association: core competences and specialization competencies

The ACRL/RBMS document set that addresses special collections “competencies” has a more ambitious intent than the basic ALA documents. Its purpose is to “define our profession and to foster a sense of community and common identity among special collections professionals, while helping others to understand our work”. It was anticipated that the ACRL/RBMS document set would be helpful for career planning, for curriculum development, for crafting job descriptions, and for evaluating staff performance. The “special collections” document set is supplementary to the ALA statement of general competencies, not a substitute for it. The ACRL/RBMS list of specializations that are particularly pertinent to heritage librarianship mentions these sub-fields: preservation, teaching, outreach, and a special sort of collection development with emphasis on the physical object. The emphasis in this document is on “functions” of the rare book librarian. This ACRL/RBMS list of specialized competencies is realistic, and even predictable given its close ties to the broader ALA list. For each identified specialty, there is first a general statement about the function, and then a list of the “competencies” or “skills”, needed to fulfil that function successfully. The document here assumes specialization and each category specifies what is needed for that specialized work. Here is an example of one specialization section for special collections librarians. D. Preservation and conservation Special collections professionals understand the basic principles, objectives, and techniques for the preservation and conservation of original objects in various formats, including: printed works; manuscripts; photographs, prints, and other graphical works; audio-visual and digital media; and three-dimensional objects. Competencies: D.1. Is familiar with library, archival, and museum preservation and conservation issues, standards, trends, and best practices D.2. Understands and advocates for proper handling of primary resource materials

28 Deirdre C. Stam D. Preservation and conservation (continued) D.3. Understands the role of preservation assessment within a collection management and development program D.4. Possesses sufficient knowledge to identify the preservation and conservation needs of collection materials and establish treatment priorities D.5. Understands environmental conditions required for the proper storage of various types of collection materials From ALA/ACRL/RBMS competencies document Table 3.2: “Guidelines & standards”, Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association: conservation and preservation competencies

Significant in the special collections document for competence assessment is the indication that the possession of subject knowledge is usually amplified by an understanding of how to apply that information. Despite this hint of pragmatism in the ACRL/RBMS special collections document, the list for specialized sub-areas stipulates a surprisingly loose connection between understanding and application. For example, the document shows heavy use of purely cognitive concepts such as: understands, is familiar with, is committed to, develops and maintains knowledge of, maintains awareness, and is able to recognize. Much less frequently does it include the more active stipulations that one can develop a service, or is able to perform some action as a result of his/her understanding. While seeming to recognize by the information found in Part II (Fundamental competencies) that the library profession is a combination of both knowledge and practice, the document does not clearly differentiate between these areas of skills and does not explore this duality at a conceptual level. Perhaps more problematic for those trying to apply the competency approach is that neither the ALA competencies document nor the related special collections documents indicate just what kind of evidence could indicate satisfactory performance in the skill areas identified. Let us examine the “Fundamental competencies” (ACRL/RBMS, Part II) that are expected of all special collections librarians (to supplement the ALA list of basic competencies, and to the ACRL/RBMS list of its specializations and associated competencies). The list of fundamental competencies appears here in a truncated form sufficient for the purposes of the argument.

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Fundamental competencies [ACRL/RBMS, Part II]. A. Understands the basic history, theory, and professional practices relating to materials generally found in special collections research libraries … B. Understands the significance of original artefacts and the nature and value of primary materials for learning, teaching, research, and outreach; C. Develops and maintains knowledge of liberal arts, history, and culture as these [relate to … special collections]; D. Develops and maintains foreign language competencies appropriate to the repository’s collections … and … researchers; E. Is familiar with and committed to the standards, ethics, guidelines, trends, and best practices in use by special collections professionals and promulgated by core professional groups such as ACRL’s Rare Books and Manuscripts Section … F. Is committed to the profession and professional organizations, including providing leadership … G. Is committed to life-long learning as applied to professional development in a special collections environment; H. Understands the basic theory and practice of collection development … donor relations, and managing funds; I. Develops and maintains knowledge of technologies that are key to management and dissemination … J. Develops and maintains knowledge of intellectual property rights, copyright, rights management, patron and donor privacy, and other legal issues, especially as they apply to primary materials in various formats; K. Understands the security and preservation needs of the collections, both in storage and during use; L. Understands the purpose, construction, and presentation of formal descriptions of special collections materials, such as bibliographies, bibliographic utilities, catalogues, and finding aids; M. Is committed to promoting the appreciation and use of special collections materials to a variety of audiences and is able to engage those audiences with the excitement that original materials can inspire; N. Is committed to integrating special collections into the broader institutional environment … and … community; O. Is committed to the central importance of service to the researcher; P. Develops and maintains knowledge of the content and organization of the collections. Table 3.3: “Guidelines & standards”, Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association: fundamental competencies

Note that four verbs predominate in the “fundamentals list”, interspersed according to no discernible pattern, in a document which is long even in this

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truncated version. These verbs, and some questions raised by them, are presented here in compact form. Verbs used in describing ACRL/RBMS fundamental competencies of special collections professionals (Part II):    

Is familiar with Understands Is committed to Develops [a service]

Queries: ‒ How can these competencies be measured and/or proved? ‒ Do the verbs represent degrees of engagement (a progression), or are they used somewhat randomly, perhaps for rhetorical variety? (The order gives no clue.) ‒ Do the listed competencies overemphasize current concerns? (Will the list soon seem dated?) ‒ Could the list be compressed into a few major statements representing a synthesis of ideas? ‒ Is the list too long for practical application? (Is it boring?) ‒ Does the list serve some practical profession objective? Or does it represent simply a “laundry list” of every idea and function that its creating committee encountered? (Is it an egregious example of “committee speak”?) ‒ Does everybody in the special collections field need to have every competency on the list? (Is “balance” an outmoded concept? Do employers today seek quite specific skills that match their collection’s needs?) Table 3.4: Verbs used in the fundamental list, “Guidelines & standards”, Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association

The list frustrates the logician. While the library literature that addresses competence assessment in special collections and in other subfields includes many case studies, and abounds in anecdote and opinions, it is lacking in a systematic analysis of the origins and implications of the concept, and an analysis of the reasoning behind its choice of competencies. The building of theory always begins of course with anecdote and it may be that the field is currently stalled in the early stages of developing a truly useful tool for evaluating staff performance, guiding staff development, and educating future special collections librarians. By taking the time to muse collectively about competencies for special collections work we as a community might come to a better understanding of just what this tool is, and what its proper place might be in the library toolbox. In the best case, we in the field may at this time be able to move the understanding

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of competency assessment in this sphere from anecdote and case study to theory, and then finally to identifying particularly helpful applications that correspond realistically and helpfully to the development of staff in this field. At the very least, we might look again at our basic documents and, now that we have experience with them, we might rework them to be a more economical, elegantly compressed, manageable, and practical set of tools for our purposes. I may be tipping my hand by introducing a utilitarian metaphor, the toolbox, so early in this explication, but I do want to make clear from the beginning that I ground my observations in the everyday reality of librarianship. The toolbox seems to me to serve as a useful symbol of the essentially practical, action-oriented, vocational nature of the profession as it has evolved in recent years, and the often technical nature of the skills that distinguish it from its close relatives such as humanistic research and discipline-oriented teaching. As a vocation, special collections librarianship may be more priestly than production-oriented, but it is, at base, a job. In the special collections world of today, work requires demonstrable productivity in accordance with the specified objectives of the employing institutions. My intention here is to set the stage for this discussion: to probe briefly into the language of competence assessment, its basic concepts, its national variations, its advantages and disadvantages, and some current applications in special collections circles. These general questions, relating to the job itself, need to be explored before the utility of education for special collections librarianship can be usefully identified and developed.

Definitions and Usage As pedants always do, I begin with some definitions. Competence, in the context of professions, is often defined in terms such as these: “Competence – is the application of knowledge skills and behaviours required to function effectively, safely, ethically, and legally within a context of the individual’s role and environment”2 (although not drawn from librarianship, this definition is particularly clear headed and is part of a model where assumptions and concepts are clearly defined and related). Poring through the library literature, I find that the term “competence” is considered the most general form of the concept, indicating a combination of capability and proficiency. Authors in this area seems to regard the term “competency” as a subtopic, or even a diminutive, of the more general idea of competence. Considerable variance exists between singular and plural forms in European literature but the variations do not cause significant confusion. 2

“The federation of state boards of physical therapy: FSBPT continuing competence model”, https://www.fsbpt.org/ForCandidatesAndLicensees/ContinuingCompetence/Model/index.asp, accessed 2 May 2012.

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American literature seems to use competency, or competencies, far more often than the more general “competence”. Here I will use the form “competency” when talking about specified tasks within general knowledge areas, but will try to be consistent in using “competence” when talking about the more general notion of related understanding and performance. The term “competency” often describes specifically the demonstrable ability to perform some task pertinent to professional performance. The forms “competency” and “competencies” are often used to denote specific mechanistic and technical skills making up the more general and abstract idea of “competence.” The term “competency” therefore often carries the connotation of instrumentality. Competency assessment documents, for example, often suggest that one should know how to do a specified task, and further that one must be able to demonstrate his or her ability to perform this function, or competency, according to some community-defined criterion or norm. We note in passing that all discussions these days seem to assume that “competence” is a sufficient standard. To be competent is good enough. The earlier meaning of the word, as just adequate or “barely up to the task” seems to have been dropped from the professional discourse of competence assessment. Yet the earlier and more general usage persists in the wider context. Who of us, for example, would go out of our way to attend a concert that featured a violinist deemed merely “competent” by the critics?

Dual Nature of Knowing as it Related to “Competence” Right from the beginning of our attempts to define the basic terms of our inquiry, we find references to a duality between “understanding” at the intellectual level and “being acquainted with” derived from physical experience. This distinction between knowing by logic or by experience is difficult to draw in English since the language does not have distinct terms for learning-by-logic and learning-by-familiarity. French and German speakers, among others, are better equipped to discuss this divergence, and it is perhaps for that reason that the professional literatures in their languages draw clearer distinctions between these specific kinds of knowing in their discussion of “competence”. Perhaps this linguistic richness also explains why the literature in French and German, for example, is generally heavier on theory than is the more practically oriented and utilitarian English-language library literature. However expressed, the debate underlying competence assessment rests on age-old questions of epistemology – what is knowledge, how do we know, and how do we learn? And yet this duality is seldom explored in the literature of librarians’ “competence”. A further complexity is the divergence between knowing about, whether by logic or experience, and knowing how to act from this knowledge. Precious little attention is given to such philosophical issues in the library competence literature. This is surprising in a field where ideas and language are presumed to matter.

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As we try to apply these abstract ideas to “competence assessment” in our field, we face the complex question of whether essential professional performance consists mainly in knowing about, or knowing how? Is the more important part of preparation for special collections librarianship based on understanding (however derived), or on praxis? Most of us would probably say that it is a combination of these concepts, but the question remains about which part – knowing or doing – is the more essential and which part should get the greater attention in competence assessment for the profession.

Another Complication: “Soft Skills” (Emotional Intelligence) Both knowing by logic and knowing by experience sound like bloodless concepts. So too is the concept of doing unlikely to stir the passions. All of these concepts are associated with cognitive processing and not with what psychologists call the “affective domain”. None of these “competency” concepts indicates the traits that many library administrators consider the most essential characteristics for new “hires”. One library director spoke to me recently of looking first and foremost for an enthusiast, an impresario, a showman – one who had a sophisticated grasp of the significance and even charm of the material, and could bring it alive for a variety of audiences, including generalists, scholars, and institutional financial supporters. The necessary qualities of the professional seem to include, then, in addition to “understanding” and “knowhow”, the more emotional attributes of attitudes, personality traits, and habits of mind. Such traits correspond to what is sometimes called “emotional Intelligence”, that is, a “subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions”.3 Parenthetically, I have no hard evidence that these “soft skills” for librarians were first articulated at some library conference in California, where new age rhetoric and hot tubs were much in evidence, but I have my suspicions. Acknowledgement of “soft” skills is far more prevalent in U.S. than in European literature. In fact, some librarians from the Bibliothèque nationale de France told me recently that the concept is untranslatable into French. The closest they could come, translated directly, was “humanistic values”. Most American library applications of the competency approach gloss over such subtleties as ways of knowing, and simply list desired skills – 3

Patricia Promis [Team leader for Special Collections, University of Arizona Library, Tucson AZ USA], “Are employers asking for the right competencies: a case for emotional intelligence”, Library Administration & Management 22 (2008): 24. See also Robyn Huff-Eibl, Jeanne F. Voyles, and Michael M. Brewer, “Competency-based hiring, job description, and performance goals: the value of an integrated system”, Journal of Library Administration 51 (2011): 673-691, especially 677-778.

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mostly “hard skills” for paraprofessionals, and mostly “soft skills” for administrative/professional staff. One wonders, when reading these lists, whether in fact library managers these days are actually required to have the hard skills that they are assigned to oversee and judge. This is a worrisome issue but one that is somewhat tangential to our inquiry today, which focuses on the competence assessment tools themselves and not so clearly on the larger issue of library management. In some competency lists – the more useful I think – are suggestions as to how an employee might demonstrate his or her prowess for each skill listed. Here is an example of a designated “soft skill”, along with its behavioural indicators. This example is from Syracuse University Library’s human resources document is that intended for job definition and staff evaluation for all professionals, special collections staff included.4 TEAM LEADERSHIP Definition [the function defined]: Willingly cooperates and works collaboratively toward solutions that generally benefit all involved parties; works cooperatively with others to accomplish company objectives. Behavioural Indicators [competencies]: ‒ Participates willingly in activities as a good role player that works well with others; ‒ Puts goals of the group ahead of one’s own agenda, and supports and acts in accordance with final group decisions even when such decisions may not entirely reflect one’s own position; ‒ Solicits the input of others who are affected by plans or actions and gives credit and recognition to others who have contributed; ‒ Works to build consensus within the group/department/University; ‒ Demonstrates concern for treating people fairly and equitably. Table 3.5: Team leadership, Syracuse University Library, Syracuse, New York

This all still sounds quite abstract. For a bit of reality testing, we might consider for a few moments the careers of some of the well-known figures in the history of special collections librarianship. I seriously doubt whether competence assessment as we know it could have captured the positive qualities brought to the field by such luminaries as the headstrong founder of the British Library, Antonio Panizzi; the neurotic and perfectionist bibliographer with a chequered record of employment, Charles Evans; the preoccupied mathematician, philosopher, philologist, physicist, indexer, and all round genius Gottfried 4

“Syracuse University, human resources; performance partnership process; competency library,” http://humanresources.syr.edu/staff/nbu_staff/comp_library.html, accessed 1 May 2012.

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Leibnitz from research libraries in Hanover and Wolfenbüttel; or the imperious collection-builder, Belle daCosta Greene of Morgan Library fame. Reluctantly passing over the library careers of Marcel Duchamp, Giacomo Casanova, Jorge Borges, and Benjamin Franklin, I feel that I must pause over the example of Mao Tse-tung who left the ranks of our profession after a brief career in the Peking University Library, under the tutelage of library curator and Communist party founding member, Li Dazhao. I am not at all sure that a competence assessment, had one been done, would have identified the Mao’s presumed unsuitability for our line of work. Many of us are left unsatisfied, even uneasy, after hearing about wholesale, uncritical adoption of the competence assessment approach in library practice. In contrast to other professional literatures, the library literature is surprisingly reticent about the theoretical justification for this approach and evaluations of it. Most critical commentary in the library literature, and elsewhere, focuses on issues of application, overlooking shortcomings and fuzziness, especially in logic, in the underlying assumptions of the concept. We give a flavour of the language used by advocates and critics here.5

About competence assessment Shortcomings Reductionist, behaviourist, static, atomistic, susceptible to unthinking and self-protective bureaucratization, invalid as a testing method, based on a never-ending specification, overly detailed and burdensome, difficult to interpret results, more concerned with the skills needed by the institution (or state) than the development of the individual’s employability, socially reactionary in perpetuating older categories of social and economic stratification, and a threat to professionalism.

Benefits Shifts attention from provider to client, focuses on outputs and outcomes rather than inputs, is reliable in the technical sense as a testing method, is better than a time-served approach, facilitates clear explanation of the objectives of a program, supports accountability, is objective in nature, is pragmatic in relation to employment preparation, emphasizes capability over “paper” qualifications, is supportive of the transferability of skills for international employment, supports bureaucratic transparency, and supports national economic needs.

Table 3.6: Competence assessment: shortcomings/benefits 5

Paul Armstrong, “Raising standards: a creative look at competence and assessment and implications for mainstreaming in university adult education”, SCUTREA [Standing conference on university teaching and research in the education of adults [UK] (1995): 6-11, www. leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00002988.htm, reproduced version accessed 1 May 2012.

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Roots of the Disagreement Over Using Competence Assessment If the approach is so controversial, how has it taken hold so quickly and to such a profound degree in educational institutions in general and libraries specifically, even in special collections circles where fads are usually tempered by cautious scepticism? To seek an explanation, I propose that we consider, at least briefly, where these concepts of competence and competencies came from, what philosophical principles lie behind them, and what political and cultural forces encourage their adoption.

Where Did Competence Assessment Come From? Theorists of competence assessment see its distant roots in Ivan Pavlov’s 19thcentury materialistic approach to examining organisms – remember the dog in the cage? – in their environment, and the resultant emphasis on observation and objectivity. Significant too in its development is Frederick Taylor’s advocacy of scientific management in the early 20th century. Both theorists considered observable behaviour as the core of task performance. A third major influence is B. F. Skinner’s mid-20th-century radical behaviourism that was built on the idea that behaviour is determined by its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, and that mental processes are distinctly less significant to human functioning than observable action – remember Skinner’s baby in the box? One is tempted to explore the gender implications of this trio of “founding fathers” but that beckoning path is beyond our scope. Competence assessment as applied to library functions strikes me, with the benefit of many years’ experience, as the latest in a long line of efforts, beginning in World War II, to apply operations research management principles beyond industry to almost all institutional and governmental functions, library operations among them. Although competence assessment today is most often applied to the job performance of individuals, its advocates claim that it can function also as a management tool for overall analysis and goal-setting to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the institution. With this approach, the employee is considered a tool of the institution whose utility must be constantly evaluated, honed, sharpened, and who can be – perhaps even should be – discarded when failing the organization’s test of utility. The notion that the institution has an obligation to its employees, and also to its clients, is given short shrift in current management theory. The language of this current “operations research” application seems to lack words for job satisfaction, employee loyalty, and humanistic values in general. Seasoned librarians will remember the many brusquely named management initiatives they have been subjected to in recent decades: Management by

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objectives (MBO), Management review and analysis program (MRAP), Total quality management (TQM), Participative management, Strategic planning, and LibQual exercises. Although the experience of putting time and effort into these programs was tedious for many people in the library world, it was frequently observed, even by sceptics, that each initiative brought the excitement of the new, and with each some aspects of library performance improved, especially those that are statistically measurable. Perhaps the increases in observable output were merely the result of a placebo effect which emphasizes individual response to attention, or perhaps they resulted from the “Hawthorne effect” which recognizes the power of group norms that are socially constructed and culturally defined. It is even possible, of course, that these goaloriented programs brought real value to the work that caused the increase in productivity. Whatever the explanation, every new bit of attention to staff performance seemed to improve it to some degree. Impatient as I sometimes feel about yet another trend that emphasizes goal definition and measurement, I am willing to concede that this latest one, competence assessment, could well result in some improvement in performance if intelligently and judiciously applied. I am reminded here of Machiavelli, that world-weary and much maligned realist who described entrepreneurs as those “who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage”. He could have been talking about the successful leaders of today in the library field. In discussing power, Machiavelli contended that an effective leader needs to understand his or her social, economic, national and cultural context in order to be a force within it. Even within a single context the situation may change over time. Those who compile competency lists are sometimes inadequately sensitive to these variables.

Geographical and Historical Variations in the Form and Meaning of Competence Assessment If we who are engaged in heritage librarianship mean to take charge of the use of competence assessment for what we consider justifiable professional aims, then we need to understand the contextual forces that have given rise to competence assessment, have contributed to its popularity, and have caused it to take its many present forms. Here I draw heavily from Michaela Brockmann’s (ca. 2008) review of European divergences in vocational and educational training (VET), again showing my prejudice in regarding special collections librarianship as a kind of vocation, professional to be sure, but nonetheless an occupation for which one is paid for productive activity.6 Brockmann explores 6

Michaela Brockmann, “Qualifications, learning outcomes and competencies: a review of European divergences in vocational education and training (VET), a review of the literature

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many historical factors that have affected the varying ideas of vocational competence, broadly conceived, especially in parts of Europe. Some of her observations about national differences are summarized here. In Germany, significant factors may be the strong and socially respectable internship tradition, the concept of a vocation, the tradition of education for and through a vocation sometimes associated with a socialist history and a guild tradition, recognition of the importance of theoretical knowledge informing practical work, and the tradition of learning on-the-job. In France, factors here may be the respect for abstract and theoretical knowledge springing from the values of nobility in the Ancient Regime adapted in post-revolutionary France to a respect for reason and knowledge, a hierarchy of knowledge types associated with social hierarchy, a tradition of obtaining skills and knowledge in educational programs, and an emphasis on citizenship more than individualism. In England, pertinent factors may include a traditional divide between academic and vocational/practical education with relatively less respect accorded to the latter, and a holistic notion of vocation replaced recently by a hierarchy of qualifications with an emphasis on skill recognition achieved through National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ’s). While one might disagree with the national characterizations, Brockmann’s sensitivity to local practice and assumptions is helpful in reminding us that competence assessment in educational training and performance can and does take many different forms. The validity and utility of these forms may vary by such factors as national values, time, institutional context, and local tradition.

Our Current Choices About employing Competence Assessment as a Tool in the Education of Special Collections Librarians However we regard competence assessment, the truth is that we who make up the special collections or “heritage library” world are not at liberty to decide whether or not we will use this tool in our professional work. We exist in institutional settings, usually universities and governmental units, which accept this approach as a quick, clear, and handy way to achieve accountability. These institutions themselves live in a larger framework of government bureaucracy that is, these days, largely reliant upon rigidly structured approaches, easily susceptible to quantification. Competence assessment is the currently favoured (draft working paper)”, [ca. 2008], www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/education/research/cppr/ pastproj/literaturereview.pdf, accessed 1 May 2012.

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tool in all of these settings. An industry has been built around it. That is our political reality. In an attempt to make this reality more useful and palatable, I’d like to suggest a way of looking at competence testing tools – lists and numbers – from a humanistic standpoint, that is, to focus on language. This approach, a kind of linguistic mind-game, may have appeal to special collections librarians. I regard items on lists of competencies as examples of synecdoche, that is, terms for a part that stands for the whole. We of the special collections ilk who like to work with language might well welcome an exercise in which our judgment is brought to bear as to which terms, denoting which library functions, most meaningfully represent the whole of a library job. And further, which single skill or group of skills can function as the best indicator of overall proficiency in our work. If we ourselves participate actively in the crafting of competency documents, we may have more confidence in their ability to perform a useful function of assessment. As for quantification of output, we might consider numbers as metaphors, in a sense, for the values of the institution. Which numbers matter? How much is enough – of books catalogued or students served or articles written? Again, if we ourselves engage actively, we can to some degree take control of the assessment process, including identifying the significance of the numbers. Then we can bend the process to our purposes. Our interest is not in competence assessment in its own right, but in the politically judicious application of this approach to encourage, indeed to require, valid and appropriate skills and behaviours for knowledge workers engaged in the care and use of heritage collections.

Useful Applications of Competence Assessment in Educating Special Collections Librarians My own most recent and, to me useful, application of competence assessment has taken place in a library education program at the Palmer School, Long Island University (located at New York University’s New York City campus), in a special collections concentration that began in 2003. I found the competence assessment approach useful for explaining what students would actually learn to do. I used the competence assessment approach in three major ways. First, to explain the program to the outside world. Secondly, to describe the program elements to students and close collaborators. And thirdly, for administrative functions such as these: to connect program and course goals, and to develop the program through mapping, coordinating, analysing, and planning. Although such a list of effective applications in education for special librarianship sounds complicated, the actuality can be quite simple. As an example of how several of these functions can be achieved in a single document,

40 Deirdre C. Stam

I show here part of the syllabus for Philip B. Eppard’s course in special collections librarianship at the University of Albany, New York State.7 One sees here (below) two short lists of “competencies” or goals, the first at the course level and the second at the program level. Note that one could connect the first set to the second. For example, one can easily see in the box below the relevance of item 3 in the first list, course objectives, to item 3 in the second list, departmental objectives. Other connections can easily be drawn. Student exit competencies  Be acquainted with the nature of rare books and special collections and their role in the world of libraries and scholarship  Understand the fundamentals of the physical make-up of books  Be able to collate and describe a book according to accepted principles of descriptive bibliography  Be familiar with the various segments of the antiquarian book trade and the avenues for collection development in rare books and special collections  Be familiar with the basic reference tools used in rare book librarianship This course addresses three of the objectives the department has identified for students … 1. Demonstrate a sense of professional identify by applying the concepts and principles of the information sciences and related disciplines 2. Know the history and evolving roles of the information professional in the changing global society 3. Create, select, acquire, organize, manage, preserve, retrieve, evaluate, and disseminate information using relevant theories and practices. Table 3.7: Philip B. Eppard’s syllabus, U. of Albany, New York, “Student exit competencies” for special collections librarianship.

Lest you think that I am completely converted to the competence assessment doctrine, I should note that, open as I am to its possibilities, I cannot report satisfactory use of competence assessment for what would seem an obvious application in library education, that is, the evaluation of students’ academic performance. The problem is two-fold. First, the approach over-emphasizes the performance of functions over essential profound knowledge – both logical and experiential – of the physical book and its tradition. Secondly, the competence assessment approach, which usually involves rigidly structured and impersonal lists of criteria, seems to cause excessive anxiety in students – as it would in 7

Philip B. Eppard, “[Syllabus for] IST 655 Rare Books; Fall 2011, University at Albany, State University of New York, Department of Information Studies”, www.albany.edu/cci/ images/ist655_Fall_2011.pdf, accessed 1 May 2012.

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most of us. It is, after all, a form of testing, however euphemistically labelled, and we all resist being tested and being judged. I should probably report, in passing, that my students do seem entirely comfortable in using competence assessment to evaluate me and my performance, even while resisting my using this approach to evaluate their performance. Given the realities of human nature, this should probably not surprise us. In thinking broadly about competence assessment, I often wonder what the crafty but insightful Machiavelli would have said about this approach to administration. I guess that he would advise us first to be pragmatic: to employ the tool of competence assessment where it works well, that is, to aid in developing, describing, and justifying our programs. He would tell us to use its language when speaking to those in power who prefer this approach. But he might have cautioned we should never capitulate to demands that we adopt it as our single paradigm for evaluation of programs or of staff performance. Specifically, we should avoid over-emphasizing currently-defined and officially designated competencies for evaluation purposes. These competencies, more construct than fact, represent the values of a prevailing power structure and world view, and they, like all things, will give way in time to other power structures and world views. As preservers of heritage in the very long term, Machiavelli might have said, we who crave success in this work need to spend the greater part of our energies in identifying fundamental and enduring knowledge, and making sure that this knowledge is at the base of our endeavour, however ineffable, elusive, and complex this knowledge is to describe and to explain. More positive than Machiavelli, we might end our inquiry by opening our minds, while aware of shortcomings, to the possibilities of this tool. How can we make this approach work for us and for our institutions? How can we use the competence assessment exercise to understand ourselves and our work for both the improvement of our operations and – no less important in a humanistic enterprise – for the development of our own professional growth and our personal satisfaction with our work as special collections librarians? Finding sophisticated and workable solutions to these questions is where our energies would be best directed at this stage of the competence assessment movement.

Twenty-first-Century Librarianship: Training Specialists or Generalists? Jan Bos Head of the Collections Department Koninklijke bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands1

I must begin this talk by telling you a startling fact: the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the Royal Library, the National Library of the Netherlands no longer has a Special Collections Department! You may ask: “But isn’t this the National Library for the Netherlands, for centuries one of the most important book producing and exporting countries in the world, with a rich tradition of famous and important printing houses?”

Yes, we are talking about the same National Library of the Netherlands, the institution that founded and compiled the Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands – the Dutch national bibliography up to 1800 – a project which proves that the Netherlands really deserves the title “The Bookshop of the World”. Being here, in Antwerp, I’d like to honour and to pay high tribute to the outstanding Plantin-Moretus Printing House. But, may I also point out that Christoffel Plantin moved temporarily to the Northern Netherlands and had his office in Leiden, where he was succeeded by his learned son-in-law Franciscus Raphelengius. After him followed many famous Dutch printing houses: the Elzevier family, Blaeu – father and son ‒, Luchtmans/Brill, Nijhoff, the modern Elsevier company, Kluwer, etc. And I can also point to the famous illuminators of medieval manuscripts as well as to important 20thcentury book and letter designers like Jan van Krimpen, Sjoerd de Roos, and many more. “Are there no curators, no specialists in the library? No ‘ambassadors of the book’?”

Let me reassure you – a bit. We care very much about our beautiful and highly interesting medieval manuscripts, about our large collection of incunabula, about our old and rare books, our post-medieval written collections: letters, 1

This paper was prepared for publication by David Farneth, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles/Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, IFLA.

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personal archives, alba amicorum, and autographs; we care about our bibliophile editions, our collection of book bindings, our large paper collection, our collection of children’s books, our famous chess collection, all of them special collections indeed. As with most libraries, our organizational structure has changed over time. When I first joined the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Royal Library (hereafter “KB”) in the early 1980s there was a Manuscript Department, an Old and Rare Books Department, a Bookbinding Department, a Paper Department, and a Maps Department, although some of these departments consisted of only one or two staff members. I won’t explain all of the organizational changes that have taken place over the years. We no longer have these small departments, nor even a “Special Collections” or “Heritage Collections” department. Instead, we have simply a Collections department. The curators for medieval manuscripts, for modern manuscripts, for old books, for modern prints, for bookbindings, for our large paper, chess, and children’s books collections (I like to call them collection specialists) belong to the staff of the collections department, in particular to the collection exploitation team. So it is clear that collection exploitation is considered their main task. Before elaborating on the tasks and competences of these specialists, I’d like to say something about the title of this conference, Ambassadors of the Book, and also about the explanation of the conference theme as found on the conference Web site. Let me just quote a few lines: “Among the many roles that libraries will continue to play in the 21st century and beyond, their responsibility for the preservation of the written heritage [my emphasis] is perhaps the one that is questioned least. This role of libraries, ancient as it may be, implies that library staff be trained adequately to meet the specific requirements of heritage collections in libraries [my emphasis].”

Reading these lines, I had the strong impression that by using the words “ambassadors of the book”, “heritage collections in libraries”, and “preservation of the written heritage” the focus would be on old and special physical books, medieval manuscripts, incunabula, bibliophile editions, and the like. But when the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section discussed the scope of “Special Collections” at the annual conference in Puerto Rico 2011 (we had a very stimulating three-hour workshop on the issue “What is rare material in libraries and what are the consequences for actions?”) we reached the conclusion that all kinds of collections – or even individual items – could be regarded as special collections, depending on the perspective and the collection policy of an individual library. Especially “heritage collections” might very well include schoolbooks, prayerbooks, songbooks, popular novels, children’s books, magazines, almanacs, and the like. “Heritage” means that someone has attached value to something. But who is this someone, and whose heritage is it anyway? There are a lot of people for

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whom, let’s say, science fiction pulp novels or comics are the only documentary heritage they have. So for a library – in particular for a national library like mine – it is a serious option to include all kinds of books in the heritage collection. In a certain way that is what we did in the KB. All books that have been produced in the Netherlands or are about the Netherlands are part of the ‘Nederland Collectie’, the Netherlands collection, regardless of their content or their cultural, literary, or research value. Books from the Nederland Collectie are not lent outside the library building, and they have priority for preservation and digitization. Something else came to mind when reading the conference Web site: there was no explicit mention of digital materials, which are certainly part of our documentary heritage. Therefore, I’d like to mention some activities that the KB is undertaking in this area. One of our major activities is the international electronic depot. This international e-Depot (as we call it) is a safe place where digital publications are being preserved for the scientific community in the most sustainable way. The KB entered into archiving agreements with several international publishing companies like Elsevier, Brill, Kluwer Academic, Blackwell, and Oxford University Press. All of the digital publications of these companies, including born-digital and digitized print publications, are being stored (Portico in the USA has more or less the same objectives).2 The first experiments with ingesting electronic documents in our international e-Depot began in 1995. Since then some 18 million digital publications have been stored. Of course this eDepot is growing, and next year we will have to move to a new digital environment. The migration of 18 million digital publications in different formats, with all their metadata, is not simple. In fact, it would be easier to reload the new digital repository with these digital publications instead of migrating them. A large part of them (for instance, all the Elsevier electronic articles) are still available from the publisher, and Elsevier is willing to load them again. But things are not so simple! Some of these electronic articles are not the same as the original ones. In some cases new scans have been made; in other cases the metadata have been changed. Or, the content may still be the same but the format is different. In my opinion these digital incunabula should be preserved in their original formats with their original metadata, just as they were stored in the 1990s. If I am to be an ambassador of the book, I am also an ambassador of the pdf 1.0 format! Speaking about digital incunabula, there are also born-digital special collections. Several libraries are already collecting digital archives of famous scholars and authors. Just like we have in the past preserved and provided access to the paper archives of some writers, scholars, scientists, politicians (to 2

Portico, digital preservation and electronic archiving service, www.portico.org, accessed 30 June 2012.

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their letters, drafts of their publications, speeches, etc.) we now preserve (or would like to preserve) the digital research data, the powerpoint files, the Weblogs, the emails, and the tweets of important writers and scientists of our times. And just as these physical personal archives are usually part of special collections, the digital archives also belong to the special collections. And what about Web sites? Yes, they are publications too. Moreover, they are the illustrated and illuminated incunabula of our still very young digital era. And they are all unique. Shouldn’t special collections specialists deal with them too? Shouldn’t they be preserved? But in what form? They may change every minute; should we preserve all of them? There are billions! Are they all special? No, but just like other types of publications, libraries may declare some of them special if they fit into their collection strategy. Some countries harvest all Web sites with the respective country code in their URL on a regular basis: every month, or three or six months, or every year. In other countries or in other libraries a selection is made. Are special collection specialists routinely involved in the selection process of Web sites for preservation? In my opinion they have to be, and that will become part of the job. If digital materials are part of the job of collection specialists, what else does the job entail? As I said, our collection specialists for special materials are part of the Collections Department, and in that respect their function is not different from a collection specialist for geography, art history, or social sciences. The Collections Department is responsible for three things: the selection, the acquisition, and the exploitation of the collections. Let me reiterate that I am talking about all kinds of collections: in different areas, and of different materials. I’m talking about the selection and acquisition of individual books, both modern books on Dutch architecture and 16th century bibles printed in the Netherlands. I’m also talking about subscriptions to electronic journals and licenses for access to, for instance, juridical databases. And selection is not only involved with buying new publications, but it also means the selection of materials that get first priority for digitization, be they medieval illuminated manuscripts or 19th century popular magazines. Digital scans are collection items! It also means, as I just mentioned, the selection of Web sites that we want to harvest on a regular basis and preserve as part of our heritage of today. All of these selection activities are part of the job of collection specialists. If we keep that in mind it will be clear that collections specialists not only need a thorough knowledge of their discipline, but also of digitization techniques and formats, and also of digital rights management to guarantee free access to digitized collections. But I’ll come back to their competences in a few moments. First, a few words on the exploitation of collections. Collection exploitation encompasses all the activities that enhance the visibility of collections and increase their use. In the traditional, physical sense it means all kinds of cultural and scholarly activities: the organization of exhibitions, conferences and

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workshops; giving presentations and papers; making contributions to publications; assisting scholars who study the collections; and answering questions from patrons. The role of collection specialists becomes much larger with the inclusion of digital forms of exploitation. One of the first digital services offered by the KB is Bibliopolis, the History of the Printed Book in the Netherlands, a scholarly, interactive information system that offers the researcher integrated access to various information sources: a handbook, an images database, all sorts of reference materials, access to bibliographies, etc.3 The Collections Department (i.e., one of our collection specialists) is responsible for the content of this site. We are responsible in the same way for the editorial part of other digital services, such as Web exhibitions and Web pages on Dutch poets and Dutch philosophers). We launched a collections Weblog. The fast growing digital collections of the KB offer many possibilities for new forms of research in the humanities, and for what is now called ‘e-humanities’. Some of these services are the result of huge KB digitization projects of recent years, such as the Memory of the Netherlands Programme or the Newspapers Online Web site.4 These are coming to an end as “projects”, and are now being added to the portfolio of the Collections Department as on-going services. So collections specialists will be responsible for their content too. A new phenomenon in the field of e-exploitation is data services, in which digital data (e.g. scans, and also metadata) are made available to external research projects and/or to other libraries and heritage institutions. Digital rights management is a very important aspect of these services, and this is clearly something that a collection specialist should know about. In short, there is a lot going on that requires new competences for collection specialists in the KB. There are also a number of things that do not belong in the tasks of our collection specialists. Doing one’s own independent research on the collection is not a task of a collection specialist – at least not during his or her working hours. His task is to facilitate the research of library users, be they academic scholars, students, or the general public. Of course he must be able to do research to answer questions asked by patrons. And he must be able to understand the research by others and participate in it, even in a pro-active way. And he must have a good knowledge of the collection and of his discipline. But always in order to serve others. Something else that does not belong among the tasks of our collection specialists is the preservation of the collection. We have a Collection Care 3 4

Bibliopolis, History of the Printed Book in the Netherlands, www.bibliopolis.nl, accessed 29 June 2012. The Memory of the Netherlands, www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/en/homepage, accessed 29 June 2012; The Dutch Historical Newspaper Online, http://kranten.kb.nl, accessed 29 June 2012.

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Department that is responsible for sustainable preservation for all our collections, including old and rare collections, modern collections, and, indeed, digital collections. Of course a collection specialist should be aware of the problems and developments around preservation, restoration, and conservation, and he should be able to discuss these items, both on a practical and a theoretical level, with his colleagues from the Collection Care Department. But he is not responsible for the preservation of the collection, nor for the library policy in this field. Let me now finally come to the competences of collection specialists in the KB. Collection specialists are library staff. They are not book historians, or geographers, or social scientists who happen to work in a library. They are librarians, library staff, and library professionals. This means that they follow the changes in the library and in the library world. Of course they enter the library with their subject specialization, be it book history, or codicology, or geography, or social sciences. They use their background to inform how they manage and interact with the collections for which they are responsible. They should be well aware of the trends and research developments in their discipline. They know the researchers, students, other virtual and physical library users, and the materials that all of these patrons need. They know the sources inside and outside the library. They are active in traditional exploitation and in e-exploitation. They serve the humanities and the e-humanities. They are able to participate in research. They are able to discuss problems of preservation, digitization standards, and digital rights and metadata. They are specialists with generalist knowledge. In the KB we invented a new name for this kind of knowledge: metaknowledge. The continuously growing and developing knowledge, skills, and expertise in many fields, combined in one person, based on study, experience, and professional contacts – that is metaknowledge. Collection specialists are librarians with metaknowledge. This is something to be proud of. And you can do a great job if you are a collection specialist with metaknowledge, even in a library without a special collections department. Maybe not having a special collections department is not so terrible after all.

Transience in Old and New Librarianship Per Cullhed Senior Conservator, Director of Cultural Heritage Collections, Uppsala University Library

Keepers of heritage collections have always run the risk of losing important information due to the transient, or short-lived nature of knowledge gained during their working lives as specialists. Be it the location of certain uncatalogued pamphlets or when a book was exhibited, when they retire such ephemeral knowledge is lost and is often missed by their successors. Today, when we experience how complicated it may be to construct digital collections, we might fear a not so distant future where when we finally get good digital coverage, the transient nature of electrons within our digital platforms will play tricks on us. Bits and bytes have to be cared for by many means, not the least of which, being organisational. Many of the examples to follow come from the University Library of Uppsala. As soon as a collection becomes large enough, a system to keep the collection in good order becomes essential, and good knowledge of the nature of any collection lies close to the hearts of all librarians. To put things in perspective, let us imagine library users in 1870. They were not numerous; the time for study was limited to daylight, which in winter must have meant just a few hours. As there was no heat either, the northerly library of Uppsala probably scared away users. Although the librarian and a few assistants also had to endure the harsh conditions, they were not likely to be bothered by library users and could therefore concentrate on cataloguing and publishing. This trend continued and it was typical of 20th century librarians to have undertaken large cataloguing projects, such as the prints and drawings collection catalogued by the senior librarian Åke Davidsson. Today his family name is synonymous with the items in this collection which all have a so-called Davidsson Number. Due to his publications, what he knew and learned about the collection still remains within the knowledge base at the library. In the same style, Monica Hedlund and Margarete Andersson-Schmitt undertook a large cataloguing project in the 1980s, when they catalogued the Latin manuscripts in the library. As a part of that project, in 1980, they interviewed the book-historian Sten G. Lindberg about his knowledge of the bindings. One way of saving knowledge in those days was by recording on tape. All together, this large project produced a ten-volume catalogue.

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Hans Sallander was responsible for another large cataloguing project. His catalogue of the Waller Collection on medical history from 1955 was an important initiative, now complemented with the digital catalogue of the manuscripts from the same collection. Few heritage librarians in Uppsala fail to recognise Hans Sallander’s handwriting, a true hidden piece of information. Recognising old librarians handwritings may seem to be an unimportant piece of information, but in the “detective work” often performed by librarians, it may be helpful as long as this knowledge is not completely forgotten. Sometimes this meta-knowledge of the collection is written as notes in the books themselves. In the early 20th century, a fire-damaged edition by Xenophon was discovered to have been in the home of a university professor during the great fire of 1702 in Uppsala. Senior librarian Axel Nelson had promptly noted this piece of information on the inside of the front board. His handwriting, along with his portrait, can also be found in places such as the drawings collection. This generation of librarians also led a relatively quiet library life, not often disturbed by library users, and their catalogues are still with us. The library’s main catalogue up until 1962 was written, often by hand, on paper and bound together in hundreds of volumes, still available in the main library. This catalogue is now digitised and every 20th image is indexed and made searchable. If the entry one is looking for lies between the indexed images, one has only to click on “next” until the right image is found. All librarians retire, sooner or later, and it is only through what is written and published, that we pass our knowledge of the collections on to future generations. Of course we must be thankful for all the catalogues produced in the 20th century, mentioned above. In one sense they probably gave today’s librarians more work, as users are able to find more items in our collections, but of course, this is the very purpose of a library. When it comes to library users, they certainly are not the same as in 1870. They demand space, Wi-Fi, electricity for their computers and they often want knowledge fast. If it cannot be found on the Internet, they quickly move on and this means that un-digitised resources often are not chosen as the primary source material for their studies. To be on the Web is to be and for future cultural heritage libraries, digital collections may become a question of “to be or not to be”. Today, however, to a large extent our material can still only be accessed by physical means, the reading rooms are still the main access point and we are among the few generations who must create digital collections, while still maintaining the old analogue collections. As funding is often scarce, making this essential digital leap may seem like an insurmountable problem. Especially since we know that we already have a backlog with, for example, cataloguing special collections in on-line catalogues. We also have new tasks to do. Creating exhibitions and managing loans for exhibitions is often a growing task. This has also brought about a change in

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library publication, from cataloguing as the main task, to more public oriented tasks. The positive side to this are the exhibition catalogues, which often contain very useful information on the collections, arranged in a thematic way. After working with cultural heritage collections for decades, the knowledge and expertise of individual items is often stunning. At a conference in Gothenburg in autumn 2011, the delegates were guided through some bookbindings exhibited for the occasion. By describing details from individual books, Bo-Lennart Hermansson from the Gothenburg University Library at the same time described bookbinding history from the city of Gothenburg, on the west coast of Sweden. A lovely piece of evidence is the proud binder’s label from Anders Ulric Hagman’s bindery, decorated with a fine binder’s lying press and the phrase “We bind all sorts of books and make any kinds of cases”. A rough compilation of some important competences needed in heritage libraries might look like this: library science, Latin, Greek, Arabic, art history, conservation, bookbinding, history of science and ideas, musicology, modern languages, codicology, palaeography, etc. A list like this can become long but by having the mentioned competences, a heritage library would do quite well. Any person starting work will also have to learn a lot about different collections, catalogues etc. and, as already stated, all staff leaving the library will walk away with far too much knowledge that ideally should be kept by the library. Furthermore, another aspect of the public oriented tasks, in contrast to the former generation of librarians, is that we tend to get more and more involved in answering questions about collections and many of our users suddenly realise that this expertise is a gold mine for them in finding what they want. When confronted with questions about the collections, expert staff constantly make associations between individual items and catalogues. In this way librarians become living catalogues and are quite correctly respected for this, however, as we are so highly available today, by telephone, email, presentations and visits, less and less time goes into recording what we know. From the library’s perspective, this is troublesome. The reason for this concern is of course, that in the rapidly growing “question answering” and “non-recording” library work, knowledge seeps out of the organisation as staff retire, or change jobs, and this, is the transience of old librarianship. Slowly, we realise that a lot of new competences are needed. We need to understand the logics of the new systems we must adopt for cataloguing and digitisation to be able to get the most out of our collections. It is not always as easy as simply saying that we can outsource every aspect of the digital world. We must at least be competent enough to be able to make good decisions when directing digital initiatives. Should we use proprietary software or open-source software? Are we aware of the costs and risks of vendor-lock-in i.e. as we start using one library system it may be very costly to change to a new and better system in the future? Copyright issues, optimising OCR, and will HTR or hand

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written text recognition ever become feasible? What devices are used by library users for accessing material, digital preservation etc. etc.? The challenges are numerous. Change is underway and we have to add new competences to the old ones and the real challenge may be not losing the old competences in the process. IT-interested history or language-oriented librarians have an ideal mix of old and new knowledge and they are highly sought after. Libraries are slowly changing from receivers of already published material, to publishers in their own right, as we gradually publish our collections on the Internet. We may not yet fully understand the implications of being publishers. Our organisations still have the same structure that they used to have and they may need to change in this respect. The publishing business made ours, is perhaps foremost, a wonderful opportunity for improving access to our collections. But we may also, if we dare to put more restrictions on the use of digitised original material, actually prevent wear and deterioration. In this sense digitising can also be a method for preservation. As images are so easily published, we may show hidden aspects of our collections, such as provenances and bookbindings. In fact digitisation can, and should be, the modern form of cataloguing. What has been done in this brave new world? When my library started a digital program we built one database per purpose, with little thought of how to maintain and develop them. And we published highlights of the collection. In the short life span of the Internet world, just some fifteen years, this way of thinking has already become history. A few years ago we started to think about the possibility of sharing the same system with others, thus broadening the financial and qualitative base of our digital collections. The analysis we made of costs in shared systems as opposed to individual systems showed that considerable savings could be made in shared systems. A cautious figure showed that shared digital platforms are up to five times more cost-effective than singular platforms. In one instance we found an individual platform that was twenty-three times more expensive than a shared one. The platform we started to design, and are still working on, is called Alvin: Archives and libraries virtual image network. At present is contains the ProBok database on provenances and bookbindings.1 In a simplified flow-chart, the platform looks quite straightforward: from image capture to long-term digital preservation. However, the vision for the platform is that a librarian should be able to walk right up to the computer, open the “choose object” option and then be able to register whatever digital collection they need, and that this system can be shared between many libraries. Behind the “choose object” option, lies a long array of individual projects for the digitising of objects, sound, film, images, manuscripts, provenances and 1

Probok, http://probok.alvin-portal.org, accessed 6 July 2012.

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bookbindings. The advantages of using the same system for many purposes are obvious. For example, all types of objects use the same authority records and images in digitised books can be individually tagged and made searchable by the use of the image register-form normally used for images only. In the digital world the borders between types of collections tend to disappear. One on-going example of the Alvin projects is called ArkA-D manuscripts project. It consists of four modules, A–D. A is a collection level entry of records, B is the image capture of those records, C is metadata, i.e. cataloguing and D is user generated content. To further explain, let us imagine a practical situation where seven boxes containing a personal archive arrive at the library. In module A, they are sorted into categories and are roughly described in a hierarchical system, built on the EAD (Encoded archival description) standard. This hierarchy is used in the B-module where selected parts or the whole collection is digitised, numbered and eventually published with or without extensive metadata. In doing so, we end up with seven folders of un-described material or a set of virtual cardboard boxes, much the same as the researcher would find in the library, in real cardboard boxes, but the difference here is that the whole world can see it. The C-module is the traditional metadata addition, or cataloguing module, increasing searchability but also costs. The D-module is a crowdsourcing application where the general public is invited to make contributions, for transcriptions and translations, summaries etc. The drawback of the digital world, apart from cost and complexity, is of course fears that we may not be able to access the items in the future. This is the transience threat in what I call new librarianship. We have to care for our digital collections, or we may risk losing them. The technical junkyard is growing and unsustainable digitisation projects may end up there too. Leaving aside the technical aspects whose challenges are already well known, a few organisational aspects of digital repositories should be mentioned. These virtual archives need to be taken care of and four digital preservation organisations (The Digital Curation Centre UK, DigitalPreservationEurope, NESTOR Germany, Center for Research Libraries, North America) issued ten principles on this issue in 2007, quoted here: ‒ The repository commits to continuing maintenance of digital objects for identified community/communities; ‒ Demonstrates the organisational fitness (including financial, staffing, and processes) to fulfil its commitment; ‒ Acquires and maintains requisite contractual and legal rights and fulfils responsibilities; ‒ Has an effective and efficient policy framework; ‒ Acquires and ingests digital objects based upon stated criteria that correspond to its commitments and capabilities;

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‒ Maintains/ensures the integrity, authenticity and usability of the digital objects it holds over time; ‒ Creates and maintains requisite metadata about actions taken on digital objects during preservation as well as about the relevant production, access support, and usage process contexts before preservation; ‒ Fulfils requisite dissemination requirements; ‒ Has a strategic program for preservation, planning and action; ‒ Has technical infrastructure adequate to continuing maintenance and security of its digital objects.2 Certifying a digital repository is one way of keeping up standards. A good general guide for how an audit and certification process can be brought about is the OCLC and CRL “Trustworthy repositories audit and certification criteria and checklist”. Right now, developments are underway for a new ISO-standard with the same purpose and this would, of course, be an important step forward in digital preservation. Currently this is a draft international standard (ISO-DIS 16363). Another way of implementing this organisational fitness is the Pm3 – model. This is a model for improving maintenance management in, for example, digital repositories with five distinct communication and decision-making levels. You may want to think of it as a model of communication between the wishes of a library and the actions taken by developers, and it is a system built for both maintaining and developing a digital archive. The Pm3 does a lot of things, essentially keeping good order of the different roles in maintaining a digital system. For example, documentation is necessary, to avoid problems with key knowledge personnel. If you lose one competence, the replacement needs to know what the predecessor has done. This aspect of Pm3 could serve as a good example for cultural heritage collections. If we want to put it simply, all information, noted and needing to be permanently accessed, will stand a better chance of survival. The fight against transience in libraries is an on-going process, but as stated here, the elements of this struggle change over time and must likewise be kept alive with ever changing competences.

2

Center for Research Libraries, Ten principles, www.crl.edu/archiving-preservation/digitalarchives/metrics-assessing-and-certifying/core-re, accessed 6 July 2012.

‘A Great Number of Useful Books’: The National Trust and its Libraries Mark Purcell The National Trust Libraries Curator, United Kingdom

The National Trust is one of the United Kingdom’s most prominent public bodies. On almost any day of the week, a British reader can open a newspaper and practically guarantee that there will be a story somewhere about the Trust and its activities. ‘The National Trust for places of historic interest or natural beauty’ was founded by three Victorian philanthropists in 1895. It began small, but by 2012 it was responsible for an enormous portfolio of properties, some given to the Trust by supporters, others purchased after fundraising campaigns, and still others allocated to it by the state in payment of tax bills. Trust properties include a large part of the nation’s coastline, landscape, mountains, nature reserves, gardens, farms, factories, castles, Roman remains and – of course – historic houses, often packed with important collections.1 These include, among other things, works of art, silver, textiles, clocks, antique sculpture, stuffed animals, musical instruments, furniture, ceramics, architectural drawings, costumes, scientific instruments, tennis balls, kitchen equipment and a few fire engines. There is even a mercifully defunct nuclear missile.2 But the key point is that the Trust is big – in obligations though not necessarily in cash and staffing levels – and that it cares for an incredibly diverse portfolio. The historic side of this portfolio is often astonishingly complete and wellpreserved: the outcome of a national story which has tended toward evolution rather than revolution. The Trust and its staff wrestle with two imperatives: to preserve its properties for the future, and to make them available and accessible for public enjoyment now. In short we are still striving to carry out the mandate set out in the National Trust Act passed by Parliament in 1907: to preserve our properties for the benefit of the nation. The other crucial piece of information is that despite the word ‘National’, the National Trust is not an official body. We are, of course, eligible for grants, 1 2

For the historical background see Merlin Waterson, The National Trust: the first hundred years (London: National Trust, 1994). Treasures from the National Trust (London: National Trust, 2007) provides a useful pictorial record of the sheer range of objects in the collections; the Trust’s online collection information provides an increasingly comprehensive overview, though in some areas object descriptions are as yet basic, and are gradually being upgraded.

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National Lottery awards, and tax concessions like other charities. But fundamentally we are a private institution which is entirely self-financing and selfgoverning. Operating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Scotland has its own National Trust for Scotland, a smaller but broadly similar institution), the Trust’s legal framework is governed by a series of Acts of Parliament. But it is not funded by the state, its Director General does not report to a government minister, and there is no annual budget round to be negotiated with the UK Treasury. The Trust’s money – which is never quite enough for all the things that need to be done – comes mostly from commercial activities, investments, gifts and bequests, and above all from annual subscriptions (the full price is currently £53, or about €66) paid by more than four million members of the public. This makes it one of the largest supporter organisations in the world, with more than ten times the combined membership of all the United Kingdom’s political parties. Strategy is set by a Council and Board of Trustees (some elected, and some ex officio), and is implemented by professional staff, aided and abetted by large numbers of volunteers. In other words, the Trust is entirely different from bodies like the US National Parks authority, or in Germany the Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin (which manages the former Prussian royal palaces), both backed by Federal or regional authorities. In fact, in international and particularly in western European terms, the National Trust is a very unusual organisation indeed. What implications, then, does all this have for Ambassadors of the Book? The answer is simple. The National Trust has libraries. Indeed it has a great number of libraries, perhaps more individual historic libraries than any other organisation in Europe.3 There are about 300,000 books – dating from the 11th to the mid-20th century, in more than 150 locations. By way of clarification these are not office reference libraries: we do not run a staff library as such. They are the historic collections which came to us with our houses, and which have remained on site in their original homes. Virtually all of our books are special collections-type material, ranging from Romanesque manuscripts to private press books and twentieth-century first editions. We have a small collection of 3

For a brief overview see Treasures from the libraries of National Trust country houses, ed. Nicolas Barker (New York: Royal Oak Foundation, 1999). There is as yet no comprehensive book on libraries in British country houses, but two smaller works on Wales and Ireland provide a helpful overview of some of the issues. They are: Thomas Lloyd, “Country-house libraries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries”, in A nation and its books: a history of the book in Wales, ed. Philip Henry Jones and Eiluned Rees (Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1998), and Mark Purcell, The Big house library in Ireland: books in Ulster country houses (Swindon: National Trust, 2011). Numerous studies of individual National Trust libraries have been published in recent years, principally in three journals: The book collector, Library history, and the National Trust’s own Historic houses and collections annual, published in association with Apollo. The National Trust’s PDF bibliography of its properties provides a useful summary.

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incunabula (about 70 of them are in the library at Blickling Hall, in Norfolk, many early, rare, of distinguished provenance or illuminated. The same library, assembled by the bibliophile Sir Richard Ellys early in the eighteenth-century, also has a large collection of sixteenth-century books, including three bound for Jean Grolier).4 Other early libraries include that at Lanhydrock, a seventeenth-century house in Cornwall (about 1400 pre-1701 British books and about 900 books printed in Continental Europe in the same era, bought and read by a pair of contemporary owners), and the ancient farmer’s library at Townend (assembled from about 1590 by successive generations of the Browne family, and rich not only in early English books, but also in chapbooks – cheap popular literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many now unique).5 At Anglesey Abbey (Cambridgeshire) there is a superb collection of colour plate books, most in mint condition, and at Waddesdon Manor (Buckinghamshire) superlative ancien régime French bindings, many of royal provenance, from the collection of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild. With so many great country houses many of the books of course belonged to aristocrats, landowners and courtiers. Molly Lepel, for example, was an important figure at the court of George II and Queen Caroline of Ansbach, and a correspondent of Voltaire: unsurprisingly her library at Ickworth (Suffolk) is rich in both political pamphlets and in French Enlightenment books. On the other hand many of the libraries are rather humbler, the books of provincial country gentlefolk rather than very grand people. Calke Abbey in Derbyshire has play scripts from eighteenth-century domestic theatricals, locally printed music, and books on mundane topics like carriages and rat-catching. Erddig (Wales) has legal references books, as well as at least one eighteenthcentury book on the brewing of beer. Almost all the earlier libraries have seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century school and university text books, though Springhill (again in Northern Ireland) goes one further with a 1685 edition of Descartes interleaved and annotated at public lectures in Leiden in 1688. Then there are the libraries of two British Prime Ministers (Disraeli and Churchill), as well as books in the houses of literary figures. Some, like Shaw or Carlyle, are known internationally. Others (Kipling, Vita Sackville-West) are perhaps more famous in the English-speaking world. Several of these liked to annotate their books, though in fact almost all the Trust’s libraries are rich in books which were annotated, inscribed, or otherwise customised by their owners. In the world of the digital book this inevitably means that many of our copies are potentially much more interesting than the clean copies which have 4 5

Giles Mandelbrote & Yvonne Lewis, Learning to collect: the library of Sir Richard Ellys (1682-1742) at Blickling Hall (London: National Trust, 2004). Mark Purcell, ‘The library at Lanhydrock’, Book Collector, 54 (2005): 195-230; Mark Purcell, “Books and readers in Eighteenth century Westmorland: the Brownes of Townend”, Library history, 17, 2 (2001): 91-106.

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been usually been digitised. Another key point emerges from the fact that many research libraries until very recently systematically rebound books, with comparatively little thought for their artefactual value. Today one hopes this is very rare, but anecdotally there are stories of medieval bindings which have disappeared within living memory, which can only hint at the likely scale of the losses for more recent books. By contrast the overwhelming majority of the Trust’s books are in contemporary bindings. This is not just a matter of fine bindings – though of course aristocratic libraries contain them – but also of early roll- and panel-stamped bindings, early edition bindings, and most of all of the thousands of middle-rank bespoke bindings from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. We also have very large collections of early nineteenthcentury books in original publisher’s cloth, as well large numbers of important twentieth-century books with dust jackets (which are often discarded by British research libraries). One of my personal favourites in our collections is a first edition of Jane Austen’s Pride and prejudice (1813) (Tatton Park, Cheshire), in publisher’s boards as collected from the bookshop. It did not belong to a connoisseur, but to a contemporary woman reader who wanted it for the story. These examples of annotations and bindings illustrate rather well the potential for a profitably symbiotic relationship between conventional research libraries and historic libraries like ours. National Trust curators – and indeed our counterparts in the British Royal Collection – have been known to talk about objects ‘in captivity’ and ‘in the wild’. This may seem a little whimsical, and isn’t perhaps to be taken entirely seriously, but there is a serious point behind it. In recent decades cultural historians and especially historians of material culture have been more and more preoccupied with the idea of contextualising the study of objects. When it comes to books, clearly, that means not just knowing how to collate the incunable or look up the 1813 Pride and prejudice in R. W. Chapman’s bibliography of Jane Austen, but understanding how Venetian Renaissance books found their way to sixteenth-century England, or how and why an early nineteenth-century Cheshire gentlewoman read Jane Austen. Many of these historical questions are much easier to wrestle with if at least occasionally the books have remained in their original context, and this points up the clear value of having well-run historic libraries operating alongside those with massive reading rooms, environmentally-controlled storage, and collecting policies based on text and typography. Librarians unsurprisingly tend to think of libraries are being about books, and today increasingly about digital assets. But in NT libraries we have to think in rather broader terms. In the first place there is the political context that we, as librarians, cataloguers or conservators operate within a very large organisation with a huge range of potentially demanding and expensive responsibilities. If libraries are to be taken seriously alongside tapestries and beetles, catering facilities and lead roofs, I as the Trust’s libraries curator need to be able to

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bring them to life for the non-specialist, in the first instance to those colleagues who decide where our money should be spent. That requires skills not just of knowledge and planning, but also of rhetoric and presentation – something which I fear librarians are not traditionally thought to be very good at. In the past, when I have interviewed staff, I have almost always asked them to give a presentation: not some dull prepared thing based on reading bullet points off Powerpoint, but a spontaneous five minutes exposition of some books pulled down from the shelves. Personally I think it’s a skill which should be taught on library courses, though I have never heard of that happening. Quite simply if my staff cannot enthuse me about our books, they are unlikely to excite the network of National Trust general managers (who control the budgets), and unlikely to capture the imagination of our supporters. More tangibly, even a curatorial approach is modulated by broader issues, specifically issues of people and places. Almost all our libraries are in historic rooms, which for us are much more than simple storage spaces. At Dunham Massey (Cheshire), for example, the very beautiful early eighteenth-century closet library of the 2nd Earl of Warrington, with its scientific instruments, its 1768 catalogue, and its massive set of library steps (complete with a reading desk) is itself the single most important artefact of the entire library collection. The books on the shelves are not unimportant. Some indeed are annotated, others contain the bookplate of the Earl’s daughter Lady Mary Booth, and many are in Warrington livery bindings. Most of the books are seventeenthand eighteenth-century English books, but the grandest book of all is a truly sumptuous copy of Blaeu’s Atlas Major (Amsterdam, 1663), a book whose cultural value is almost overwhelming set within the exquisite private study of a Baroque grandee, a room dominated by his orrery and his telescope. Again the key word is context. Similarly at Tyntesfield, near Bristol, the interest of a large collection of Victorian books is magnified many times over by the fact that they have remained in subject order on the shelves of the great gothic room built to house them, little altered since the 1890s, and complete with a privately-printed catalogue and a borrower’s register for members of the household. Books like these have a biographical value which goes beyond their importance as individual texts, in illuminating the lives of real people and real places. A final and more unexpected example – on its own very telling – is an early twentieth-century manual on the once controversial subject of contraception, sitting alongside Renaissance books at Chirk Castle in Wales. In a sense, therefore, we are running what amounts to a museum of books, or more accurately about 170 of them. All too often libraries use the word ‘museum’ as an insult (I find this both exasperating and difficult to understand. Libraries and museums have much to learn from one another. And I wonder whether those who insist on treating the word museum as a synonym for mausoleum have actually visited many museums). Like conventional museums, our houses are open to a broad public, and our largest houses receive hundreds

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of thousands of visitors a year, operate a full programme of public events, and of course a programme of preventative and remedial conservation. The libraries sit within them, managed on a day-by-day basis by local staff, but drawing on the expertise of the professional staff as and when necessary. That is not to say that visitors are usually encouraged to browse the shelves (generally very definitely not, though we quite often provide modern books that visitors can look at while they sit in libraries), but both guidebooks and guided tours generally discuss both rooms; and books and everything on our shelves can be made available via the enquiries system address attached to every catalogue record in our online catalogue.6 Our libraries are certainly cosseted, as indeed they deserve to be, and they are not heavily used by researchers looking to read their texts, but they are very definitely both alive and available. By contrast, historically the Trust’s management of its libraries was a disaster. In the first half of the twentieth century the organisation was poorlyfunded and ran on minimal staffing levels. Its few curatorial staff had little experience of antiquarian books and took little interest in them. When the great library at Blickling needed cataloguing in the late 1940s, the Trust brought in the former private owner’s secretary, ignoring her protests that she was entirely unqualified to do the work. From the 1950s there was a slightly desultory attempt to create a card catalogue of pre-1701 books, though sixty years on the enterprise seems both poorly-organised and of dubious scholarly competence. By the 1980s library conservation was very definitely being sorted out, but the National Trust’s libraries were still widely regarded as an embarrassment, but with so great a range of demands on time and funding it was only in the 1990s that a major fundraising appeal was launched by the Trust’s supporter group in the US. Only in 1999 did a full-scale library project start in earnest. In the thirteen years since then a great deal has happened, not least the creation from scratch of well over 200,000 catalogue records, with much of the work done by freelance contractors, typically either people with a very high level of expertise who have recently retired from senior management posts, or recently-qualified librarians. This has had the unplanned outcome that a surprisingly large number of British rare books professionals have at some point worked for the National Trust. There are two ex-National Trust cataloguers at Cambridge University Library (one is the head of the rare books department), several in Oxford and Cambridge colleges, and one at the Bodleian. Others have gone on to work at Eton College, the Royal College of Physicians, or have become prominent in professional bodies like the Historic Libraries Forum or the CILIP Rare Books Group. And we have also sponsored a large number of student internships. 6

The National Trust catalogue is mounted online on Copac (copac.ac.uk), the United Kingdom union catalogue. It is possible to narrow down searches to either the whole National Trust data set, or via keywords to individual libraries, and the records generally contain detailed copy specific information on provenance, bindings, and so on.

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This has provoked on my part a whole series of reflections on what we actually need from rare books specialists, and indeed one or two thoughts about their training. The first thing, clearly, is that in common with any other collection we need hard skills. A grasp of the outlines of European history and some familiarity with a reasonable range of languages is clearly desirable. The former is generally not too bad, but by contrast with the situation in Antwerp (or indeed Berlin or Paris) language skills cannot be taken for granted in Britain – as a nation we are dreadful at other European languages. An ability to catalogue rare books to international standards, make sense of some simple Latin, grasp what might make a library or a book important, write a collecting policy, post on Facebook, tweet, deliver a public lecture, deal with booksellers, collate an early printed book, know how to use electronic and printed reference sources, access digital libraries, are all the other obvious skills I would like to be able to take for granted. I must say that here and there I am slightly sceptical that all of them are necessarily being taught and learned to the extent that they need to be, or in a way which reflects a sensible balance between the desirable, the essential and the mildly useful. Some years ago I remember being deeply shocked, for example, to discover that a pair of interns seemed to have spent so much time on their rare books course – I forget where – learning about very complex collational formulae (not useless, but not necessarily something for every day) that they had never even heard of the English short title catalogue. So much for the specifics, but I suspect it will be clear from what I have said about the nature of my own work that I place a very high premium on socalled ‘soft skills’ (rarely can any skills set have been more badly misnamed). Much of my own work – and that of my staff – is about projecting expertise in a way which enthuses other people and gets things done which might not otherwise be regarded as interesting, necessary or affordable. Each of our cataloguers and conservators is and has to be an ambassador for what they are doing, and in practice because our houses and libraries are open to the public much of what they do is done in front of a public audience. For some who work in ‘ordinary’ libraries this may seem strange. It may even seem unaffordable, since inevitably time spent talking to our visitors costs money, but from our point of view engaging with our supporters is something we cannot afford not to do. We exist for their benefit. We rely absolutely on their long-term interest and support. In order to sustain this we need to build deep and lasting relationships with them, to encourage them to visit us over and again, to find new things for them to see, and new ways of looking at familiar places. Research, for me, falls into the same category. Many libraries are now deeply suspicious of their curatorial staff spending time on research, and up to a point one can see why, particularly if in practice research means aimless burrowing into trivia that never gets published. But for us, at least, research provides the bread and butter understanding that we need to talk to our visitors. ‘Did anyone read these books’? ‘What do you have here that is rare’? ‘Do you have any

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books that belonged to women’? These questions and hundreds like them are not just the raw materials of scholarship, they are the raw materials of a good guided tour or a good public lecture, and unless the people who know the collections best – the curators – try to find out the answers, no-one else can or will. And while it is easy enough to demand that research should be driven entirely by reader demands, as anyone who has actually done any knows it is often a serendipitous process, and you only discover what is really interesting by going off and looking, without necessarily having any very fixed idea of what you hope to find. My point is this: if we choose not to recruit people with the skills I have outlined above, or to develop and broaden those skills in our existing staff, the National Trust’s libraries would return to the 1950s. They would become, again, leather wallpaper. And that would be a major loss not only to international scholarship, but also to the experience of National Trust supporters and visitors.

Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation: Results of a DigCurV Survey Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt Göttingen State and University Library

Introduction In recent years, libraries and other cultural heritage institutions have experienced a rapid increase in the number as well as the size of their digital collections. As a result, the importance of digital preservation and curation is continually growing. At present, professional training is not yet well established in this field. This results in a lack of staff that have the appropriate skills and competence to take care of and ensure long-term access to digital holdings. At the same time, the growing demand for training opportunities that target these issues cannot be met by the number of existing training offers. In response to this situation, the project “Digital curator vocational education Europe” (DigCurV) is developing a curriculum framework for vocational training and education in the field as well as building a stakeholder network.1 During 2011, DigCurV carried out research to survey and analyse both the existing training opportunities and training needs in the sector to inform the development of the curriculum. The results of the survey on training needs will be presented in this paper.

Conception and Execution of the Survey on Training Needs The online survey was conducted in July and August 2011. It targeted staff members of libraries, archives, museums and other cultural heritage institutions as well as of organisations in the scientific and education sector, such as universities. Four hundred fifty four respondents completed the survey, which provided a broad basis for analysis.

1

DigCurV is funded by the European Commission’s Leonardo da Vinci Programme. It brings together organisations from Europe, Canada and the USA, www.digcur-education.org, accessed 30 June 2012.

64 Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt

The first part of the questionnaire collected general information, such as the country, type and size of the participant’s organisations. It also asked the participants to indicate the tasks they are responsible for in their day-to-day work. The next questions focused on the institutions’ involvement in digital preservation activities, i.e. if there is long-term storage of digital materials and if yes, what kind of staff and how many staff are assigned to the associated tasks. The following part dealt with the organisations’ plans for digital preservation training. In addition, it asked the respondents to indicate the training methods and the time frame they considered the most suitable for their organisation. Subsequently, the survey participants were asked to assess the importance of two sets of tasks and skills (with each item representing a task and the required skill or competence to fulfil this task) in terms of the staff effort involved in digital preservation and curation. These consisted of a list of general tasks, and another one with digital preservation-specific and technical tasks. Finally, the last part of the survey concentrated on assessing the need for training with regard to several skills and competences. Again, there were two lists of items – one containing general skills, the other digital preservation-specific and technical areas. When designing the survey questionnaire, we drew upon previous research and literature on the topic, such as the OAIS reference model2, the DCC curation lifecycle model3, the DPOE’s training needs assessment survey4, the work of Scheffel, Osswald and Neuroth on qualification in the field of digital preservation5 as well as a paper on education for eScience professionals by Kim, Addom and Stanton.6

2

3 4

5

6

Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, Reference model for an open archival information system (OAIS). Draft Recommended Standard. CCSDS 650.0-P-1.1. Pink Book. Issue 1.1. (CCSDS, August 2009), http://public.ccsds.org/sites/cwe/rids/Lists/CCSDS%20 6500P11/CCSDSAgency.aspx, accessed 4 July 2012. Digital Curation Center, “DCC curation lifecycle model”, www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/cura tion-lifecycle-model, accessed 12 June 2012. Digital preservation outreach and education (DPOE), Training needs assessment survey: executive summary, www.digitalpreservation.gov/education/documents/DPOENeedsAssess mentSurveyExecutiveSummary.pdf, accessed 12 June 2012. Regine Scheffel, Achim Osswald, Heike Neuroth, “Qualifizierung im Themenbereich‚ Langzeitarchivierung digitaler Objekte”, in nestor Handbuch. Eine kleine Enzyklopädie der digitalen Langzeitarchivierung, version 2.3, ed. Heike Neuroth et al. (Boizenburg: Huelsbusch, 2010), http://nestor.sub.uni-goettingen.de/handbuch/artikel/nestor_handbuch_artikel_ 468.pdf, accessed 12 June 2012. Youngseek Kim, Benjamin K. Addom, Jeffrey M. Stanton, “Education for eScience professionals: integrating data curation and cyberinfrastructure”, in The international journal of digital curation, 6, 1 (2011), www.ijdc.net/index.php/ijdc/article/view/168/236, accessed 12 June 2012.

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Results of the Survey Analysis General Information About the Survey Population Overall, 454 respondents from forty-four countries participated in the survey. However, the majority of them (365 responses, 81.3 %) come from Europe (see figure 7.1). Among these again, the largest proportion (53.9 % of the total population) constituted the countries of the DigCurV partners: Germany (27.2 % of the total population), the UK (9.4 %), Ireland (8.2 %), Italy (4.9 %) and Lithuania (4.2 %).7 Responses from other European countries accounted for 27.1 %, with the highest numbers of respondents coming from Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands. 14.0 % of the total responses were received from North America and 4.7 % from other countries in the world.

Germany

122

United Kingdom

42

Ireland

37

Italy

22

Lithuania

19

Europe*

123

USA

56

Canada

7

Other**

21 0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

* excluding Germany, the UK, Ireland, Italy and Lithuania ** excluding Europe, the USA and Canada Figure 7.1: Countries represented in the survey

When looking at the organisational affiliation of the respondents, the predominance of institutions from the cultural heritage and education sectors is obvi7

These numbers reflect the distribution strategy of the partners that concentrated on addressing mainly the respective local communities. This should be kept in mind when looking at the results.

66 Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt

ous (see figure 7.2).8 The survey received strong input from cultural heritage institutions: 24.4 % of the respondents are employed at archives, 23.8 % at research or university libraries, 18.1 % at national, federal or legal deposit libraries and 10.8 % at museums. Scientific and educational institutions are also well represented. In addition to the 23.8 % of respondents from research or university libraries already mentioned above, 18.1 % of the respondents are affiliated with universities, 11.5 % with research centres and 2.0 % with scientific associations. There was only a small percentage of respondents (4 %) employed at companies. However, as our main target group were cultural heritage, scientific and educational organisations, this low percentage was perhaps to be expected. Beyond that, a considerable number of respondents (18.7 %) indicated that they belonged to an organisation other than the ones listed in the online forms. These comprised a variety of organisations including public and special libraries, broadcasters, and local, state or national authorities and/or facilities. Four respondents indicated that they replied to the survey as individuals not belonging to any organisation.

Archive

111

Research or University Library

108

University

82

National, Federal or Legal Deposit Library

66

Research Centre

52

Museum

49

Company

18

(Scientific) Association

9

Other

85 0

50

100

150

Figure 7.2: Types of organisations

8

Multiple answers were allowed for this question, as the forms of organisations from these sectors given in the survey cannot always be clearly separated. For example, a university library might at the same time also be a national library.

Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation

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With regard to size, the findings of the survey correspond with the expected distribution of our target audience.9 Respondents from smaller organisations with a size of 1-100 FTE (full time equivalents) make up the largest proportion (45.3 %). Middle-sized institutions with 101-500 FTE are represented by 30.3 % of the respondents who answered this question. Only about a quarter of the responses (24.4 %) were received from larger organisations with more than 500 FTE (figure 7.3). 250 200

193

150

129 104

100 50 0 1-100

101-500

> 500

Figure 7.3: Size of the organisations in FTE

The respondents were also asked to indicate the tasks they are responsible for in their organisation.10 The results (see figure 7.4) point out that the members of the survey population are engaged in a variety of activities with regard to the different stages of the digital lifecycle as well as at various institutional levels. A great number of respondents are in charge of management tasks, such as management of digital preservation issues (53.4 %), general management tasks (28.5 %) or the recruitment of staff (16.1 %). Another field a considerable proportion of the survey population operates in are hands-on activities, such as functional tasks in digital preservation (41.7 %) or technical development and programming (20.1 %). A third area of activities that was often mentioned is the scientific and education sector. About a third (31.6 %) of the survey population is engaged in research. The training of practitioners belongs to the tasks of about a quarter (23.4 %) of the respondents. 17 % of the survey population are engaged in the education of students. The professional activities of the survey respondents cover a wide range of tasks associated with digital preservation and curation. Hence, it can be assumed 9 The question concerning the size of their organisation was answered by 426 of 454 respondents. 10 Multiple answers were allowed for this question, which was answered by 449 of the 454 survey participants.

68 Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt

that there was significant input of knowledge and expertise from many relevant areas into the survey.

Management for digital preservation

242

Workflow planning

216

Functional tasks

189

Research

143

General management

129

Training of practitioners

106

Technical development/programming

91

Education of students

77

Recruitement of staff

73

Other

76 0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Figure 7.4: Respondents areas of responsibility

Involvement in Digital Preservation and Curation Activities About three quarters (75.7 %) of the respondents11 stated that their organisation is storing digital materials (see figure 7.5). In most of the cases (55.4 % of total responses) the storage is done completely in-house, in some (16.5 %) partly in-house, partly outsourced. Only a few respondents (3.9 %) said that their organisation completely outsourced the storage of digital assets. In addition, 18.1 % of the survey population indicated that their institutions plan to store digital materials for long-term preservation in the future. So, in total, an overwhelming majority of the survey respondents’ organisations face the challenge of digital preservation now or in the near future. In their responses to this question, several respondents noted that their organisation is only at the beginning of dealing with the subject, for example: “The National archives of [a nation] is responsible by law for the preservation of archival records of central government departments in [country]. While it holds some material in digital format, it is only at the early stages of formulating a digital preservation strategy.”

11 This question was answered by 437 of 454 respondents.

Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation

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Another participant comments: “Little effort has been made to date to actually store it; the material has not been appraised nor have decisions [been] made to delete any items. The reason for this is that we lack expertise to deal with it.” 300 250

242

200 150 100

72

79

50

27

17 0 Yes, in-house

Yes, outsourced

Partly in-house, No, but plan to do partly outsourced so

No

Figure 7.5: Long-term storage of digital materials

Of the 331 respondents who previously had indicated that their organisations were involved in long-term preservation, 325 provided information with regard to the staff dealing with the associated tasks (figure 7.6). The results reveal that only 62.8 % of the organisations that do store digital assets have corefunded staff in charge of digital preservation. In only about half of these cases are staff members assigned exclusively to digital preservation tasks. 23.1 % of the organisations employ externally funded staff, who are responsible for digital preservation tasks either exclusively or amongst other duties. There are also some organisations (9.5 %) that have staff in place for the management of the outsourced preservation of digital materials. 12 % of the respondents from organisations that store digital assets indicated that there are no staff assigned to the related tasks. This particularly applies to small institutions. The proportion of organisations with 1-100 FTE that have no staff allocated to long-term preservation is 16.9 %, whereas it is only 5.8 % for organisations with more than 500 FTE. Few additional comments were recorded with regard to this question, so there is little additional information about how these institutions handle the tasks associated with the storage of digital material. One participant noted that these were fulfilled by “part time student employees”, another that “staff have some limited responsibility for digital preservation issues”. This may suggest that, in many cases, the responsibilities associated with digital preservation are

70 Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt

taken on to a very limited extent by staff (who are not actually assigned to the role) or that, because off a lack of appropriate staff or resources, digital preservation issues are not fulfilled at all.

Core funded, partly assigned to dp/dc

204

Core funded, assigned exclusively to dp/dc

100

Externally funded, assigned exclusively to dp/dc

40

Externally funded, partly assigned to dp/dc

35

Assigned to manage outsourced dp/dc

31

No staff assigned to dp/dc

39

Other

16 0

50

100

150

200

250

Figure 7.6: Statements applying to staff involved in digital preservation/curation

The numbers of staff involved in digital preservation given by 271 of the 331 respondents in this question ranged from zero to 150. However, the vast majority (247 participants, 91.9 %) stated a number between one and fifteen, with the bulk of values clustering between one and five (179, 66.1 %). The most frequently mentioned number is two (52 times), followed by one (42 times) and three (38 times). According to the respondents, the number of organisations planning to hire new staff for digital preservation tasks is not as high as expected when looking at the great proportion of institutions (more than 90 %) already storing or planning to store digital assets. Only 16.7 % of the respondents12 said that their organisations plan to hire new staff exclusively assigned to digital preservation tasks, 31.0 % signified that there are plans to hire staff partly assigned to these duties. In contrast, 57.3 % indicated that their organisation does not intend to hire new staff (figure 7.7).

12 Three hundred thirty five respondents answered this question. Quite a considerable proportion (25.1 %, 118) said that they could not give a statement with regard to the matter.

Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation

71

250

200

192

150 104 100 56 50

0 No

Yes, partly assigned to digital preservation

Yes, exclusively assigned to digital preservation

Figure 7.7: Plans regarding hiring staff

A lot of participants commented on this question. Many pointed out that budget constraints are a major factor that prevent new hiring: “We would like to [hire staff], but cannot due to budget cuts”, “No budget available” or “There is a moratorium on hiring new staff”. Also, several respondents noted that therefore “we are trying to incorporate digital preservation / curation tasks into existing jobs” and that “existing staff will be trained to take on these duties”. Another issue that is addressed by some of the respondents’ comments is a lack of properly skilled candidates: “The chance to employ specialized staff is small”. The findings described above – the high proportion of organisations storing or planning to store digital materials, the significant number of institutions that have no staff assigned to digital preservation tasks and the rather low percentage of organisations planning to hire new digital preservation staff – consistently suggest a considerable demand for training in the field to equip both existing and potential staff with the skills and competence needed for the longterm management of digital collections.

Training Plans and Preferences When asked about the training plans of their organisations in digital preservation, 35.4 % of the 370 respondents who answered this question stated that their organisation already provides training (figure 7.8). 35.1 % signified that there were no training plans for digital preservation staff in their institution. But 31.4 % of the respondents indicated that their organisation is planning training for staff with previous experience in digital preservation. Another 35.4 % said that training is planned for staff members that have no previous experience in digital preservation.13 These findings support the assumption of 13 Multiple answers were allowed for this question.

72 Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt

a significant demand for appropriate training offers in the near future. Roughly two thirds (69.1 %14) of the organisations do have a budget for training, and about half of them (50.7 %15) have in-house training facilities available. 140

130

131 116

120

96

100 80 60 40 20 0 Not planning training

Planning training for inexperienced staff

Planning training for Already provide training experienced staff

Figure 7.8: Training plans for digital preservation staff

With regard to the question of whether it is important that training is certified, opinions are divided. 47.6 % of the 347 respondents who answered this question affirmed this notion. Taking the opposite position, 52.4 % shared the view that certification is not crucial. To identify the most preferred type of training, the participants were asked to choose up to two training methods that they considered the most suitable for their organisation out of six commonly used forms of training delivery (figure 7.9). One training method stood out as being by far the most popular: small group workshops, which were chosen by 75.3 % of the respondents.16 Blended learning, a mixture of conventional face-to-face methods and online components, appeared to be the second most popular method. It was selected by 38.6 % of the respondents. The other four given options – written manuals (21.5 %), supervised one-to-one training by a senior staff member (20.2 %), online training (17.5 %) and large group workshops (12.8 %) – were far from reaching this level of preference. Similar to the previous question, to assess their preferences in terms of time frames, we asked the respondents to indicate up to two options that they considered the most suitable for their organisation. Again, one option turned out to 14 There were 401 responses to this question. 15 There were 424 responses to this question. 16 There were 446 responses to this question.

Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation

73

400

350

336

300

250

200 172 150 96

100

90

78 57

50 6 0 Small group workshop

Blended learning

Written Manuals One-to-one training

Online training

Large group workshop

Other

Figure 7.9: Most suitable training method

be clearly the most popular: a one-time event of one to two work days. It was favoured by 55.3 % of the respondents17 (figure 7.10). The second most popular time frame, chosen by 29.8 % of the respondents, was a one-time event of three to five days. The other three options – a course of one to two hours a week for one semester (19.4 %), a recurring block course of one to two weeks for several semesters (14.4 %) and a course of one to two hours a week for two or more semesters (9.0 %) – received less affirmation. 300

250

245

200

150

132

100

86 64 40

50

33

0 One time, 1-2 days One time, 3-5 days

1-4h a week, one semester

recurring 1-2 week 1-4h a week, two or block course, more semesters several semesters

Figure 7.10: Most suitable timeframe for training 17 This question was answered by 443 survey participants.

Other

74 Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt

In their comments to this question, several participants noted that the preference for short-term trainings is associated with constraints that arise from the heavy workloads of many staff members. These make it difficult for organisations to release staff for training for more than a few days: “Finding time for staff to do training is more difficult than finding money.”

2.4 Skills and Competences Needed for Digital Preservation and Curation To assess the training needs in the field, it is first necessary to identify the tasks and skills that are relevant to the subject matter. We drew upon previous research and literature on the topic (see the chapter “Conception and execution of the survey on training needs”) to compile a list of tasks and corresponding skills that have been described as significant for digital preservation and curation. These can be divided into two groups: one contains general tasks and skills, which are important for digital preservation and curation, the other digital preservation-specific and technical skills. The respondents were asked to assess the importance of each of the identified skills in terms of the work of staff involved in digital preservation and curation on a four-stage scale (essential, important, not important, non essential).

General tasks and skills The list of general tasks and skills comprised the following eight items: ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒

Collaborating with others; Communicating with others; Affinity for technology; Managing projects; Training others; Managing budgets; Leading a department or team; Organising conferences, workshops or other events.

A look at the results (figure 7.11) reveals three general skills that are considered vital: collaborating with others, communicating with others and affinity for technology. They are regarded as either important or essential by more than 95 % of the survey population. Managing projects and training others are believed to be of high relevance as well. Managing projects was considered to be either important or essential by 83.7 %, and training others by 77.0 % of the respondents. About half of the survey population (52.2 %) also regarded managing budgets as an important or essential task or skill.

Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation

75

Two items of the given list appear to be regarded as less significant: leading a department or team and organising conferences, workshops or other events. The majority of the survey respondents indicated them to be either not important or not essential (leading a department or team: 59.2 %, organising conferences, workshops or other events: 65.3 %).

Collaborating with others

267

Communicating with others

179

255

Affinity for technology

186

180

Managing projects

247

113

Training others

258

84

Managing budgets

35

Leading a department or team

33

16

49

258

72

195

147

145

23

30

61

194

64

Essential Important

Organising conferences etc.

23

129

162

Not important

124

Non essential

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Figure 7.11: Importance of general tasks/skills

Digital Preservation-Specific and Technical Tasks and Skills In terms of the digital preservation-specific and technical tasks and skills, the respondents were asked to assess the importance of the following eight items: ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒

Preservation planning; Ensuring access; Managing data; Evaluating and selecting data for long-term preservation; Storing data; Ingesting data; Research, development and implementation of digital preservation environments; ‒ Administering the archive.

76 Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt

The picture presented by the results in figure 7.12 is very clear: all of the given tasks and skills are considered to be highly relevant. An overwhelming majority of respondents (between 90.7 % and 97.7 % per item) rates them to be either essential or important. Five tasks are believed to be essential by more than 50 % of the survey population: preservation planning (58.7 %), ensuring access (58.2 %), managing data (58.2 %), evaluating and selecting data for long-term preservation (57.5 %) and storing data (56.0 %).

Preservation Planning

261

165

17

Managing data

258

175

9

Ensuring access

259

157

Evaluating and selecting data for ltp

258

170

Storing data

248

Ingesting data

217

R&D and implementation of dp environment

218

173

201

182

25

15

20

16

31

Essential Important

Administering the archive

200 0

50

212

Not important 27 Non essential

100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

Figure 7.12: Importance of digital preservation-specific and technical skills

2.5 Training Needs with Regard to Digital Preservation and Curation After having collected the survey participants’ opinions about the importance of a number of tasks and skills when dealing with the matter of digital preservation and curation, we also wanted to know how they assessed the need for training of staff involved in the field. Again, two lists were presented to the respondents: one containing general skills and the other containing digital preservation-specific and technical areas, which should be assessed on a fourstage scale: great need, moderate need, hardly any need, not needed.

Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation

77

General Skills The general skills that the respondents were asked to evaluate in terms of training needs are: ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒

Liaising between customers and information technology experts; Communication; Project management; Networking with people; Training others; Administration and finances.

The results displayed in figure 7.13 demonstrate that, by and large, there is a considerable need for training stated by the respondents in terms of general skills. This especially applies to four of the six given items. More than 80 % of the survey participants expressed either a moderate or a great need for liaising between customers and information technology experts (85.4 %), communication (83.6 %), project management (81.9 %) and networking with people (81.4 %). The ability to train others is also an area where the need for training according to the respondents is high: 73.3 % of them indicated either a moderate or a great need with respect to this item. The lowest proportion of a moderate or great need for training – which is nevertheless 60.6 % – was found to be administration and finances.

Liaising between customers and information technology experts

194

57 7

181

60 12

Communication

162

Project Management

150

212

66 14

Networking with people

147

211

73 9

Training others

206

101

91

220

25 Great need Moderate need

Administration and finances

47

214

140

30

Hardly any need No need

0

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

Figure 7.13: Training needs with regard to general tasks

78 Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt

Digital Preservation-Specific and Technical Areas With regard to digital preservation-specific skills, the respondents were asked to assess the need for training in the following eight areas: ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒

General knowledge / basic knowledge of digital preservation issues; Preservation and data management planning; Preservation tools; Information modelling and metadata; Trusted repositories; Strategic planning and policies; Technical systems; Legal aspects.

The consistency of the results is striking (figure 7.14). There is a high level of need for training stated for virtually every one of the eight given items. The percentages of respondents indicating either a moderate or a great need for training range from 86.2 % to 96.2 %. The areas with the highest proportion of survey participants assuming a great need are general/basic knowledge of digital preservation issues (64.5 %), preservation and data management planning (64.3 %), preservation tools (59.5 %) and information modelling and metadata (52.3 %).

General/basic knowledge

287

125

Preservation & data management planning

285

141

Preservation tools

155

263

Information modelling and metadata

179

230

26

15

22

27

Trusted repositories

204

Strategic planning and policies

195

194

51

Technical systems

185

217

37

198

29

Great need Moderate need

Legal aspects

207

175

Hardly any need

52

No need

0

100

200

300

400

500

Figure 7.14: Training needs with regard to digital preservation-specific and technical tasks

Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation

79

Most Pressing Needs The results in terms of the needs assessment on a four-stage scale are by and large homogeneous. There is a strong general tendency to state a high degree of need for training for all given areas. When designing the survey, we assumed that such a result might be the case. But we also wanted the respondents to set priorities to indicate the areas where the need for training is believed to be most urgent. Therefore, for the last question, we included a list comprised of general as well as digital preservation-specific and technical skills that had already been subject to the assessment of the training needs in the last two questions. We then asked the participants to indicate up to three areas where they assessed the need for training to be the most pressing.

General/basic knowledge

219

Preservation & data management planning

218

Preservation tools

171

Information modelling and metadata

143

Strategic planning and policies

133

Technical systems

92

Trusted repositories

82

Legal aspects

71

Liaising between customers and information technology experts

39

Project management

35

Communication

19

Networking with people

18

Training others

18

Administration and finances

13 0

50

100

150

200

250

Figure 7.15: Most pressing needs for training

From a look at the results (see figure 7.15) one can recognise that – although a considerable need for training in general skills was expressed in the previ-

80 Stefan Strathmann and Claudia Engelhardt

ous questions – when asked to prioritise, the most urgent need is clearly in the digital preservation-specific and technical areas, with general or basic knowledge of digital preservation issues and preservation and data management planning reaching the highest percentages (48.9 % and 48.7 % respectively).

Conclusions Overall, the DigCurV survey on training needs in digital preservation and curation received a lot of responses from a great variety of countries, with the majority of respondents coming from Europe. The survey participants are affiliated with a broad spectrum of institutions from the cultural heritage as well as the scientific and education sectors – in terms of organisation type as well as size. In their day-to-day responsibilities, they are involved in a range of different activities related to the field of digital preservation including management tasks as well as functional tasks or training, education and research. The survey results showed that a majority of more than 90 % of the respondents’ organisations has to address the issue of digital preservation and curation: about three quarters of them are already storing digital assets for long-term preservation and another 18.1 % plan to do so in the future. However, there seems to be a shortage of staff responsible for the associated activities. Only 30.8 % of the respondents from organisations that store digital materials stated that there are core-funded staff exclusively assigned to digital preservation tasks. 12.0 % of the respondents even reported that there was no staff at all assigned to the tasks associated with the long-term storage of digital materials. Moreover, the number of institutions intending to hire new staff is also rather low in comparison to the percentage of organisations storing or planning to store digital assets. The proportion of respondents reporting that their organisation intends to hire staff partly or exclusively assigned to digital preservation tasks is merely 31.0 % or 16.7 %, respectively. In contrast 57.3 % stated that there were no plans to hire new staff. In view of these numbers, it seems likely that, in many cases, the tasks associated with digital preservation and curation will be assigned to existing staff that will need training to acquire or develop the necessary skills and competences. This suggests that there will be a substantial need for appropriate training offers arising from these circumstances. This assumption is supported by the numbers of participants who reported that their institution is planning training for staff involved in the long-term preservation of digital holdings. According to 35.4 % of the respondents, there are plans to train staff with no previous experience in digital preservation matters. In addition, 31.4 % reported that there is training envisioned for staff who have already obtained some experience in digital preservation and curation.

Skills, Competences and Training Needs in Digital Preservation and Curation

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In terms of the methods and the time frames for training which were considered most suitable for their organisation by the respondents, there are clear preferences. With regard to the methods, small group workshops stood out – with an approval rate of 75.3 % – followed by blended learning (a combination of face-to-face instruction and online training). The most popular time frame was one-time training events of one-two workdays, which were chosen by 55.3 % of the respondents, followed by one-time events of 3-5 workdays, which were favoured by 29.8 %. When asked to assess the importance of certain tasks and skills in terms of the work of staff involved in digital preservation and curation, the respondents ascribed a high level of importance to a variety of general skills, digital preservation-specific and technical skills alike. With regard to the general tasks and skills, three items stand out: collaborating with others, communicating with others and affinity for technology. All three of them have been labelled either essential or important by more than 95 % of the survey participants. In terms of the digital preservation-specific and technical skills, there are no items that stand out – because all of the given options were ranked as being highly relevant, with more than 90 % of participants assessing each item either important or essential. Similarly, a considerable need for training was indicated for both general and digital preservation-specific and technical skills. The proportion of respondents who indicated a great or moderate need for training lies between 60.6 % and 85.4 % with respect to general skills – with the highest values reached for liaising between customers and information technology experts –, and between 86.2. % and 96.2 % for digital preservation-specific and technical skills – with general or basic knowledge of digital preservation issues, preservation and data management planning and preservation tools being listed as the items corresponding to the highest levels of need. Although the results reflect a substantial need for both skill areas equally, when asked to prioritise the most pressing needs, the digital preservationspecific and technical skills clearly outplay the general skills. In summary, the results of the survey suggest that the growing importance of digital preservation and curation, accompanied by a lack of appropriately skilled staff is causing a situation with which organisations in the cultural heritage as well as scientific and education sectors are currently struggling. Accordingly, the survey respondents express an urgent need for digital preservation training that calls out for immediate action.

An Unused Resource: Bringing the Study of Bookbindings out of the Ghetto Nicholas Pickwoad Ligatus Research Centre, University of the Arts London

Although the traditional concepts of book format have been radically changed by the introduction and growing popularity of the electronic delivery of texts, for the purposes of this paper, written for a conference aimed at the needs of ‘heritage librarians’, the word ‘book’ is taken to mean the codex-form book. These are the books that, for the past four centuries at least, have been the subject of a huge amount of research, description and cataloguing. This work has resulted in elaborate systems for the analysis and description of – and a great deal of argument about – the presentation of text and image on the pages of such books and how those texts and images got to be there. And there to a very large extent, until quite recently, the story of the description and analysis of the physical book has traditionally stopped, although the history of the booktrade and more recently the history of readership have continued the story in different directions. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the place and role of bookbindings within this bibliographical world. The bookbinder comes between the producer of the text and its reader, as the workman who took texts on sheets of parchment or paper from the scribes or printers who produced them and turned them into the codex-form books that were placed in the hands of their readers and allowed them to ‘use’ them, that is to read them conveniently and to store them safely. They can, in this context, be seen as mediating the work of the former for the use of the latter, and their work therefore has the potential to give us information about the intentions of the producer and the requirements, and also the status and location, of the consumer, information that is, in many cases, not available elsewhere. Despite this, their work has remained to a very large extent unexplored. There are reasons for this, the first and perhaps most significant of which is that the history of bookbinding, as it has largely been written over the past 175 years since John Andrews Arnett wrote his Inquiry into the nature and form of the books of the ancients; with a history of the art of bookbinding, in 18371, 1

John Andrews Arnett, An Inquiry into the nature and form of the books of the ancients; with a history of the art of bookbinding, from the times of the Greeks and Romans to the present day … illustrated with numerous engravings (London: Richard Groombridge, 1837).

84 Nicholas Pickwoad

has been devoted to that small proportion of bindings that has been richly decorated or that has famous and aristocratic, if not royal, provenances. This has had two consequences. Firstly, at least 90 % of the literature on bookbinding has been devoted to less than 10 % of the surviving stock of bindings (it is quite possible that the actual figures are closer to 99 % and 1 %) and secondly it has associated the history of bookbinding inextricably with the history of the decoration of bindings. This has had the effect of confining the history of bookbinding to a decorative-arts ghetto, albeit a very beautiful ghetto, but a ghetto nonetheless, because it is a study that can, by definition, not be applied to the vastly greater number of books with little or nothing by way of decoration – the state in which most books were bought and read by their first readers. The complex methodology and terminology for describing such decoration that has resulted from this study does not help, therefore, with the description of books without decoration. This in turn has effectively all too often given those concerned with old books ‘permission’ to discount them as ‘uninteresting’ when compared to their more rarified, but much less numerous, decorated brethren. This is reflected in the reply Graham Pollard received from a cataloguer when he grumbled about an erroneous date-attribution of a twelfthcentury binding: ‘If you would direct me to anything in print about this, I will certainly read it and cite it’. 2 Pollard was therefore well aware of what he described as the ‘vicious circle’ of the study of plain, medieval bindings: ‘Cataloguers cannot describe these bindings because there are no printed studies to tell them how; and printed studies cannot be produced because students of medieval bookbinding cannot find the books to study’.3 What was true of medieval bindings in 1976 is also true of most later bindings today. The consequence, of course, is a completely lopsided history of postmedieval binding in which books in beautiful bindings, that constituted only a small and economically not very significant part of the booktrade, have come to dominate the ‘history’ of bookbinding to the exclusion of almost everything else. This means that anyone entering the study of the history of the book today will be unable to find, with a few notable exceptions4, any comprehensive 2

3 4

Graham Pollard, “Describing medieval bindings”, in Medieval learning and literature: essays presented to Richard William Hunt, ed. J. J. G. Alexander and M. T. Gibson (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1976), 50-65. Ibid., 51. The exceptions are, it seems, mostly in the English language. See, for example: Graham Pollard, “Changes in the style of bookbinding, 1550-1830”, The Library, 5th ser., 11 (June 1956): 71-94; Bernard Middleton, A History of English craft bookbinding technique, 4th rev. ed. (New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll; London: British Library, 1996); Stuart Bennett, Trade bookbinding in the British isles 1660-1800 (New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll; London: British Library, 2004) and David Pearson, English binding styles, 1450‒1800: a handbook (New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll; London: British Library, 2005). There are a number of studies of commercial bookbinding in the nineteenth century, e.g. Gebunden in der Dampfbuchbinderei: Buchbinden im Wandel des 19. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 1994),

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account of the bindings they will find on the books that they are most likely to handle in the course of their research. This has the further consequence, in this extended chain of consequences, that they are unlikely, therefore, to realise just what the bindings might be able to tell them about the books that they are using in their research. This is because they are unlikely to be aware of what might be learnt from them, whether decorated or undecorated, that is, about where, when and by what sort of person their books might have been read and to what sort of market they were being sold. If they are aware of this latent potential in the study of bindings and are interested to know more, they will be confronted not only by the lack of a literature to which they can refer, but also by the almost complete inaccessibility of bindings in most rare book libraries, except by the accident of finding them on the books they are consulting for their texts. This is because few rare book libraries, which will virtually all have closed stacks, have descriptions of bindings in their catalogues, and where they do, the descriptions are in many cases unlikely to be very helpful to a potential researcher, as they are often so generalised and superficial as to offer little useful information. In addition, because binding descriptions have traditionally not been accepted as a necessary part of the cataloguing of books, which largely remains the case today, with few exceptions (such as the recent incunable catalogues from the Bodleian library and the Bayerishe Staatsbibliothek)5, very few people working in libraries have been trained in how to identify and describe what they see in a reliable, consistent and useful manner. Even though a great deal of work has been done for many years on the description of the tools used to decorate bindings, and this work is therefore available to and often used by cataloguers6, the recorded tools still form only a small minority of those used historically, and of course the structures and materials used to make the bindings, that are all that can be described for bindings without decoration, inevitably remain largely unrecorded. Where they have been recorded (and this applies particularly to covering materi-

5

6

but even here the focus is often entirely on decorated examples, e.g. Sophie Malavieille, Reliures et cartonnages d’éditeurs en France au XIXe siecle (1815-1865) (Paris: Promodis, 1985). Most recently, the launch of the Probok website has begun to give public access to a wide range of historic bindings, www.ub.lu.se/o.o.i.s/30610, accessed 13 July 2012. Alan Coates, Kristian Jensen, Cristina Dondi, Bettina Wagner and Helen Dixon, A Catalogue of books printed in the Fifteenth century now in the Bodleian library, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) and, for the Inkunabelkatalog der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, see the online version, www.bsb-muenchen.de/Inkunabelkatalog-BSB-Ink.181.0.html, accessed 13 July 2012. The easily available data is heavily weighted towards late medieval German bindings (see, for example, the Einbanddatenbank at: http://www.hist-einband.de/), but binding historians such as Paul Culot, Mirjam Foot, Denise Gid, G. D. Hobson, A. R. A. Hobson, Jan Storm van Leeuwen, Howard Nixon, J. Basil Oldham, William H. James Wheale, to name but a few, have all made significant contributions to the identification of finishing tools in other countries.

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als), this has often been done, in the absence of a comprehensive and generally accepted thesaurus of terms, inconsistently and all too often inaccurately. The consequence of all this is that a valuable tool for enlarging our understanding of the history of the book is simply not being used, and because it is not being used, too few people realise that it even exists, even though the raw material for it is handled by everyone who looks at real books in early bindings on a library desk. There is not space here to explore the effects that the electronic book may have in furthering the separation of text from carrier and all the information that it contains, beyond saying that anyone who thinks they can understand the history of the book from electronic surrogates alone will be sadly disillusioned. Fortunately, there is a growing trend, particularly in the digitisation of medieval manuscripts, to include some images of the bindings in the digital record, though all too often these will not include images of the spine and edges of the binding, as to take these requires too much additional work during photography. The inclusion of images of bindings in digitisation of printed books is much rarer. Even where such images are included, however, the metadata used to describe them – and thus make them retrievable – is all too often far from adequate. It remains to be seen whether the increased use of electronic texts may in fact have the effect of enhancing the importance of the physical object by making it more special. I will quote one example of how far the work of the binders has been excluded from research into the history of the book. It comes from a recent history of the book in the renaissance7, in which not only is there just one reference to bookbinding in the index (and that simply to printed waste found in a series of bindings), but an almost wilful exclusion of bindings where they could actually help the author find answers to some of the questions that he raises. At one point he speculates on how soon books printed in Venice in the fifteenth century might have reached the peripheral markets of the time. Yet he states that ‘one cannot be certain that books now in Polish or Portuguese libraries had arrived there in the fifteenth century’8, to which the only response is that if they are in contemporary Polish or Portuguese bindings, then one can be entirely certain that they were in those countries in the fifteenth century, even if the books are no longer there. And if we know enough about the bindings, and even the plainest bindings have this potential, it may be that we can be sure not only in which country they were bound, but also in which city and even in which workshop. If a century of identifying where bindings were made by the finishing tools used on them can be ignored by an otherwise highly-informed author, what chance does the less well-known science of the study of structures and materials have of being recognised? 7 8

Andrew Pettegree, The book in the Renaissance (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010). Ibid., 66-67.

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The question therefore is how to place this resource (the information contained within bookbindings) at the disposal of those who might benefit from it and this was the question that lay behind the conference held in Oxford on 9 and 10 June 2011, sponsored by Ligatus, a research centre of the University of the Arts London, the Centre for the Study of the Book at the Bodleian library and the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL). The first day consisted of a series of short papers describing some of the printed and on-line resources for binding studies currently available and the analytical techniques used by those working in the field. The day ended with an evening lecture by Anthony Hobson, two weeks before his ninetieth birthday, in which he looked back at the early history of bookbinding studies, in which his own father had played such a notable part.9 The second day, which constituted the ‘working’ part of the conference, was a day-long discussion of topics raised by the study of bindings, between some 45 people from across Europe and the USA, all of whom were in some way closely involved in handling early books, whether as academic researchers, binding historians, librarians, rare book cataloguers, library managers, conservators, binders, or antiquarian booksellers. Perhaps the first thing to say is that the conference was pushing at a door that is, if not wide open, most certainly not closed. It was heavily oversubscribed (a capacity audience of over 150 delegates on the first day) and showed that there is a wide and growing interest in the subject, and equally a growing realisation of how an understanding of bookbindings could help us understand the wider culture and history of the book. The fact that the resources described in the presentations on the first day exist at all is proof of the interest, though it has to be said that several of these are dedicated entirely to decorated bindings. 9

The following papers were given on the first day of the conference, listed in programme order: Introduction (Nicholas Pickwoad), Kneep en Binding (Peter Gumbert), The Ligatus project (Thanasis Velios, Ligatus Research Centre, University of the Arts, London), Einbanddatenbank (Andreas Wittenberg, Staatsbibliothek, Berlin), Bindings on incunabula in American library collections (Scott Husby, Princeton University), Census of medieval bindings (Cristina Misiti, Istituto centrale per il restauro e la conservazione del patrimonio archivistico e librario, Rome), ProBok Project (Helena Stromquist, Lund University), Database of bookbindings in the British Library (John Goldfinch, British Library), Base de datos de encuadernaciones históricas (María Luisa López-Vidriero Abelló, Real Biblioteca, Madrid), Dizionario illustrato della legatura (Federico Macchi), Classification of finishing tools in Greek bookbinding: establishing links for manuscripts from the library of the St. Catherine’s monastery in Sinai, Egypt (Nikolas Sarris), The paper stocks of endleaves as historical evidence (Paul Needham, Princeton University), Early bookbinding studies and chimaeras (Anthony Hobson). On the second day, the discussion was started by a series of short papers, with each speaker addressing the subject from a different standpoint, as follows: Kathryn Sutherland (academic user), Mirjam Foot (binding historian), Martha Repp (rare book cataloguer), Robert Harding (antiquarian bookseller) and Martin Doerr (ontologist/ documentation expert.

88 Nicholas Pickwoad

The primary aim of the conference was to agree on what would be needed to bridge the gap that exists between the study of bindings and the rest of the bibliographical world, with the discussion broadly divided into three sections – Why is the study of bindings of value, How can it be encouraged and Who is the do the necessary work? The day started with a discussion of what the study of bindings has to offer the wider world outside the small field of self-avowed binding historians, and there was, perhaps not surprisingly from such a group, an agreement on the contribution that all bindings, not just decorated bindings, can make to our understanding of the history and culture of the book. One immediate way in which bindings can do this lies in the role that they play in establishing the uniqueness of individual copies of books. This is becoming more and more important as the increased use of digital surrogates of books on screen threatens, by separating the reader from the physical evidence contained within the book, and especially therefore the binding, to reduce individual copies of texts to something that more closely resembles the ‘ideal’ copy represented by text-oriented and internationally agreed catalogue entries. The general perception was that there is a number of user groups that would benefit from an increased awareness and a better-informed study of bindings – that included academic researchers, librarians, cataloguers and conservators, as well as the wider public, but it was generally felt that too few of those involved in the curation and study of early books properly understand the value of bindings (evidenced, as we have seen, by the almost complete absence of references to bindings in some recent histories of the book). It was agreed that one of the biggest hurdles to jump over was how to give better access to bindings, which at the moment is too often restricted or inhibited by the lack of adequate and accessible catalogue descriptions. To do anything about this, there needs to be not only a more informed agreement about what constitutes the minimal necessary record for a catalogue entry, but also better use of the records that do exist and which may currently be effectively lost in old cataloguing records, conservation reports, and so on. As a conservator myself, I am all too aware of the often quite detailed descriptions of bindings that languish in filing cabinets in conservation workshops or in personal databases that are every bit as inaccessible as the filing cabinets. One of the desiderata to emerge from the discussions was therefore the need for existing data resources to be better linked; a bid to fund a project to do just that is currently in preparation (see below). It was also acknowledged that there is an important distinction between a catalogue record as a finding aid and as a vehicle for research data. It was felt that beyond a certain level of detail , the work of describing bindings belonged to the researcher, but that useful data (such as, for instance, about when a particular common style of binding came into or went out of fashion) could be extracted from quite simple catalogue records.

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It was generally agreed that the use of bindings in research is inhibited by the difficulty of finding them in library collections. There was awareness of the circular argument that libraries will not provide resources for better cataloguing without proven demand, that there will not be proven demand until there is a greater awareness of the value of bindings, that there will not be a greater awareness of their value until it is possible to find the bindings, and that, of course, can only be made possible by better cataloguing. The greater use of images of bindings in addition to or even instead of cataloguing was proposed, as it would be of great assistance, both as an integral and necessary part of digitised copies of books and as a relatively reliable and terminology-free source of information in catalogue records. Their usefulness would however be limited to serendipitous discovery unless they were made machine-searchable, which means that there would still be a need for metadata to describe the bindings, whether as part of a digitised book or a catalogue record. If it is ever going to be possible to search electronically even for something as a basic as the different types of binding by structural type, some sort of cataloguing remains essential. There was strong agreement that much more attention needs to be drawn to the value of bindings in critical areas of the library and education sectors, as well as more generally, because although there is clear evidence of a growing interest in bindings, it is still too scattered and unfocused. An urgent need was identified for the better training of rare book library staff, academic researchers and conservators in the history and uses of bindings, which is not being met outside of a few isolated instances. The need to give those undergoing training access to larger numbers of early books than is currently the case was seen to be central to any such training, preferably with some form of guidance or tuition from experts, because a greater familiarity with the physical object is essential if their potential is to be understood and realised. The final part of the discussion looked at how existing databases and new electronic resources could be made more user-friendly and better able to serve as a means of educating as well as giving access to information. It was also thought that a greater exchange of information and experience between professionals involved in work with rare books and especially bindings would be of great value. This involvement could include an on-line forum, wikis, seminars, conferences, etc. In the course of the discussion it was suggested that it might be useful to send out a questionnaire to all those taking part in the conference to find out what everyone thought should be included in a binding description. Martin Doerr, of the FORTH institute in Herakleion, whose research into the handling of and access to data in different databases now underpins the work of Ligatus and the proposed ERC grant application that Ligatus has recently submitted, suggested asking two questions that would elicit more interesting answers: firstly,

90 Nicholas Pickwoad

what are the ten things you would most like to know about a binding? And secondly, why do you want to know them? The results of this questionnaire have proved in some ways unsurprising but in others somewhat unexpected, and also showed just how confused many people are when it comes to bindings. It has, as a consequence, been a difficult task to extract meaningful results from often apparently contradictory data. Category Decoration

Number of 10 references 65

Cover

43

Date of the binding

32

End-leaves

29

Boards

29

Provenance (ownership)

29

Geographic origin

27

Sewing

26

Binder/workshop

25

Furniture and fastenings

25

Edge treatment

24

Binding structure/technique/type

21

Restoration/repairs/conservation treatment

19

Original/contemporary/later

16

Spine

14

Endbands

14

Size

13

Condition

10

Picture

9

Table 8.1: Perceptions of what should be included in a binding description

Table 8.1 lists the 19 desiderata that were identified by the respondents as things that they would want to know about, in order of the number of times they were mentioned. It will be seen that decoration and cover stand out in front, but I suspect that this is more a reflection of the available literature and 10 This number exceeds the total of responses we collected because, in many cases, a single category could be mentioned several times by the same person. So the numbers presented in Table 1 do not represent the number of people who selected one category, but it shows the number of times this category was mentioned, thus indicating its level of importance.

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the entrenched association of bookbinding with its decoration than with a carefully selected curiosity. It still does not explain, for instance, what should be done about books without decoration. There are also four desiderata highlighted in grey which, although clearly popular, represent a different type of data, in that they are not descriptive, but deductive, as the data they represent can in most cases only be deduced from an analysis of the descriptive data and reference to existing knowledge, whether published or learnt through experience. They do represent information that many people would like to have, but it is the information that most cataloguers are least likely to be able to supply reliably.

Figure 8.1: Bindings description: number of references to each category of descriptive data

If we remove these categories, as shown in figure 8.1, we can see that although decoration and cover material still dominate the results, they are followed by five more or less equal categories of more technical information – endleaves, boards, sewing, furniture and fastenings and edge treatment – though what each respondent actually meant by a category such as ‘sewing’ is not so easy to know, but it at least indicates an awareness that sewing can have a significance.

Category Cover material

Average ranking 2.8

Position 1

Decoration

4.4

2

Binding technique

4.9

3

Binder / workshop

5.7

4

st

nd

rd

th

92 Nicholas Pickwoad

Category

Average ranking

Position

Boards

5.9

5

th

Picture

7.1

6

th

Endleaves

7.8

7

th

Sewing

8.8

8

th

Size

8.8

9

th

Furniture & fastenings

8.9

10

th

Spine treatment

9.3

11

th

Restoration/repair

9.7

12

th

Edge treatment

9.8

13

th

Endbands

10.2

14

th

Condition

10.4

15

th

Table 8.2: ranking of categories

We took these preliminary results and asked the respondents to rank them in order of importance, the results of which are shown in table 8.2, which shows in the upper section the ten most important categories of information as identified by the respondents, who, while they do not constitute a scientifically selected group, could be described as generally very well informed. It is interesting that binding technique, mentioned only 13 times out of 303, and therefore ranking equal tenth out of 14 rises to third in importance.

Figure 8.2: Distribution of reasons according to their frequency

Finally in this very brief resumé of the results of the questionnaire, figure 8.2 shows the proportions of the main reasons the respondents gave for wanting the information that they listed. It shows that a high proportion see this data as

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being in itself useful for research purposes, although a larger number see it more simply as data that should form part of any complete description of a book. There is not space here to go further into these results, but a more detailed analysis of the results is currently in preparation for publication, together with an account of the discussion and of the papers given on the first day of the conference. The results are however already informing the project now under way through Ligatus, that aims – in collaboration with colleagues from across Europe – to arrive at an agreed thesaurus of terms, one of the desiderata most frequently mentioned during the discussion. Some of these, most notably the team working on the ProBok database in Sweden, launched at the end of March 2012, have already made great progress with this. The aggregate of our endeavours will, I hope, be of use to the wider book community and provide one of the more important tools that will make the description of and access to the great variety of bindings that survive in our libraries that much easier. Only then will they be able to take their place at the high table of bibliographical research.

Preparing Librarians Technologically for the 21st Century Katie L. B. Henningsen Access Archivist, University of Kentucky

In the keynote address for the 2005 Association of College and Research Libraries, Rare Books and Manuscripts Section preconference in St. Louis, Missouri, and subsequent article, Deirdre Stam stated: “Although I read the occasional list of necessary skills with interest, and would certainly agree with Abby Smith that digital as well as traditional skills are de rigueur these days, I find that the requirements for jobs advertised today vary widely, depending on the holdings and setting of the special collections library that is doing the hiring. Beyond basic bibliography and an introduction to the standards and institutions of the field, I would be hard-pressed to identify a core set of skills that I consider to be utterly essential for everyone entering the field.”1

Conversations with colleagues who have entered the field in recent years suggest that more and more cultural heritage professionals are finding themselves involved in areas they received little to no formal training in, namely investigating and managing technologies designed to enhance their institution’s access, outreach, and advocacy efforts. At the 2008 Cultural heritage information professionals workshop, “Paul Marty (Florida State University) stressed that information needs in cultural heritage organizations are rapidly changing, and argued that the most important skills for cultural heritage information professionals are the ability to assess and evaluate user needs, advocate for change when necessary to meet new demands, and learn new skills as the needs of their organizations evolve.”2

Traditional skills, such as basic bibliography and an introduction to standards, mentioned by Stam have often been taught through hands-on experience. By 1 2

Deirdre C. Stam. “Bridge that gap! Education and special collections”, RBM: A Journal of rare books, manuscripts, and cultural heritage 7, 1 (2006): 28. Report on the cultural heritage information professionals (CHIPs) workshop, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, April 3-4, 2008: 7.

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coupling traditional hands-on training and experiential learning methods with technology, future heritage professionals will gain practical experience and be better equipped to effectively manage the digital technologies and online presence of their collections. For the past two years, I have designed experiential learning projects for graduate students in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Kentucky. In working with students I often found myself questioning how I might better prepare them to be successful in the job market and in their careers in a constantly changing technological environment. In part this stemmed from my own early experience, in which I was asked to manage a physical collection, implement open source software, and become familiar with metadata standards I had no prior experience with. I entered the profession three years ago, an enthusiastic graduate of the Rare books and special collections concentration at the Palmer School, Long Island University. Completing my degree on the heels of the 2008 economic downturn, I found myself in a competitive market with limited opportunities. My success in this situation is largely due to the training and experience I gained as a result of the Palmer School’s emphasis on experiential learning and hands-on training. Toward the end of my MSLIS in the Rare books and special collections concentration at the Palmer School, I was fortunate to secure a place in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Career Enhancement Program (CEP). The ARL CEP included a 240-hour internship in a large academic research library; a mentor; and attendance at the ARL Leadership symposium, a two-day conference on macro-level issues in academic libraries as well as career networking. My internship took place at the University of Kentucky Special Collections. At the time I had just finished a one-year project at Columbia University, arranging and describing a large archival collection. Frankly, processing an archival collection for 52 weeks at 35-hours per week had left me less than excited about taking on a similar project. I expressed to the University of Kentucky an interest in collection management. At the time, my idea of collection management encompassed purchasing rare material, donor relations, and security for heritage collections. So I was surprised when I arrived at the University of Kentucky to find that my project would be researching and developing a plan for implementing the Archivists’ Toolkit™, a data management system. This was not what I had in mind, but also something I had not considered as a key component in managing heritage collections. Although I had no prior experience with the Archivists’ Toolkit, I was willing and eager to begin the project. Over the first few weeks, I became a key resource at the University of Kentucky regarding the Archivists’ Toolkit, due to the fact that I was the only person actively working with it. I began by researching the implementation process and the user community associated with the Archivists’ Toolkit. In reviewing documentation created by other Archivists’ Toolkit users I was able

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to identify possible pitfalls and the additional information I would need to gather. My next step was reviewing the current method or methods of record keeping employed by the University of Kentucky Special Collections. I found that there were four separate FileMaker Pro™ databases, each recording data in different ways. These disparate databases had resulted in difficulty providing reference, tracking the physical location of material, and inconsistent record keeping. Working with the librarian or archivist responsible for each database, I was able to develop a plan for the migration of each database into the Archivists’ Toolkit as well as a holistic method of record keeping for the University of Kentucky Special Collections. At the completion of my internship, I was able to provide the University of Kentucky with a complete outline of the data migration process, a sample of how the data would migrate and populate the Archivists’ Toolkit using one of the four databases, and a guide to using the Archivists’ Toolkit and record keeping for the University of Kentucky Special Collections following implementation. As a result of my work on the Archivists’ Toolkit, the University of Kentucky asked me to stay for a few months and oversee the complete migration of the legacy databases, as well as train staff on the use of the Archivists’ Toolkit. In addition to the obvious outcome of my internship, a job, I also found early in my project that I had a great deal of freedom and flexibility in managing the project and determining how to reach its goals. In some ways this was terrifying, having never before used the Archivists’ Toolkit or implemented a data management system; however, in retrospect, this was a great experience, in that it allowed me to independently troubleshoot and manage each aspect of the project. In working with the Archivists’ Toolkit I was able to see how valuable and essential technological skills could be in working with heritage collections; and in managing the Archivists’ Toolkit I was able to influence the way the University of Kentucky’s collections appeared online and contribute to discussions with the information technologists who manage the University of Kentucky’s digital library. In working with the programmers and information technologists it has become clear that without technological savvy we, as heritage librarians, leave the online presence of our collections in the hands of individuals who will understand the technology, but may not understand the unique characteristics of our material. In transitioning to a permanent position at the University of Kentucky, I had the opportunity to work with graduate students in the University of Kentucky’s School of library and information science. I saw this as an occasion to provide learning opportunities for students interested in heritage collections. The School of Library and Information Science at the University of Kentucky does not have a specialization in heritage material; however, the students I have worked with on experiential learning projects tend to be highly motivated and enthusiastic individuals seeking opportunities that will better prepare them for their future careers.

98 Katie L. B. Henningsen

Despite my own appreciation for the role that technology can play in working with heritage collections and the valuable experience I had as a graduate student implementing the Archivists’ Toolkit, when I began designing experiential learning projects I limited students exposure to only the most essential technology. In designing these projects I typically divided them into three components. Each student had a limited time frame of 140 hours, so the most difficult part was designing a meaningful project for both the student and for Special Collections. The introductory period typically lasted ten hours and involved arranging and describing a small manuscript collection under close supervision. This introductory period gave me a chance to evaluate each student’s ability to grasp concepts and determine if the larger project I had designed was a good fit. After successfully completing this part of the assignment, I worked with each student to develop a project timeline for his or her primary assignment. During this period, which constituted the bulk of their time, they worked independently. The majority of these early projects required students to arrange and describe manuscript collections of ten-fifteen cubic feet. The final stage of the project was review. While I would review their work, each student wrote a brief summary of their collection or project that might be posted to our Special Collections blog or used to advertise the opening of the collection. The success of these student projects was valuable to the University of Kentucky Special Collections in that they provided access to previously unprocessed or hidden collections and valuable to the student in providing hands-on experience. In evaluating the experience, students often commented on how much they enjoyed working with the Archivists’ Toolkit and seeing how technology was used to enhance access to heritage collections. Reflecting on these comments, I asked myself if the students were gaining enough practical experience to be successful professionals. In many ways I did not believe that they were. Their interest in the tools that we were using to improve the management of and access to our collections led me to refocus these projects with a greater emphasis on technology. However, I did not think it wise for them to be limited to specific tools in use at the University of Kentucky; the numerous options and rapid development of technology could make their knowledge obsolete too quickly. In thinking about how to incorporate a meaningful technology component, I came to the conclusion that the most beneficial skills would be transferrable, for example the ability to identify, evaluate, and manipulate digital technologies depending on an institution’s needs. An opportunity for a student to evaluate and implement a new tool for the University of Kentucky Special Collections arose in 2011 when we began investigating digital exhibit software. In addition to creating robust digital exhibits, we hoped to find a tool that would assist us in working with professors and classes on campus to integrate heritage material into classrooms. Like many institutions in the current economic environment, the University of Ken-

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tucky has been offering more and more online courses, and even those professors providing on campus classes are integrating digital teaching tools into their course structure. To maintain relevance and to make sure our material could be utilized by professors and students on and off campus, we needed a way to display projects and exhibits created from our collections. We decided to begin by experimenting with Omeka, an open source Web publishing platform, developed by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. As with the Archivists’ Toolkit, Omeka was open source, free, and had a user community. In addition, we needed something that could be implemented and managed by our Special Collections staff with minimal IT support. The project began in summer 2011 after the student, Laura, had completed her first year in the University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Science. Laura had spent the previous year as a graduate assistant in reference services and had worked with digital reference tools quite a bit. Based on her past experience and her interest in heritage collections, Laura was an excellent fit for the project and stood to gain a great deal of experience. My initial challenge was designing the project to fit within the 140-hour time frame set by the University of Kentucky School of Library and Information Science. Due to this, I carefully planned the project timeline and asked our libraries’ IT department to provide some technical and programming support during the project, if the need arose. While I was confident that Laura and I could troubleshoot problems ourselves with a bit more time, I wanted to provide Laura with as much support as possible to finish the ambitious project we had designed within the limited timeframe. A few days before the start of the field experience, our programmer was pulled away for a more pressing project. At this point we had no choice but to move forward. With Laura, I began by outlining the goals for the project. These included: ‒ Establishing effective exhibit creation using Omeka; ‒ As a model, creating a small digital exhibit using material from a physical exhibit recently shown in Special Collections; ‒ Documenting the process and developing a short guide to creating digital exhibits for use by staff and students in Special Collections. Initially one of my primary goals had been for Laura to work on the aesthetic appearance of Omeka with the IT programmer; however, given the time constraints for the project, we decided to address the appearance of Omeka at a later time. The project was broken up into three phases. The introductory phase included training in the handling and digitization of heritage materials. Laura worked with our digital library services staff to learn the digitization process and standards. Although she was working primarily with digital objects, I wanted Laura to understand the importance of the physical object and the time and care that goes into creating digital images for heritage material. The second phase constituted the bulk of the project and was devoted to Laura’s research

100 Katie L. B. Henningsen

on Omeka and creating a digital exhibit that would act as our model. Using material and labels from a physical exhibit on the American Civil War that was on display in Special Collections, Laura designed a digital version in Omeka. I used this pre-existing exhibit for a specific reason; working with a completed exhibit allowed Laura to concentrate on manipulating Omeka rather than on selecting material, writing labels, and designing an exhibit. During this phase of the project, Laura encountered a few technical glitches. In each case she first turned to the Omeka user community where she was able to find solutions to most of these issues. In the few instances where a solution was not readily available, Laura was able to get assistance from the University of Kentucky IT staff. In the final stage of the project Laura documented her work with Omeka and produced a guide to creating digital exhibits for the University of Kentucky Special Collections staff and students. As I mentioned before, we had an ambitious project and a tight timeline, and we did begin to run out of time toward the end of the project. Laura was able to complete the documentation and guide to Omeka, but there was not enough time for me to review and return it for edits; fortunately, her work needed very little editing. Overall, our primary goals were met and I considered the project a success. For Laura, the outcomes of the project included experience in: ‒ Handling and digitizing heritage materials; ‒ Manipulating and assessing a technological tool; ‒ Creating documentation for future use of this tool. In hopes of improving the experiential learning process, I met with Laura at the conclusion of her project and asked her to think about what she would change and what she felt were valuable aspects of her experience. Laura was disappointed by the limited support she had received from our IT department and programmers, specifically because she could see from other institutions using Omeka what could have been accomplished with more support or time. With more time, I believe Laura and I could have addressed a large number of the aesthetic problems ourselves, but with the limited timeframe it just was not possible. Laura spoke highly of her experience working with professionals in different areas of our library system. During her project she worked with our digital services department to digitize material, our systems librarian to address issues with the server for Omeka, our curator of books to identify uncataloged material used in the exhibit, and myself. She enjoyed learning how these areas and people worked together to provide access to our collections. Through this experience Laura gained valuable insight into the operation of a large organization and saw that even when an institution has programmers and IT professionals on staff it does not preclude the need to understand and manipulate technology. In addition, Laura spoke at length about the experience she gained in evaluating a new technology. In approaching the project Laura talked about

Preparing Librarians Technologically for the 21st Century 101

her realization that she would have to approach Omeka differently from the more established platforms she had worked with in other positions. She had to consider how Special Collections intended to use Omeka and critically assess whether Omeka would work for our needs. In addition, she could not rely on someone to guide her through the process and answer questions; my own experience with Omeka was not, in some instances, sufficient to answer Laura’s questions. Instead, she had to utilize the Omeka forums and the user community to resolve problems she encountered. In many ways this too was a positive experience, Laura talked about adapting her writing style to communicate clearly with librarians and programmers on the Omeka forums. In taking on this challenge as a student, Laura is better equipped to troubleshoot problems on her own, if needed, and prepared to evaluate and make suggestions for improvement when she encounters this situation as a professional. Due to Laura’s hard work, the University of Kentucky Special Collections began its first foray into formal digital exhibits and online learning tools. Using the digital exhibit Laura created as an example, as well as her guide to creating digital exhibits; I was able to demonstrate to staff working in the University of Kentucky Special Collections the possibilities for digital exhibits and projects with our collections and in conjunction with faculty and classes on campus. My own experience as well as that of my student demonstrates just a few ways in which experiential learning and technology can and should work together for the benefit of both the collections and the future heritage professional. Given the rapidity of change and the varying ways technology can be used to enhance outreach and advocacy for heritage collections, the opportunities to incorporate formal learning opportunities and technology into heritage collections are limitless. In preparing the next generation of heritage professionals, we should focus on equipping them with as much hands-on experience as possible, from established skills to 21st century skills in implementing, managing, and troubleshooting digital technologies to maintain relevance and pace with undergraduate education and scholars.

Cultural Heritage Education for Librarians in France Hélène Richard Inspecteur général des bibliothèques, French Ministry of Culture & Ministry of Higher Education and Research

Introduction The rich national heritage contained in France’s libraries is one of its most distinctive characteristics. It is also noteworthy that this cultural heritage is widely scattered in libraries all over the country. The magnitude of this written heritage is a result of the importance of private collections (from individuals, religious communities or universities) and public collections (the royal library, and public libraries created in the 17th and 18th centuries). It is also a consequence of the policy, initiated during the French Revolution, of confiscation of property belonging to privileged classes or religious institutions. Confiscated books, prints and objects were dispersed throughout various French towns and large Parisian collections. They were entrusted to town councils for their safekeeping. Other confiscations took place in 1905. At the same time university libraries were gathering considerable cultural heritage, mainly as a result of donations. It is estimated that there are over forty million patrimonial printed books in French libraries (sixteen million in town and even village libraries, sixteen million in the National Library of France and six million in university libraries, to which must be added libraries under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defense and the libraries of religious communities). These books are dispersed over approximately 400 institutions. The magnitude of this cultural heritage strongly marked the history of public libraries, and gave this heritage an important role over a long time. Between 1960 and 1992, education for librarianship devoted a great deal of teaching time to “old books” and “national heritage” in the “municipal libraries” section. This fairly comprehensive education consisted of theoretical courses and hands-on training. Graduates holding this degree were entitled to apply for jobs in libraries, such as directorships of small and medium-sized libraries, management of collections or management of services. Regarding patrimonial collections this level of knowledge was considered sufficient for cataloguing, preservation and development, particularly if it complemented a Licence (bachelor’s degree) in history. Today most professionals holding this diploma have either retired or are soon to retire.

104 Hélène Richard

Curators in charge of libraries or larger collections had a solid education in the history of books or management of heritage collections; standards were even higher for alumni of the École nationale des chartes, established in 1821. The system for hiring library staff as implemented from 1990 onwards has not changed in the case of curators. They are recruited after a successful competitive examination by holders of a Licence or by the graduates of the École des chartes, and then receive an 18-month professional training. The same system has been adopted for other job positions, but the post-recruitment trainings differ in length. I will return to this later. I would now like to address: ‒ The current situation in training professional librarians with regard to cultural heritage; ‒ The current needs in this area as described in a report proposed to the Ministry of Culture; ‒ Possible improvements, some of which have already been initiated.

Current Situation Competitive Examinations and Initial Training In France, would-be library supervisors, most of whom are civil servants, are recruited through competitive entrance examinations. Future curators: applicants must hold a Licence of some kind. They then follow an 18-month training programme at French school for librarians, École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques (ENSSIB), which allows them to learn a whole array of necessary skills. A 300-hour core syllabus provides training in management, library policy and various concerns of the profession. Thirty hours are devoted to cultural heritage issues. Thereafter three different specialized career paths are proposed to students (about 100 hours each). One focuses on the general public, one on digital technology, and one on cultural heritage. In the third, subjects such as the history of books and libraries, management, development, description, and so on are addressed. A final paper, which may be related to cultural heritage topics, completes the syllabus. Some ENSSIB students are former students of the École des chartes. Librarians: applicants, who must hold a Licence (bachelor’s degree), are selected through a competitive entrance examination. Those employed by the government then take a 6-month vocational training course devoted to librarianship sciences which provides information about cultural heritage issues, collections, services, management, and so on. Librarians intending to work for territorial communities do not receive any further training after being hired other than one week of general information about territorial communities and their administration. The training organisation for these employees believes that

Cultural Heritage Education for Librarians in France 105

continuing education is there to address their present and future needs. Unlike executive librarians, other librarians are recruited by selection among holders of a vocational school diploma obtained in a technical faculty (instituts universitaires de technologie), two years after their Baccalauréat, and receive a 40hour comprehensive training on cultural heritage consisting of the history of books and libraries and practical applications. Storage area attendants are recruited by selection. They receive “on the job” training. Education provided by universities has been gradually put in place to meet the needs of future employers but also to allow integration of graduates into the working world. In addition to the technical universities mentioned above there are a variety of vocational Licences which provide graduates with different orientations such as antiquarian book sellers, iconography, text editing, and so on. There is no standard syllabus. Master’s degrees related to library heritage offer an even wider range of specialisations. However, the translation of these initial trainings into actual jobs is not simple. The types of training mentioned are adequate for highly specialised positions, but less so for a heritage collections manager. A good manager, including one in charge of heritage collections, must also have general skills in cultural strategy, management, documentary policy, attending to the public at large, and so on. Another related problem is the difficult integration of these graduates into the workplace. For the competitive examinations applicants are expected to have extensive general knowledge rather than technical skills, which will be taught during post-recruitment vocational courses. Finally, the École des chartes, where students are admitted after passing the competitive examination two years after the Baccalauréat, educates professionals for written heritage institutions such as archives and libraries, but also for museums or history research. The school also provides education in research, archiving and history of the media, for the present-day period. Students wanting to become curators then attend courses at ENSSIB. Throughout these years students work on their thèse de l’École des chartes, which may be prolonged into a Ph.D. Today on the whole, out of 750 staff members in charge of the heritage collections of public libraries only 390 have initial training in patrimonial topics. So it is not a minor problem …

Continuing Education Continuing education curricula provide broad coverage of cultural heritage issues. However, they are more or less effective, depending on whether they are intended for people with previous training. Offered by various training

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organisations, programmes can be accessed through a recently launched common portal managed by ENSSIB.1 In 2008, 1,402 persons participated in daily seminars or training courses on heritage related topics, mostly preservation and cataloguing. In 2009, this number decreased to only 1,096. Digitalisation and legal issues were the dominant subjects. This significant decrease in training programs is due to less government involvement in this field.

Needs The government launched an action plan in support of written heritage in 2004, the Plan d’action pour le patrimoine écrit.2 Its goal was to improve the knowledge of and conditions for preservation, description and development of written heritage regionally. This initiative began with a survey to assess collections, staff and needs. Thereafter, specific funding through 2008, allowed the purchase of equipment for preservation as well as an increase in training programs, which very quickly turned out to be an element of paramount importance. In order to have more visibility regarding these issues, the Ministry of Culture commissioned a report to be executed by the Inspection générale des bibliotheques. To this end I delivered a report on this subject, more than a year ago, assessing the existing situation and the skills and knowledge necessary for the librarian profession in relation to cultural heritage issues, and offering short and medium term suggestions of possible changes.3 One of the points that seemed fundamental to me was that no librarian, whether a director or a technical librarian, should be ignorant of the characteristics and concerns of heritage collections. I gathered the elements in the following table (page 107): Finally, it is important to allow library staff and heritage managers to update their skills on a continual basis. Collections become more diverse; legislation, research and the way society is perceived are constantly changing. Library heritage is impacted by these factors. Librarians in charge of these issues must have the necessary means and time to keep abreast of these developments. It’s worthwhile to note the work done by associations and mailing lists such as “BiblioPat”, which encourages exchange and, indirectly, education.4

1 2 3

4

Bibdoc, le portail de la formation continue des bibliothèques et de la documentation, www. formations-bibdoc.fr, accessed 27 June 2012. Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Plan d’action pour le patrimoine écrit, www.patrimoineecrit.culture.gouv.fr/PAPE.html, accessed 27 June 2012. Inspection générale des bibliothèques, Rapport n° 2010-016, septembre 2010, La formation aux questions patrimoniales dans les bibliothèques, http://media.enseignementsup-recherche. gouv.fr/file/2010/52/1/Formation_aux_questions_patrim_def_166521.pdf, accessed 27 June 2012. Mailing-list BiblioPat, http://listes.enssib.fr/listes/info/bibliopat, accessed 15 July 2012.

Cultural Heritage Education for Librarians in France 107

Skills

All staff

Directors

Heritage collection managers (and collaborators according to specialisation)

Role of libraries in heritage

x Concept

xx Knowledge

xxx Expertise

Regulation and code of ethics Identification Preservation techniques Collection status

x

xx

xxx

x x

xx xx

xxx xxx

xx

xxx

xx xx xx

xxx xxx xxx

Acquisitions Development Scientific environment Description Restoration techniques

xxx xx

Table 10.1: Skills required by library staff to address cultural heritage concerns (by position)

Current and Future Improvements Initial training has been modified in order to separate knowledge of the issues and the cultural heritage area, which are relevant to all librarians and library directors, from specific heritage issues, which concern only those actually working on them. Improvements were made in the ENSSIB curriculum as early as 2007, by creating a cycle of continuing education consisting of five 3day modules intended for managers of heritage collections. This cycle includes an increasing number of librarians who have no initial training in the field. It addresses the failure of the current initial training as well as the necessities of career advancement. Raphaële Mouren, who is present today, can tell you more about it. Shorter and more practical training cycles have also been launched in various cities in the last ten years, and recently in Paris in 2011. Their aim is to provide practical solutions and prevent mistakes. Along the same lines, the publication of a small handbook in the “Tool Kit” collection of ENSSIB has been planned. It is intended for professionals in charge of heritage collections who lack expertise. Others publications and handbooks devoted to the management of heritage collections or conservation questions already exist, and

108 Hélène Richard

are more complete, bur there is a need for a shorter and simpler “toolkit” for beginners (“Boîte à outils” is the name of the collection in which this book will be published shortly), who make up the majority of librarians in charge of heritage collections. Another cycle of continuing education has been planned in Bordeaux. It falls between the very practical training in Paris and the longer training at ENSSIB in Lyon. An additional development has been introduced as a key priority of competitive entrance examinations to prevent abandoning the concepts of heritage and history inherent in collections. In the recommended bibliography for the preparation of competitive examinations for curators’ positions, among others, the inclusion of questions on cultural heritage topics is paramount to arouse interest, which even at a minimal level can awaken later vocations. In any case, it makes the implementation of further continuing education courses conceivable. However, the following important tasks remain to be addressed:  Increasing the awareness of regular initiatives for the general public and schools as well as of multiple publications in the field (intended for the public at large) such as fine books, children’s books and so on;5  Setting up initiatives at national or regional levels in order to catalogue iconographic documents or otherwise account for specific heritage features, address shared procedures in fast processing etc. The action programme should be related to training campaigns whose applications will be noted by professionals, thus making them as effective as the digitalisation of collections. The processing of collections would be enhanced, which would minimize delays;  Finding facilitators capable of advising library professionals concerned by these issues, for courses, trainings, consulting and so forth;  Setting up a system of refresher courses for such trainers and involving other cultural heritage professions.

Conclusion Even if a sudden awareness of all these issues has already taken place, it is far from sufficient; serious risks are looming:

The Dispersion of Library Collections This occurs when communes are reorganised and amalgamate into a community of communes. Depending on the situation, libraries either continue to be run by each commune or are run by an inter-communal body. If heritage col5

About children’s books see in this publication, Adriana Paolini, “Writings and books: history and stories to enhance rare book collections and to promote reading”, 177-184.

Cultural Heritage Education for Librarians in France 109

lections do not follow the other library holdings, they are at great risk of becoming too rigid, abandoned or reduced to their most prominent pieces. The lack of trained (or even partially trained) staff makes things worse.

Generally Under-Skilled Staff Financial difficulties, which are impacting local communities, induce libraries to recruit executive librarians instead of curators. As mentioned above, librarians working in territorial communities are recruited through a general competitive examination and receive no subsequent professional training. Two library areas are particularly affected: documentary policy and supply of services on the one hand and heritage collections on the other.

Educating Heritage Librarians on the Pacific Rim: California Rare Book School – the Past, the Present, and the Future Susan M. Allen Director, California Rare Book School, University of California, Los Angeles

Introduction A report is given here of the past activities of California Rare Book School (CalRBS), its present activities and challenges, and its future prospects. The report of past activities covering the period from 2005 through 2011 was prepared with the assistance of Dr. Beverly P. Lynch, Founding Director of CalRBS, and Ryan Roth, Project Manager of the school during 2010. This report describes the activities of CalRBS, which is a project of the Department of Information Studies at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSE&IS) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Founded formally in 2005, CalRBS is a non-degree, continuing education program dedicated to providing the knowledge and skills required by professionals working in all aspects of the rare book community, as well as for students interested in entering the field. (This means heritage and special collections librarians, academics/scholars, booksellers, book collectors, and graduate students in a number of disciplines.) Attendees of CalRBS benefit from an expert faculty and the wealth of special collections of rare books, manuscripts, and archival materials in California. This paper covers the period from the project’s founding through 2012 and beyond. 2012 is the seventh year in which courses have been offered by the school.

Background On 22 November 2004, people from the rare book community in Southern California met at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, and agreed to form an informal consortium to organize a North American west coast Rare Book School. The people attending agreed to be represented on the school’s advisory committee and to contribute funds and/or assist in seeking external support for the first three years of the school’s operations.

112 Susan M. Allen

The people attending were also guided by the findings of a feasibility study carried out in 2002 by Mary Genis of Sintra Consulting for Sid Berger, who was at that time Director of the California Center for the Book, Mary Niles Maack, Professor, Department of Information Studies, UCLA, and Diana Paque, California State Library. The feasibility study concluded that there were ample institutional resources and special collections in California to justify having a rare book school in the state. The study identified issues about the school’s leadership and economic viability. These included administrative infrastructure, i.e. who would be the host institution? Leadership issues, i.e. what administrative costs, tasks, and overhead would be provided by the host institution? Would the host institution pay the administrator’s salary, and would the role be supported by the organization? Tools and equipment issues included the question of what sources of revenue there would be to cover these items. Another question was whether classroom space could be donated by the various participating institutions. Other important questions that remained unanswered were what would be the cost of running the school and would tuition cover these costs? Were there private or governmental funding sources that would underwrite some of the ongoing costs not covered by tuition to administer a California Rare Book School? What about marketing, outreach, and student recruitment? People attending the 2004 organizational meeting were Bruce Whiteman (Clark Library, UCLA); Peter Reill (Center for 17th-and-18th-Century Studies, UCLA); David Zeidberg and Laura Stalker (Huntington Library); Lynda Claassen (University of California, San Diego); myself, at the time from the Getty Research Institute; Carol Sandberg and Michael Thompson (Michael Thompson Rare Books); Mark Roosa (Pepperdine University); and Beverly P. Lynch (Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, UCLA). Those not able to attend the organizational meeting but subsequently involved were Marje Schuetze-Coburn (University of Southern California); Gary Strong (UCLA); and Roy Ritchie (Huntington Library). Other institutions also were identified as being interested in the project, among these being Occidental College and The Claremont Colleges. Subsequently, additional booksellers, Ken Karmiole, Howard Rootenberg and Gordon Hollis also joined in the effort. It was agreed that Beverly P. Lynch, Professor, Department of Information Studies, and director of the UCLA Senior Fellows program, would serve as the school’s founding director. Answers to the questions emerging in the feasibility study were not obvious at the time of the school’s beginning. The advisory committee and the founding director agreed to pursue the answers and also agreed that it was necessary to establish a rare book school program to determine what the costs would be, where the students would come from, who the faculty would be, where courses would be offered, and what would be the response of the rare book community. The central questions were whether there were students who would find

Educating Heritage Librarians on the Pacific Rim 113

the program of California Rare Book School attractive and of interest and whether these potential students would come. The Department of Information Studies, the appointment home of Beverly Lynch, provided office space, IT and other infrastructure support, and it continues to do so. Early donations from The Book Club of California provided monies to support telephone and postage costs and telecommunications charges. Lynch was not provided any teaching relief in undertaking this administrative assignment; she volunteered her time while she successfully sought external support for her summer salary and administrative assistance. The current director, appointed in March 2011, enjoys a non-compensated faculty appointment with the Department of Information Studies. During the first five years, classroom space was made available by the Young Research Library, the Center for 17th-and-18th-Century Studies, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library and the Department of Information Studies, all at UCLA; the Getty Research Institute; and the Huntington Library. In the sixth year of the program classroom space was also made available by The Book Club of California in San Francisco and the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. This year the California Historical Society in San Francisco will also provide classroom space. A valuable component of the educational program of the California Rare Book School is the opportunity to visit and experience the extraordinary and unique special collections in Southern and Northern California. In many ways these collections provide the classrooms essential to the program. The unique experience for students is to work with rare and special materials directly in the sites where the materials are housed.

Program Activities Courses CalRBS students receive intensive instruction over five consecutive days. Forty hours of instruction are provided in a one week course, which is the amount of time scheduled for a four unit course conducted during a quarter at UCLA. Courses have been offered and conducted during the first two weeks in August, for the first five years of the program. In 2011, the sixth year, a third week of courses was offered in the San Francisco Bay Area in the fall.1 The thirteen courses offered in the first six years were:

1

See the Web site www.calrbs.org.

114 Susan M. Allen Descriptive bibliography Books of the Far West, with an emphasis on California Book illustration processes to 1900 Rare book cataloging Introduction to special collections librarianship Special collections librarianship, operations and administration Preservation stewardship of library collections th th History of the book in Hispanic America, 16 ‒19 centuries History of the book, 200-1820 History of the children’s book from the old Babylonian to 1989 Artists’ books, collection development & assessment Book collecting Donors & libraries

2006‒2011 2006‒2012 2006, 2008, 2010 2006‒2007, 2009, 2011‒2012 2006‒2007 2008‒2009 2007‒2011 2007‒2008, 2012 2010‒2011 2011 2010‒2011 2008, 2012 2008, 2011‒2012

Table 11.1: List of courses, 2006‒2012

Six entirely new courses have been added to the CalRBS curriculum in 2012 to respond to needs that have come to the attention of staff from student evaluations and colleagues in the field. They are: ‒ History, identification, and preservation of photographic materials ‒ History of the book: the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ‒ Intellectual property and other legal issues for rare books and manuscripts ‒ Old books for young children ‒ Technology of electronic records and digital libraries ‒ “What’s past is prologue”: introduction to archives for historians & librarians

Faculty The faculty is comprised of prominent specialists and scholars in the field with extensive experience in instruction and practice. (Faculty biographies may be found on the CalRBS Web site.)

Educating Heritage Librarians on the Pacific Rim 115

Susan M. Allen, CalRBS

William P. Barlow, Jr., Barlow & Hughan, San Francisco

Introduction to special collections librarianship Donors & libraries History of the book, 200‒1820 Donors & libraries

2006‒2007 2008, 2011‒2012 2010‒2011 2008, 2011‒2012

Terry Belanger, University of Virginia

Book illustration processes to 1900

2006, 2008, 2010

Carl Berkhout, University of Arizona Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Stony Brook University. Randal Brandt, UC Berkeley Lynda Claassen, UC San Diego

Descriptive bibliography

2006-2008

Old books for young children Rare book cataloging

2012

Introduction to special collections librarianship ‒ Special collections librarianship, operations & admin. Artists’ books: collection development & assessment History of the book, th th 19 ‒20 cent. Books of the Far West, with an emphasis on California Rare book cataloging

2006‒2007

Johanna Drucker, UCLA Jeffrey D. Groves, Harvey Mudd College Gary F. Kurutz, California State Library (retired) Deborah J. Leslie, Folger Shakespeare Library Daniel Lewis, The Huntington Library Carrie Marsh, The Claremont Colleges Library Jacob Nadal, Brooklyn Historical Society Mark S. Roosa, Pepperdine University Daniel J. Slive, Southern Methodist University

2009, 2011‒2012

2008‒2009

2010‒2011

2012 2006‒2012

2006‒2007

“What’s past is prologue”: 2012 introduction to archives Special collections 2012 Technology of electronic records Preservation stewardship of library collections History of the book in Hispanic America

2012 2007‒2011 2007‒2008, 2012

116 Susan M. Allen Laura Stalker, The Huntington Library David Szewczyk, Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company Ivy Trent, Cotsen Occasional Press Gawain Weaver, private conservator Maureen Whalen, The Getty Trust Bruce Whiteman, UCLA (retired) David Zeidberg, The Huntington Library

Special collections

2012

History of the book in Hispanic America

2007‒2008, 2012

History of the children’s book from the old Babylonian to 1989 History, identification and preservation of photographic materials Intellectual property & other legal issues ‒ Book collecting ‒ Descriptive bibliography Special collections librarianship, operations & admin

2011

2012

2012 2008, 2012 2009‒2011 2008‒2009

Table 11.2: Faculty

Evaluations The student evaluations have been stellar. On a scale of one (excellent) to five (poor) all courses but one taught in the first six years were evaluated at the 1 or 2 level. The following comments were transcribed from the student evaluations: ‒ Field trips were superb and invaluable; ‒ Having a multitude of instructors with various perspectives and specialties added a lot to the course; ‒ The course has opened up a whole new world for me! ‒ The hands on elements were very beneficial. I was not expecting so much experience with so many books! ‒ Super enthusiastic and knowledgeable instructor; ‒ This was a serious course geared towards people with some experience. I learned a lot and was stretched intellectually; ‒ It was a real privilege to take this course. I was constantly in awe of the knowledge, generosity, and patience of the instructor and my fellow participants. I learned a huge amount and am aware that I’ve only just scratched the surface of this fascinating topic. The course has opened up a whole new world for me.

Educating Heritage Librarians on the Pacific Rim 117

Collections Visited In addition to the use of collections in the libraries providing classroom space, classes visited various special collections, both public and private. Members of the staff in these libraries, private collectors and booksellers provide essential support for the instruction. They work closely with the faculty in advance of the visits, identifying the materials that would be important for instruction, making the materials available for student use and contributing their knowledge of the collections during the visits. Collections visited include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Autry Museum (Braun Library), Bohams & Butterfields Auction House, The California Curio Co., The Claremont Colleges, Dawson’s Book Shop, the Getty Research Institute, The Huntington Library, the International Printing History Museum, Michael Sharpe Rare Books, Michael R. Thompson Rare Books, Mission San Fernando, the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, and at UCLA: the Arts Library, Biomedical Library, Conservation Lab, Film & TV Archive, Library (Special Collections), and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library.

Special Lectures To augment the instruction program, one or two special lectures have been held each year. These have provided an introduction for students to leaders in the field of special collections, and they have offered insights into the world of the book trade and collecting. Speakers have included Terry Belanger, founding director, Rare Book School, University of Virginia; David H. Stam, Senior Scholar in history, Syracuse University; Mark Dimunation, Chief of the Rare Book Division, Library of Congress; Johanna Drucker, Bernard and Martin Breslauer Professor of Bibliography, UCLA; Gary Strong, university librarian, UCLA; Los Angeles booksellers Kenneth Karmiole, Howard Rootenberg, Michael Thompson, and Carol Sandberg; and Pasadena book collector, David Rips.

Students Course enrollments have ranged from four to fourteen students. The ideal is twelve. However, in some cases class sizes were determined by the instructor and by availability of classroom space. A major consideration has been the space requirements for the various field trips and how particular teaching materials would be used. From 2006 to 2011, 305 students enrolled in 38 courses. Most students took only one course. However, 38 individuals took two, four took three, and one person took five courses. On average, there were eight people per course.

118 Susan M. Allen

In the first five years (2006 to 2010), students came from 22 states in the United States, four Canadian provinces, and two other countries. About eighty percent (80 %) came from California, and sixty percent (60 %) were from the Los Angeles area.

Scholarship Support Scholarships have been an important aspect of student recruitment. Of the 305 enrollments during the first six years, 54 or more than 14 % were supported by full-tuition scholarships. Most scholarship recipients were enrolled in master’s degree programs in library and information studies or they were those who just recently graduated from such programs. Courses suitable for beginners in the field, such as descriptive bibliography, attracted the highest number of scholarship recipients. Scholarship support was important to the enrollment in various courses. Some students who applied for admission withdrew when they learned that no scholarship would be available to them. Funds for scholarships have come from a number of sources including private and public foundations, book collectors groups, and private donations. Those library directors on the advisory committee have been generous in allocating staff development funds for attendance at CalRBS as well.

Administrative Activities Administrative activities have included an advisory committee. As was noted at the outset of this paper, the CalRBS Advisory Committee was formed in order to establish the program. It continues to function as an advisory group meeting three to four times per year. The advisory committee has been a helpful sounding board regarding courses to be offered and outreach to various communities. It has also proved helpful in seeking external support for the program, and it is likely to play a greater role in this regard in the future. While the membership of the committee has changed from time to time as members moved from California and others in the area were added, the bulk of the committee’s membership dates from the program’s founding. The current advisory committee is listed in the CalRBS brochure (see the Web site). Staffing From 2006 through 2009 the program was staffed by a graduate student assistant in the Department of Information Studies at 20 % time from September through May and full-time for June through August. In 2010 with the support from a private foundation in Los Angeles the program was able to hire a fulltime project manager from March through December. Since January 2011 the project manager position has returned to 20% time from September through May and full-time during the summer months. Teaching assistants were assigned

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to courses during the program’s first and second years as at the time funds were available. Currently, the project manager provides support from June through August. The founding director, Beverly Lynch, was supported for several years with summer ninths salary monies funded by external support from such sources as the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Ahmanson Foundation. A full-time faculty member in the Department of Information Studies, Lynch continued her regular faculty teaching, research and service responsibilities while directing CalRBS. The current director dedicates two days a week, year around, to the administration of the program. Marketing Brochures were designed to describe the course offerings each year. The brochures were distributed at local and national book fairs, conferences, and symposiums and were sent to special collections librarians in university libraries nationally, programs of library and information science, and public libraries in the region. As an economy, since 2011 an undated brochure has been distributed with an insert listing the course offerings for the current year. The brochure continues to be well received. A Web site was designed initially by a student in the Department of Information Studies. In the past it was kept up-todate with the help of volunteers. Currently, it is a major responsibility of the project manager. Getting the word out about the program has been an important responsibility of the director. The founding director and the current director have spoken to various organizations about CalRBS, including the Zamorano Club of Los Angeles, The Roxburghe Club of San Francisco, the Caxton Club in Chicago, the American Printing History Association, and the Rare Book & Manuscripts Section of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. Stories about the founding of the program and its ongoing activities have appeared in the UCLA Daily Bruin, The Los Angeles Times, American Libraries, Library Journal, UCLA Today and the publications of various book clubs.

Finances The program has been supported by tuition and external funds. Tuition was set at $995 for the first year (2006), and it continues to be held at the same level. From 2005 to 2011 external funds have been given by about nine agencies and institutions. These external funds have often been restricted to scholarships. Tuition income and this grant/gift income have been roughly in the ratio of 1:2. These two revenue sources are able to cover the direct educational costs of the program annually. These major costs are the honoraria for faculty, faculty travel and lodging, bus transportation for class field trips within Southern and

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Northern California (not an insignificant amount), food/entertainment, and the expense of the brochure, i.e. graphic design, printing, and postage. What is not covered by these revenues is the administrative infrastructure.

What Have We Learned? The questions that were originally posed by the advisory committee have been addressed in the first six years of the operation of the California Rare Book School. ‒ What are the costs? In terms of direct instructional costs, tuition and scholarship support have been sufficient to support the instructional costs of the program. Space has been contributed by the Department of Information Studies and the various libraries supporting the program, particularly the Charles E. Young Research Library and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library where many of the courses have been taught; and other special collections in the area. It has been necessary to solicite external funding to support all administrative staff costs or to depend on volunteers. ‒ Where would students come from? Students primarily are from California. The remaining are from other states, Canada, Spain and Australia. People working on degrees in library and information science were mostly students in the UCLA program. ‒ Who are the faculty? Prominent members of the field have taught in the program. Some have been approached directly by the director, while others have proposed courses and offered to teach them. ‒ Where would the courses be offered? The courses have been offered in Los Angeles. The special collections libraries in the area have been generous in making space and collections available and have served in many ways as very important classrooms. Courses have also been offered in San Francisco and Berkeley, California. The Book Club of California co-sponsored a course in 2011 and will do so again in 2012. As a part of this co-sponsorship, the club made teaching space available in its library. The University of California, Berkeley, made space available in the Bancroft Library and will do so again in 2012. In 2012 the California Historical Society will provide space for the first time. At no time has there been any charge for space during all the years of the program’s operation. ‒ What is the response of the rare book community? The response has been very positive.

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What Are the Future Plans? A subcommittee of the advisory committee met in July 2011 to focus on strategic planning for CalRBS. Since then the subcommittee’s recommendations have been whole heartedly affirmed by the advisory committee. The recommendations fall into four areas: curriculum development, sustainability and development, teaching collections, and community building. Recommendations regarding curriculum development included bringing new courses online and alternating years for certain courses in order to establish sequences in four areas: 1) history of the book topics, 2) descriptive bibliography, 3) preservation, and 4) professional development for special collections librarians and archivists; we will also explore a certificate program and course credit. Recommendations regarding sustainability and development included: ‒ adding a page to the Web site to provide instructions for making cash donations; ‒ soliciting donations to a CalRBS annual fund; ‒ seeking additional foundation support for scholarships; this has already born fruit in the Samuel Kress Foundation-Dr. Franklin Murphy Scholarship. Recommendations regarding teaching collections included: ‒ building the collections needed for processes and techniques classes; ‒ acquiring specific artifacts that have been requested by faculty such as a litho stone, paper moulds, etc.; ‒ exploring the creation of online material to demonstrate processes. And finally, recommendations regarding community building included: ‒ always scheduling a minimum of three courses at a location to provide a critical mass; ‒ sponsoring CalRBS events year round; ‒ continuing to offer courses in Northern California.

Conclusion This is an ambitious list of recommendations for CalRBS, and the director and the project manager will need to set priorities carefully. However, as we move into its seventh year of operation the California Rare Book School has achieved a fine reputation for offering excellent courses, taught

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by excellent faculty to excellent students. It offers certain courses that depend on the collections in California. In fact, some of these courses could not be readily taught anywhere else in the United States. This alone makes California Rare Book School a national rather than a regional resource. Furthermore, California Rare Book School has made it possible to inform people who are in the special collections community (and those who seek to join it) about the extraordinary collections of rare materials in the great libraries found in both Southern and Northern California.

Preparing Heritage Librarians to Welcome Readers 1: from the Librarian’s Point of View Monique Hulvey Responsable des bases patrimoniales, Lyon Public Library

The history of the book provides a rich landscape for stressing the value of the heritage collections in Lyon. The library is encouraged in this approach by the long history of the city itself. Of the twenty centuries since the founding of Lyon, fifteen hundred years are reflected through the collections. Starting with the fifth century, the manuscripts and rare books illustrate particularly well three periods of intellectual renaissance from the Merovingian monastic production, followed by the Carolingian cathedral school library, to the advent of printing which, with the presence of four fairs a year at the end of the fifteenth century, made Lyon a booming European crossroad of the book trade. The history of the city library shows the important part it played in these dynamics. Created as the library of the Collège de la Trinité in 1527 by the consulate, it became public twenty years before the French Revolution, after two centuries of almost constant Jesuit governance. In spite of destruction and plundering, the city still boasts many remains in its urban landscape as well as in its written heritage. This wealth triggered the need for systematic communication about the library collections to the widening public of the library, as well as our efforts in training new colleagues, future librarians, and curators, in order to adjust to the increasing demand. With its ongoing collaboration with ENSSIB, the library is now exploring new ways of teaching professionals and innovative actions for the discovery and transmission of rare book heritage. As in other large cities in France and in Europe, indicated by the increased attendance of museums, more people have recently become aware of, or make themselves available for, the discovery of le patrimoine. Among these major changes in the past twenty years we have to mention the whirlwind evolution of the Web and the digital world for the knowledge it has brought to all interested audiences. The general public was indeed traditionally unaware of the long closed-in rare book world, exclusively open to researchers or private collectors. In Lyon, the decision of the city council to start a project of mass digitization of the rare book collections with Google might have also played a part in this awareness.

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At the Heart of Librarianship: Rare Book Cataloguing For more than ten years, the public library of Lyon has worked on its catalogue keeping in mind these different kinds of audiences: integrating the results of new research in the records for scientific accuracy, creating finding aids for archives and manuscripts, and adding historical contents as often as possible, a material which can be reused to attract the general public to the collections. As the history of the library collections is so intertwined in the history of the city and because of the role the city played as a crossroad for book making, selling, using, and the reading of books, the research on the history of copies, the links between the contents of the volumes and the marks of provenance they bear have been emphasized in the catalogue. This led early on to the creation of an illustrated provenance database1, linked to the public catalogue, which was opened on the Web ten years ago. This program provides links for the reconstruction of humanistic libraries, a project led with the support of the Centre Gabriel Naudé at ENSSIB. It is also a focus which is integrated in the rare book cataloguing classes for the curators, held at ENSSIB or at the city library. Parallel to these programs, the provenance marks provide ample material to be used and adapted to different audiences. Marks such as the ex-dono of the Carolingian bishops of Lyon to the cathedral group of churches or their anathema on the possible thieves, allow a lively evocation of the Carolingian renaissance. This content is reflected in the collection of manuscripts kept for centuries by the canons of the cathedral until the confiscations of the French Revolution, which brought all those treasures to the public library. In the same manner the marks of the convents and all the private owners, from Lyon or somewhere else, show the itineraries to or from the city. This documents the effervescence of the book trade inside and around Lyon. In the same manner, the volumes themselves add an abundant documentation about the current library’s direct ancestor, the library of the Collège de la Trinité. Along with research on provenance, cataloguing has also been a great opportunity for setting aside useful material for future training of curators, staff, undergraduates, and teachers or high school students. So we welcome material showing what happens in the print shop, or books in sheets recovered long ago from very damaged bindings illustrating the conception of a book in two dimensions, or whatever helps illuminate the very specific context of Renaissance book making. We also find ourselves using maps more and more often, in order to show the many different roads taken by the book trade, in particular maps of the city showing the centres of power and axis of communication 1

Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, Provenance Database, www.bm-lyon.fr//trouver/basesde donnees/base_provenance_en.htm, accessed 15 July 2012.

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Figure 12.1: Marks of ownership of the Collège de la Trinité, with representations of the Collège and its library in Plan scenographique (ca. 1550), photographed in the nineteenth century.

organized along and across its two rivers. Indeed, circa 1500, about one hundred print shops lined the main street, the rue Mercière, a strong link between the only two bridges of the city, one over each river: all of this material, we recommend to our future “ambassadors” to use.

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Figure 12.2: Georg Braun, Théâtre des cités du monde, (Köln? Bruxelles?: s.n., ca. 1575), 11 : Lugdunum

A Potential for Communication Throughout the Collections Because of the wealth and potential of this heritage, the library has made communication a priority. In 1988, presentations of medieval manuscripts were organized for the general public in several library branches in the city. In 1997, a program of lectures was developed by the curatorial staff on a volunteer basis, using the rare books, manuscripts, prints and drawing collections as their core, bringing forth hidden collections to the eyes of the public at large, starting with the library patrons, opening towards undergraduates, schools, families, and all interested parties. A program called l’Heure de la découverte, an ‘Hour of Discovery’ which has grown with the years, has held more than 1,400 lectures (including, for some years, interpreters in sign language for the deaf and hearing impaired), and reached about 15,000 participants: a free mediation towards the general public. Besides the traditional presentation of documents about a topic or a selection of books or images, some sessions focus on one book for half an hour, mostly at lunch time for an interesting short glimpse of one work or one author, e.g. a fifteenth century bestseller, in order to attract more active people during their lunch break. Another very successful and interactive experience is proposed by the bookbinding department, which shares basic bookbinding

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practices through small workshops. As the result of long-standing exchanges with the libraries of Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, the library also welcomes an increasing number of Asian visitors for presentations of its very unique Chinese collections. A type of communication, which draws a new audience to the library, is an evocation of the history of the collections in the streets in the old neighbourhoods of the city, where those collections were first assembled over the centuries. It also evokes the itineraries they followed, sometimes through difficult times, until they reached the stacks of the city library. Even without the physical presence of the volumes, the provenance approach promotes conections with the owners, persons, and institutions. Although far from story-telling, it still makes the history of the book more palpable and human. These promenades take place in rain or shine. They shed a new light on well-known places or secluded libraries not usually open to the general public like the library of the Academy of Lyon. This initiative is usually welcomed with enthusiasm by most participants. In a way, it means using the streets and vestiges to bring back to life the ancient libraries, which we are presently reconstructing through the stacks of the bibliothèque municipale and by collaborating with libraries in France and abroad. We feel it is one of the missions of the present library to guard the memory of the old ones, as a mirror of the intellectual history of the city, a knowledge otherwise lost since nobody else could communicate it. This is a physical exercise which is much in demand by future curators, trainees, as well as the general public, so we also propose it during the Lyon Rare Book School, a week organized by the Institute for the History of the Book (Institut d’histoire du livre) in Lyon.2 In order to face the growing demand for communication, the library is now considering other disseminations, which could greatly improve the visibility of its collections and contribute to a better knowledge of the history of the book at large. These disseminations of information can be found in the collaborations with scholars from the Lyon Universities, such as Biblyon, a research group which focuses on the study of the history of the book in the sixteenth century.3 The library is also going to develop in the coming months regular presentations of the history of collections to the guides-lecturers from the tourist offices in the Lyon area who propose to mention the ancient libraries during their own tours of the old quarters of the city. Thanks to years of experience, the library staff now advocates these different patterns of communication of the history of the book through the library’s long 2 3

Institut d’histoire du livre, http://ihl.enssib.fr, accessed 15 July 2012. Biblyon, a program of the Groupe Renaissance et Âge classique (Lyon 2 University, UMR 5037) and the Centre Gabriel Naudé (ENSSIB), http://sites.univ-lyon2.fr/lesmondeshuma nistes/biblyon-le-livre-a-lyon-au-xvie-siecle-co-elaboration-publication-et-usages, accessed 15 July 2012.

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collaboration with ENSSIB, in modules of ‘rare book cataloguing’, ‘public services’, and ‘cultural actions’ in a heritage library context. How can we use our own experience to train others in what is a far from exact science? We recommend a real sharing of experience based on a volunteer approach, preferably with the physical presence of the volumes themselves. Considering the potential of rare books collections in general, it is better to focus on a time period, a domain and a limited number of documents for these presentations. However, in this endeavour to convey a sense of continuity between the surviving past and the present, there are many other paths to explore, hence the importance of attending conferences in order to share and discuss these issues.

Preparing Heritage Librarians to Welcome Readers 2: from the Library School’s Point of View Raphaële Mouren École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques, Lyon, Chair, IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section

After years of focusing their attention on digital technology and digitization, librarians, at least in France, are now concentrating on the notion of ‘services’: what can they provide to users, readers and visitors of libraries, beyond access to the collections? For special collections, the stakes for readers are even higher. The massive programmes to digitize rare books have gutted reading rooms. Of course, this has not happened everywhere, and not all the time. In the reserve department of the Sainte-Geneviève library in Paris, the readers come to access books that are already digitized. Fortunately, the librarians working in this specialized library are well aware that a lot of information not available in a digital version of a book may be found in its paper copy. Thus they have not excluded every digitized book from consultation in the reading room. Apparently, not all librarians have the same expertise regarding this issue. Times have changed: the key question is no longer persuading people that using libraries’ precious collections is not relevant for them, but on the contrary, insisting that they will find much more of what they are looking for in the library: access to the books they want to consult. What services for readers? Of course, the library’s traditional resources: those in print (books, catalogues, bibliographies), and the electronic versions (books, catalogues, bibliographies), must be made available to readers, but above all they must be adequately informed of their availability! An example is the “hire a librarian”, proposed by a few libraries worldwide: the opportunity to speak and work with a librarian for a while and to be guided in various kinds of research. Nonetheless, librarians must also take into account the needs and varying expertise of users; this is particularly relevant for catalogues and bibliographies. Recently, one of my students explained in an essay that according to a survey she conducted, scholars who need to know about 15th century book production but are not specialized in the subject of the history of the book, use first and foremost, and almost exclusively, the ISTC, Incunabula Short Title Catalogue

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of the British Library. They do not use or even know the other more complex but more exhaustive tools.1 An example I have already studied is retrospective bibliographies. Some are now available online – VD16, EDIT16, GLN15-16, USTC – but they are all very different and not all are designed as tools for readers. Most of the time it is almost impossible for undergraduate students to use bibliographies and catalogues for example. Sometimes, these bibliographies seem to be designed by bibliographers for the exclusive use of bibliographers.2 So the question is: how can we prepare future librarians dealing with special collections to keep in mind all of their various functions, without neglecting one or two? Of course, they must bear in mind that access (including cataloguing), conservation and communication are key issues concerning public services. Emphasizing only one of these matters is not enough. And the special collections departments must get involved in the current evolution of libraries and librarianship. They are an integral part of the digitized evolution, but what about services? It appears that training future librarians, especially at the graduate level, to become leading managers of special collections departments, even small ones, implies including strategic management in their curriculum. Of course all the attendees today know quite well that running a library, a department, a team, implies looking toward the future. Running a library is not running a cemetery: if the library is not attracting the public by sparking its interest and curiosity, it will be soon become a ghost town. And now, this is also the case for special collections departments. As a consequence, I am deeply convinced that the training curriculum for library curators must include a strategic and political vision of librarianship and the missions carried out by librarians. How can we do this? We must keep in mind that the training of students is one thing, and the continuing education of librarians already in charge is another one. We really do focus on these matters at the French school for librarians, École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques (ENSSIB). In France, the organization of higher education is quite specific. Divided into universities and “grandes écoles”, the latter are higher education institutes, which though small in size, receive huge state budgetary allowances, using competitive exams to recruit their students. Moreover, France also has national 1

2

Sabine Maffre, Bibliographies et catalogues à l’époque contemporaine: les incunables, Mémoire de recherche, Diplôme de conservateur des bibliothèques, 2012, http://www.enssib. fr/bibliotheque-numerique/notice-56680, accessed 15 July 2012. Raphaële Mouren, “Réflexions autour du projet de bibliographie des éditions lyonnaises du seizième siècle (BEL16)”, Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme, 34, 3 (2011), 111-143.

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civil exams for people wanting to be civil servants. Such is the case for those who will work in state libraries (university libraries, the National Library of France and specialized libraries like Sainte-Geneviève or Mazarine), and those who will work in city libraries as directors or top-ranked department managers. This implies that they will receive training in librarianship after the examination (and most often, after being in charge), except for former students of the École des chartes, trained for three years in palaeography, codicology, cataloguing of rare books and manuscripts, medieval Latin and so on. Similar training will also be given more frequently to students coming from a master degree specializing in library information sciences – even if ‘library and information science’ is not currently used in the French curriculum. As a result, ENSSIB has to fill and shape the minds of: ‒ All future librarians who already know they will be in charge of state libraries: curators, librarians. The school must strive to provide them with all the necessary tools to succeed in their future top-ranking management positions. ‒ Librarians already in charge, most of the time as top-ranking managers, with continuing education However, it must be remembered that the school has created, over the last twenty years, various masters’ degrees in the areas of library and information science. One of these, Master cultures de l’écrit et de l’image, is focused on special collections and cultural heritage. One of the most important things the school must address is the training of future heads of library departments and curators. When I was a student there in 1995, most of the subjects taught were technical, and most often useless, because they were not updated regularly. Therefore, to avoid making that mistake again the school decided, five years ago, to include in the curriculum more lessons aimed at providing key tools for future librarians to efficiently manage libraries: administrative, legal, environmental, as well studying changes in cultural practices and so on. How can we do the same for special collections? Future library curators train eighteen months to obtaining a degree, the diplôme de conservateur des bibliothèques. Their training is divided into three parts. The first semester is dedicated to a common core of knowledge and skills that are essential for future library curators, regardless of whether they work in state or territorial libraries. In this context, they receive 30 hours of training on cultural heritage issues. The title of the course is: Comprendre les enjeux du patrimoine, understanding the issues at stake in special collections, to meet the challenges such collections currently face. For the second semester, the students choose from three training paths: computer systems and digitization, public services or special collections, consisting of a total of 100 hours of training spread over

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four courses. The third semester is dedicated to internships; the students must complete a three-month internship in a French or foreign library. They may choose to complete it in a special collections department in France or abroad. Apart from this internship, students are also expected to complete an additional month in a library, or other cultural institution: bookshop, museum … As a result, two-thirds of the students will only receive 30 hours training on special collections issues. During these eighteen months, students must also write an essay chosen from a variety of themes, including the history of the book, the history of libraries, or issues related to rare and special collections. I would like to focus on changes in the common core of knowledge and skills acquired during the first semester. I did not choose the title of the course on heritage issues, “Understand the stakes in heritage”, our director, Anne-Marie Bertrand, did. This course contains 30 hours. So given the scale of the task, the question is to determine what to include in such a course. This course was first given in June 2011, at the end of the semester, after several courses focused on library science. My goal – I am in charge of this course – was to consider these previous courses as a basis allowing me to provide students with key knowledge concerning the care of rare books, special collections and the cultural heritage in libraries. Indeed in many areas, the knowledge necessary to manage cultural heritage completes the previously acquired one: in cataloguing, in public services, in valorisation, in management … That means that these students, who are given 350 hours of training during the first semester, are not only trained in working with rare book collections, but on a wider scale they are taught how to run a library. This is important, because, in fact, apart from a few exceptions, I firmly believe that these issues are also at stake in dealing with special collections. To give a more specific example, there is no course concerned with the following question: ‘how to catalogue old books?’ but there is a course doing so addressing the question: ‘what is the relevant strategy for cataloguing books?’ We can’t catalogue anymore, just starting with the first book in the first room at the entrance of the stacks, of which there may be plenty of copies already described in the collective catalogues. Cataloguing must be organized and priorities must be specified, for instance in terms of scarcity or specificities, but also including bookbinding issues, which means working in concert as a team to build a real cataloguing project. There are no courses concerning everything they must know about conservation: paper, acidity, light, climate, humidity, mould and so on (which would require a much longer training). But there are concerning what is important, what a director must bear in mind to carry out his duties, what the curator must stress and make known to his or her administrators. I have also proposed three hours of training concerning the needs of users, starting with the needs of scholars: why scholars need to work on old books,

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specifically the original versions, and sometimes more than one book at a time … I invited two historians; one specialized in medieval history, the other one in religious history of the modern era. They explained why they need the books and so forth. ‒ ‒ ‒

What are heritage collections? Heritage in college/university libraries: issues and perspectives Analytic bibliography (course given with “books in hand “)

‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒

Scientific issues at stake in heritage collections Are heritage collections a key issue in libraries? Digital libraries in the field of heritage collections: specificities, purposes, strategic stakes Conservation issues The issues of description: cataloguing, access, formats Prevailing trends in the description of heritage collections

‒

Public, services et valorisation

Table 13.1: Organization of the course “Understanding the issues at stake in heritage”

My aim was this: most of these students will quickly become directors of libraries, of city libraries or small university libraries within a campus. They must have in mind what is important in taking care of special collections, and what they need to expect from the head of special collection. This is increasingly true in libraries where the number of civil servants is being cut, and most particularly in city libraries (which have preserved heritage collections since the French revolution), where there is no longer any specialist to take care of them. As previously stated, 70 % of these students will receive only 30 hours of training on special collections. So what can they do if they have to take care of these collections later, either as heads of these departments or directors of libraries that have special collections departments? In France, people who work in university libraries, or in major public libraries that have important collections of rare and ancient books coming from the revolutionary confiscations, are used to coming back to school to participate in training sessions. Fortunately, these training sessions have been well organized so far, and, more or less, depending on the library, it remains possible to finance these sessions through various kinds of public funding (state funding, university funding, municipal funding). Various institutions are proposing specialized sessions, which are mostly public (Centres régionaux de formation des bibliothécaires, centres specialized in librarian training in a few universities in the country). Yet these institutions

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can also be private ones. ENSSIB is in charge of the continuing education of directors and heads of departments in libraries. Last year these institutions launched a unique and common Web site to help people find what they are looking for.3 This organization is in fact very similar to what we see in other countries: training on cataloguing of rare books, on preservation issues and so on is provided only through these sessions. Every year ENSSIB organizes some training sessions on heritage collections: cataloguing of rare books (levels 1 and 2), Greek for cataloguing, digital heritage libraries, how to identify and preserve bookbindings … Moreover, every 2 years ENSSIB also conducts an eighteen-day training, offered in six sessions (once a month), on “managing a special collections department”. A lot of people are very interested in this session and complete it. We will offer the 4th session of this training in 20122013. However compared to previous years, trainees are rather different now: things are changing that quickly in France, heads of special collections are less and less specialized. This is due by and large to a change in the national cultural policy. Until now, the State had been contributing to the funding of the care of these collections. However this is no longer true: there has been a withdrawal on part of the State from this field. The best evidence is that until recently, the heads of special collections departments in major civic libraries were paid by the French state, this it is not the case everywhere anymore, even in libraries which have very important collections. As a result public libraries have to fend for themselves in organizing a search for a new head. Most of the time, these new leaders have not been given any kind of training in this area. Meanwhile, former students of the École des chartes and ENSSIB, specialized in dealing with heritage issues, cannot find employment in this sector except at the BnF (French National Library). So these training sessions are becoming critical. The recent development of the training, at the ENSSIB, on heritage management gives more and more credit to strategic stakes (in an environment in which the number of people employed in heritage departments is decreasing significantly), but also draws needed attention to the public and their needs. Such training tries to raise awareness of the future top-ranked managers of these heritage collections, but also awareness of the future directors of university and territorial libraries. Continuing education tries to remedy the lack of top-ranked managers specializing in this field, in a lot of departments dealing with heritage collections. In France heritage curators are gradually disappearing from territorial libraries, including the wealthy city libraries that have been

3

BIBDOC formations, Le portail de la formation continue des métiers des bibliothèques et de la documentation, www.formations-bibdoc.fr, accessed 15 July 2012.

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preserving the oldest and most important French heritage collections since the French revolution. In conclusion, I would just like to say that librarians who want to train themselves can read actual books4, attend sessions provided by the rare books schools, and also attend conferences such as “Ambassadors of the Book”.

4

Some significant books recently released: Manuel du patrimoine en bibliothèque, dir. Raphaële Mouren (Paris: Cercle de la Librairie, 2007); Alison Cullingford, The special collections handbook (London: Facet Publishing, 2011).

Cultural Heritage and IT Competence at the Catholic University, Milan Giliola Barbero Catholic University, Milan The aim of this paper is to illustrate the close connection between traditional philology and cultural heritage science essential to the Faculty of Arts at the Catholic University, Milan. On this basis, I will explain how new technology has been adopted by the faculty and the conception supporting it. Of course, I do not intend to offer a universal formula; I just want to explain the historical reasons behind this specific experience and its results, a course in IT Management for cultural heritage and a postgraduate master’s degree in Cultural heritage electronic cataloguing. The Faculty of arts at the Catholic University, Milan was founded in 1923. During the academic year 1997/1998, a new curriculum devoted to library and archival sciences was created in the context of the degree programme in mediaeval literature and philology.1 Students had to take thirteen fundamental courses for the degree in mediaeval philology and three more courses considered essential to the curriculum: bibliography and library science, archival science and palaeography. Professors taking part in Giuseppe Billanovich’s research team taught two of these three courses.2 Library science was taught by the director of the university’s main library, Dr Tino Foffano, who prepared his thesis in humanistic literature in 1959 with Billanovich himself. Palaeography was taught by Prof. Mirella Ferrari, who graduated in 1968 with a thesis on the monastery of Saint Columbanus in Bobbio. The degree in cultural heritage was established at the beginning the academic year 2001/2002, following university reforms in 2000.3 As in the past, most of the courses of this programme at the Catholic University were shared with the degree in mediaeval philology. Why? 1

2 3

During the academic year 1996/97 a school (‘diploma’) for cultural heritage specialists had already been created, consisting of thirteen courses: six were identical to courses in the programme in Mediaeval literature and philology, and one course in IT did not begin: see Guida della Facoltà di lettere e filosofia, Laurea in lettere: Diploma universitario in operatore dei beni culturali (Milano: UCSC, 1996), 26-29, 65-67. Tino Foffano, Angelo Giorgio Ghezzi, Mirella Ferrari, see Guida della Facoltà di lettere e filosofia: piani di studio, programmi dei corsi e norme (Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 1997), 57-58. Guida della Facoltà di lettere e filosofia: piani di studio e programmi dei corsi (Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 2001), 37-44.

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A Bit of History Students following the degree programme in mediaeval philology had to take many courses devoted to ancient books and documents: a course in palaeography, a course in diplomatic, one in mediaeval literature and one in mediaeval and humanistic philology. Mediaeval literature was conceived as a subject deriving its sources from ancient books. Students arriving from high school to tackle their university education had to study the entire Divine Comedy and 1650 pages, two volumes, of History of early Italian literature written by Gianfranco Contini, our nation’s most outstanding and learned philologist and literary critic. His writing style was very difficult for young people to understand, but he clearly described the handwritten transmission of all the ancient works he cited.4 After this first exam, a good understanding of Latin had necessarily been acquired, and at the end of the programme students could at least read Cicero, Virgil and Horace. In the second part of the degree programme students had to follow even more specialized courses. In palaeography they were taught to read and date handwritings and manuscripts, while in diplomatic they learned to use mediaeval documents; in Italian philology they were trained in ancient Italian texts, so that they became acquainted with textual criticism and critical edition techniques. The object of the romance philology course was the history of the development of Latin into Old French, Occitan, and other romance languages. Humanistic philology was conceived to describe the transmission of classics from Francesco Petrarca to Lorenzo Valla and Angelo Poliziano. The history of Petrarca’s personal library was described and discussed, too, together with the foundation of the first public library in Florence, San Marco’s library, following Niccolò Niccoli’s will. Among all the professors who taught such courses, the one who most inspired and influenced our faculty and its researchers was Giuseppe Billanovich.5 In our university he held the first chair of mediaeval and humanistic philology in Italy (1955); he founded and edited, as director, the journal Italia medioevale e umanistica. He studied Francesco Petrarca’s manuscripts of classical texts. He explained how classics were transmitted through manuscripts, from late antiquity to the modern age. He was a historian of mediaeval literature but did not produce any literary idea that was not based on ancient books and documents. Moreover, as he had studied and taught abroad in London and 4 5

Gianfranco Contini, Letteratura italiana delle origini (Firenze: Sansoni, 1970) and Letteratura italiana del Quattrocento (Firenze: Sansoni, 1976). Vestigia: studi in onore di Giuseppe Billanovich, ed. Rino Avesani, Mirella Ferrari, Tino Foffano et al. (Roma: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1984); L’antiche e le moderne carte: studi in memoria di Giuseppe Billanovich, ed. Antonio Manfredi and Carla Maria Monti (Roma-Padova: Editrice Antenore, 2007).

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in Switzerland, attending the British Library, he had a very clear idea of what a research library should offer. A video posted on the Internet shows Giuseppe Billanovich speaking at the presentation (1984) of his and his team’s volume on the ancient library of Pomposa Abbey, near Ferrara in Northern Italy. His speech was enthusiastic: “We are living the tragedy of public state libraries, that do not work or do not work properly. I have just written that Italian culture will be respected only when up-to-date manuscript catalogues will be provided in the Laurenziana Library in Florence and in the Marciana Library in Venice”.6

The Laurenziana Library holds around 11,000 manuscripts and 2,500 papyri.7 Even though the Laurenziani manuscripts are reproduced in a new digital library, they are still searchable only through Bandini’s catalogue, printed in the 18th century, while the entire Marciana collection has never been properly described.8 The Marciana Library main collection amounts to more than 13,000 volumes.9 Giuseppe Billanovich’s words reflect the needs of researchers. His investigations inspired the degree programme in library and archival sciences at the Catholic University; a programme intended to train library and museum curators capable of meeting readers’ needs and requirements. And even though such words sound quite dramatic, comparing libraries to a tragedy, they are presently still valid.

Researchers’ Needs and Libraries’ Efficiency In the last year I visited several libraries to perform the Census of Bernardino Telesio printed editions, supported by the National Italian committee for Bernardino Telesio.10 At the first library, the reference librarian assured me that 6

Giuseppe Billanovich, L’uomo che dava del tu a Petrarca: presentazione del libro ‘Pomposa monasterium modo in Italia primum’, 17 settembre 1994, www.youtube.com/watch ?v=_ 7Y4Ckba0BQ&feature=plcp, accessed January 2012. 7 Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana: fondi principali, www.bml.firenze.sbn.it/it/fondi.htm, accessed January 2012. 8 Angelo Maria Bandini, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae varia continens opera Graecorum patrum … (Florentiae, Typis Caesareis, 1764); Catalogus codicum Graecorum Bibliothecae Laurentianae (2 vol., Florentiae, Typis Regiis, 1768-1770); Catalogus codicum Latinorum Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae … (4 vol., Florentiae, 1774-1777); Catalogus codicum Italicorum Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae Gaddianae et Sanctae Crucis … (Florentiae, 1778); Bibliotheca Leopoldina Laurentiana … (3 vol., Florentiae, 1791-1793). 9 Biblioteca nazionale Marciana, Il patrimonio librario, http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/patri monio-librario, accessed January 2012. 10 Telesio Europa, www.telesio.eu, accessed January 2012.

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the entire card catalogue had been entered into the electronic catalogue, and she proudly added that the library was the first and only one in town to have a complete online catalogue. That was very good news for me; I checked the cards and the OPAC myself, and I verified that in fact the five cards describing Telesio’s 16th century editions had been copied in the electronic catalogue. So, after just a few hours I finished my work. Fortunately, because it was December and awfully cold I had absolutely no desire to go out, so before leaving I decided to revisit the fascinating ancient catalogue room. While walking around among the catalogue drawers, some large volumes caught my eye; they were 19th century volume catalogues. Through these volumes I identified five more Telesio copies, whose descriptions had never been transcribed onto cards or in the electronic catalogue. This was a very important state library, whose catalogue was not updated and whose reference desk was completely useless; not a tragic experience, but not a positive one either. Later, while still working for the Telesio Census, I visited another very important library. The book I needed had a shelfmark beginning with “Deposito Fogliani”. Two curators were sitting in the reading room for rare books, together with a reference librarian and two officers. No one was able to tell me the name corresponding to the surname “Fogliani”, nor the date when the deposit had been made. In the open shelved reference section, there was no list of ancient collections preserved in the library. In the end, I requested the volume, but the book was not in its place and I was invited to try again in a few weeks. Fortunately, the officer who had asked me for my identity card at the entrance was kind enough to help me, and after one hour she came back with the book, found on a staircase landing. Even if Italian law includes cataloguing among preservation tasks (what we call “tutela”), these examples demonstrate that libraries have not yet been able to update their printed books catalogues, never mind their manuscript catalogues, which require much more expertise. Such inefficiency can be partially excused, of course, because of the great number of ancient books and manuscripts preserved in Italian libraries. Nevertheless librarians must be made aware of it, and readers must be informed about the percentage of bibliographic descriptions recorded in electronic catalogues.11 Thus Giuseppe Billanovich’s words are still relevant. The degree programme in cultural heritage at Catholic University, Milan is designed to address researchers’ scientific needs.

11 After the Antwerpen colloquium I returned to the first state library I spoke of, and I realized that a recently employed librarian (PhD in History) prepared an Introduction to the library catalogue by which he correctly suggests to search also the card catalogue and the volume card, not only the OPAC.

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Introducing IT in this Context In 2003, the faculty asked me to design and teach a course enabling students to participate in IT projects devoted to the preservation and enhancement of cultural heritage. The title of this course is IT Management for cultural heritage.12 The faculty gave me free rein to organize the programme, based on my experience gained during previous projects. This course is now part of a degree programme that has changed considerably since the beginning. As in the past, students take some required general courses in early Italian literature, Latin and history; but professors of specialized courses, even if trained in traditional subjects, have developed new competences and some important experiences in different fields. Some of them are now engaged in projects devoted to manuscripts, incunabula and management of ancient ecclesiastic and conservation libraries. When I was charged with the new course, IT Management for cultural heritage, I immediately announced my goal: the course was not intended to train technicians but rather librarians and museum curators capable of interacting with technicians. Curators must be curators, that is to say they must know ancient books, their languages (Latin and romance languages at least in Italy), manuscript palaeography and codicology, history of printing and printers, history of collections, exactly as museum curators must know artistic techniques and history. Moreover they must be acquainted with services and with readers’ real needs. Just to offer some examples, to regulate a manuscript reading room service, it should be known that each 8th or 9th century codex is usually studied by no more than one or two persons in the entire world; so that, when those two people ask for the original volume, they should be allowed to consult it. Moreover regulations should also consider that a part of the collation of the text, and not only the codicological description, has to be done on the original. IT applications can be useful to researchers and readers only if they are developed by considering traditional knowledge and what manuscripts and rare books are used for. IT by itself has no content. Any electronic resource not only has to be supplied with content, but also needs to be designed specifically for each different type of content. Any resource: an Internet site, an electronic catalogue, a digital library, a virtual exhibition has to be designed in a project management context, considering both the specific object of such services (cultural heritage) and the market (the readers, the sponsors) together with the tasks imposed by state law. Rare book and manuscript marketing – if I may use such a word in this context – requires a good knowledge of products and at the same time it has to be oriented to respond to customers’ needs. I always ask my students to consider that in cultural heritage marketing the product 12 Gestione dell’informazione per i Beni culturali, http://docenti.unicatt.it/ita/giliola_barbero, accessed January 2012.

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(books, manuscripts, artistic works, archaeological sites) cannot be replaced, but only exploited through its different characteristics. We cannot always take initiative starting from the market, as traditional marketing does. We must begin with the products we have.13

Content The course, IT Management for Cultural Heritage, aims to introduce students to the logical basics of information technology. I do not intend to train students in software applications use (they can do this by themselves!), but in the comprehension of how such applications work and can be created. This is the only IT course students can take during the degree programme in cultural heritage at our university. At the beginning students have to take a test, which helps me plan the course. During the last academic year, for example, all of the students claimed to be Internet surfers, to be able to use a word processor, email and our university Web site; 95 % of them could define a database but only 30 % had already used one; 65 % claimed to use spreadsheets; only 50 % had already used an OPAC; 40 % knew HTML, but no one could name the inventor of the World Wide Web, or define XML and the World Wide Web Consortium. At the end of the test, in desiderata, they all wanted to learn how the Web works and how cultural heritage knowledge can be promoted through IT, not to use software applications, which only reinforced my personal opinion. Actually, students usually lack basic logical notions. Here I am going to underline some typical issues I have to address when trying to help students and colleagues understand the applications of new technology: 1. I begin my course by teaching that any electronic resource is made of files and that files can be of different types and formats. For this reason I describe the historical change from ISBD (computer file) to ISBD (electronic resource), and students read about an electronic resource using IFLA publications. They learn to distinguish programs from data, and among data they are asked to consider differences between texts, images, audio and video files. This part of the programme, which may sound banal, is taught because I realized that most of the students in the third year of the degree do not know, for example, that a Web page corresponds to an HTML file, nor that an image by itself cannot be searched on the Web, while a portion of a text can.14 13 See François Colbert, Le marketing des arts et de la culture (Boucherville, G. Morin, 1993, 2nd ed. 2000), it. trans. Marketing delle arti e della cultura (Milano, Etas, 2003), 2-25. 14 ISBD(ER) : International standard bibliographic description for electronic resources, (München: K. G. Saur, 1997) or http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s13/pubs/isbd.htm, accessed January 2012.

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2. Most of the students enrolled in the course answer their questions by opening links to sites listed by Google. They do not use the URL nor do they observe that an address bar exists in their browser. For this reason I explain – and they have to study – how Tim Berners-Lee designed the Web in 1990, using HTML files, giving them an Universal resource locator (or identifier) and letting machines dialogue through the Hyper text transfer protocol. Great inventions are always simple. I take this opportunity to have them read Tim Berners-Lee’s ideas about freedom of information and democracy. I emphasize the fact that he built Enquire and the World Wide Web at CERN in Geneva to share information in a working context, and not only to publish working results. I emphasize this historical fact, because it reveals a perspective that is completely different from individual traditional humanistic research.15 3. Another astonishing experience is realizing that when students need a book they cannot find in our university library, they often search for it on Google. That means – in my opinion – they can use our OPAC, but they do not know they are using an OPAC or what an OPAC is. For this reason, the second step is for students to assimilate the differences between static and dynamic Web pages, and between the Web and the Deep Web. 4. The quality and usability of the Web is of great impact both on traditional researchers and on the new people we try to recruit as “ambassadors of the book”. To introduce the students to such issues, Jakob Nielsen’s works together with some documents produced by the European project Minerva are extremely useful.16 5. Some months ago, a learned professor, managing several projects cataloguing manuscripts in Italy, reproached me because the Web site I had made for one of his projects costed considerably more than the site made by a colleague on a similar subject. The two sites had the same economic sponsor, who also complained about the difference in prices. I was really concerned and so I visited the very inexpensive site made by my colleague. It was composed of HTML pages, with three images. The site I designed was made of HTML pages and a database management system using a relational model composed of twenty-two tables, eighteen entry forms and an OPAC with three different search pages. The administrator of the sponsoring foundation was the director of IT services in a bank, and I could not believe that he did not notice such technical dif15 Maurizio Lana, Il testo nel computer (Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2004) must be studied; it tells the history of the hypertext and the World Wide Web. 16 Some parts of Jakob Nielsen, Web usability (Milano: Apogeo, 2000) and Web usability 2.0, (Milano: Apogeo, 2010) have to be studied together with the web site Museo & Web, www.minervaeurope.org/structure/workinggroups/userneeds/prototipo/museoweb.html, accessed January 2012.

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ferences. Since I want to prevent students from repeating these kinds of errors, the second part of the course is completely devoted to databases and mark-up languages. To this end, some concepts have to be understood: entities, attributes, relationships, for the database, the role of the World Wide Web Consortium in XML definition, and the difference between well-formed and valid XML documents.17 Among good practices, Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico’s catalogues (SBN, Manus OnLine and Edit16) and international projects like the Text encoding initiative are illustrated.18 6. Cataloguing standards for cultural heritage description must be also known.

Method Any academic course in traditional humanistic subjects should begin by describing the instruments to be used: books considered to be masterpieces, the most famous handbooks and specialized journals. Approaching IT in the same way is not possible, because handbooks are too numerous and masterpieces, in a sense, do not exist anymore. Scientific journals are not the only sources of reference. Outstanding institutions publish their reports online; all standards are published online. The method of the course consists of referring to the most important institutions at national and international levels: the World Wide Web Consortium, the International federation of library associations and institutions, the Encoded archival description working group, the Marc standard office, the Consortium of European Research Libraries, the Text Encoding Initiative Consortium, the Italian istituto centrale per il catalogo unico and the Istituto centrale per il catalogo e la documentazione of artistic heritage. Also fundamental, as already stated, is the use of good practices.

Master’s Degree One course is not sufficient to provide students with all of the new technology related information and experience that they will need for their professions. As they must spend most of the time during their degree program studying cultural 17 Stefano Vitali, Passato digitale (Milano: Bruno Mondadori, 2004). 18 Servizio bibliotecario nazionale (SBN), http://www.sbn.it, accessed 17 July 2012; Edizioni italiane del XVI secolo (EDIT16), http://edit16.iccu.sbn.it, accessed 17 July 2012; Manus OnLine, http://manus.iccu.sbn.it, accessed 17 July 2012; Text Encoding Initiative Consortium, www.tei-c.org, accessed 17 July 2012.

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heritage, a complete training in IT for cultural heritage can only be delivered at the postgraduate level. For this reason, since 2005, the Faculty of arts has organized a new postgraduate master’s in cultural heritage electronic cataloguing. It takes place every year or two, depending on funding and on the number of applications. The scientific director is an art historian, professor Alessandro Rovetta, while professor Stefania Vecchio, a specialist in electronic cataloguing, is responsible for planning the activities.19 In the beginning this master’s was devoted to artistic electronic cataloguing, but in the last two years its approach has been enlarged to include all cultural heritage, incorporating book collections, manuscripts and archival standards. The list of courses is very interesting. The first group of courses is devoted to the basics: databases, HTML and the Web, XML, digital images, cataloguing software, preservation of digital resources and project management for IT applications. The second group deals with legal issues. The third group addresses different cataloguing standards and aims to train students in developing interoperability projects inside institutions that hold different types of collections. Interoperability is the most interesting aspect of this master’s degree.20

Conclusion As was previously mentioned, the experience of the Faculty of arts at the Catholic University is not a formula. Conservation libraries inefficiency, as I described, demonstrates that Italian libraries need strong rare books and manuscripts librarianship, which must be based on readers needs and, among other tasks, must complete catalogues. This is the lesson learned from researchers’ experience, and this can be considered our own mission in the educational environment. The degree course and the postgraduate master are the solutions we found to save the traditional training in the humanities and at the same time offer a good professional introduction to technology. The degree course teaches basics and describes how IT applications can be useful to cultural heritage. The master gives a rich knowledge of all the issues a curator may encounter in his profession. Finally, I apologize if I have overly focused on the inefficiency of certain library services, which I am always honoured to visit, and I hope that my comments are taken in the way I intended, as constructive criticism for continual improvement.

19 Catalogazione informatica del patrimonio culturale, http://milano.unicatt.it/masters_5989. html, accessed January 2012. 20 Catalogazione informatica del patrimonio culturale, attività didattiche, http://milano.uni catt.it/masters_5993.html, accessed January 2012.

Experiential Learning in Historical Bibliography Anne Welsh Lecturer in Library and Information Studies, University College London

Introduction This paper presents an overview of the role of the educational theory of experiential learning within the Historical bibliography module taught at University College London (UCL) as an option within its Master of Arts in Library and Information Studies. Experiential learning covers not only the use of practicum within higher education, but the acceptance that learning is an individual experience, even within group educational settings, and that it involves a wider range of experience than just passively absorbing information delivered by course leaders. In session 2010-11, an exploration of students’ learning experience revealed that whereas instructors introduced practical experiences to aid the acquisition of practical skills, students reported that these experiences also had an impact on their learning of the more theoretical elements of the course. Here we consider the United Kingdom curriculum for Historical bibliography; the curriculum at UCL; and the balance between bibliography as an academic and a practice-based discipline. We then discuss the concept of experiential learning in higher education in general and then within the Historical bibliography module at UCL. Finally, we consider the impact of a study of experiential learning on the curriculum of the UCL module. Throughout this paper, the term ‘Historical bibliography’ is used in its widest sense, standing for the wider discipline of bibliography, not in its strictest, narrowest sense of the history of ‘the materials and the production of the book and its subsequent dissemination.’1 At UCL we find the use of ‘Historical bibliography’ as a module name avoids confusion in the minds of prospective students (all of whom have first degrees in non-LIS disciplines) between bibliography (the discipline), bibliography (the list of citations required in an essay), and bibliometrics (the study of citation practice).

1

Lloyd Hibberd, “Physical and reference bibliography”, The Library, s. 5, 20, 2 (1965): 126.

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The Curriculum UCL is one of four UK universities offering credit-bearing courses on bibliography or rare books librarianship more widely. Aberystwyth University offers two courses by distance, which can be taken as part of a master’s degree or as standalone short courses. Because the courses are offered as distance learning modules, the eligibility criteria point out that students ‘should ideally have access to a rare books collection, however small.’2 University of Dundee offers a module entitled ‘Understanding and managing rare books’ within its Master of Literature (MLitt) in Archives and Records Management.3 The University of London has, over a number of years, established the London Rare Books School (LRBS), ‘a series of five-day, intensive courses on a variety of book-related subjects.’4 Credit from the courses can be used towards the MA in the History of the Book from the Institute of English Studies; can be transferred to other masters’ programmes in the UK and elsewhere; or can be accumulated at the LRBS to gain a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma in the History of the Book.5 UCL’s Historical bibliography module is available as a short course taught alongside masters’ students.6 Although available to students taking other modules (including the Master of Research (MRes) in Library, Archive and Information Studies for mid-career professionals)7, within the context of ‘heritage librarianship’ the main programme of interest is the MA in Library and Information Studies (MA LIS). Within the UK setting, the usual route to qualification as a librarian consists of a first degree (usually a bachelor’s in England and Wales or a four-year master’s in Scotland), followed by work experience as a library assistant, followed by the MA LIS. Finally, once employed as a professional librarian, many people complete the chartership scheme of the UK professional body, CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals).8 The MA LIS is, therefore, the usual entry-level qualification for profes2 3 4

5

6 7 8

Aberystwyth University, “Rare books librarianship 1”, www.aber.ac.uk/en/postgrad/postgrad uate-courses/distancelearning/infostudies/rare_books_librarian_pg1_cpd, accessed 9 June 2012. University of Dundee, “MLitt in Archives and Records Management”, www.dundee.ac.uk/ cais/arm/programme_structure.htm, accessed 9 June 2012. University of London, School of Advanced Study, Institute of English Studies, “London rare books school”, www.ies.sas.ac.uk/study-training/research-training-courses/london-rare-booksschool, accessed 9 June 2012. University of London, School of Advanced Study, Institute of English Studies, “London rare books school fees & credit”, www.ies.sas.ac.uk/study-training/research-training-summerschools/london-rare-books-school/fees-credit, accessed 9 June 2012. University College London, Department of Information Studies, “Short courses”, www.ucl. ac.uk/dis/taught/shortcourses, accessed 9 June 2012. University College London, Department of Information Studies, “MRes in Library, archive and information studies”, www.ucl.ac.uk/dis/taught/pg/mres, accessed 9 June 2012. CILIP, “Introduction to Chartership”, http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/qualifications/ cilip-qualifications/chartership/pages/chartershipintro.aspx, accessed 9 June 2012.

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sional librarians, and, in common with many other countries, although taught within higher education, we commonly talk about attending ‘library school’ when discussing time spent studying for the MA LIS. The MA LIS curriculum at UCL consists of six core modules, two optional modules, and a dissertation (thesis). The core modules are: ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒

Cataloguing and classification 1 Collection management and preservation Information sources and retrieval Introduction to management Principles of computing and information technology Professional awareness (consisting of a work placement, case study and exam)

Historical bibliography is one of the optional modules reflecting the wide range of roles to which graduates of the programme aspire after library school: ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒

Advanced preservation Cataloguing and classification 2 Database systems analysis and design Digital resources in the humanities Electronic publishing Historical bibliography Manuscript studies Publishing today Records management Services to children and young people Web publishing

Students commonly combine an option in Historical bibliography with Manuscript studies or Advanced preservation, but, subject to timetable clashes, it is possible for them to combine options to suit their own interests. Since 2009 the Historical bibliography/Digital resources in the humanities combination has been increasingly popular, and, indeed, in session 2011-12 Historical bibliography was also offered as an option in the MA / MSc in Digital Humanities which was launched in September 2011.9 In terms of teaching skills for heritage librarians, the core modules provide good coverage of what we might term ‘soft skills’ – communication, personnel management, professional awareness – and certain modules either teach or at least provide a solid foundation for ‘hard skills’ required by those managing rare book collections. For example, the Management module teaches and 9

University College London, Centre for Digital Humanities, “MA/Msc in Digital humanities”, www.ucl.ac.uk/dh/courses/mamsc, accessed 9 June 2012.

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assesses budgeting skills, while Collection management covers the basics of stock acquisition, maintenance and preservation, and Cataloguing and classification 1 gives enough of a foundation in general cataloguing principles, the Anglo-American cataloguing rules (AACR2), MARC21 and Resource description and access (RDA) to scaffold teaching and learning in Descriptive cataloguing in Rare materials (Books) (DCRM(B)) within Historical bibliography and Cataloguing and classification 2.

Rare Books in Practice The MA LIS is both an MA awarded by one of the world’s top ten universities10 and a vocational course preparing the next generation of librarians for their first professional posts. This means that for us Historical bibliography is a practice-based discipline, with rare book collections of varying sizes as the destination of many of our graduates. Even in the current economic downturn, the summary on CILIP’s Rare Books and Special Collections Group Web site is still an accurate UK picture: “Opportunities to work with rare book and special collections arise in many kinds of libraries. Specialist independent libraries – such as those concerned with law, medicine, astronomy, beekeeping, architecture or accountancy, to name but a few – with current material in their subject areas sometimes also have older material, and working with this will usually form part of one librarian’s responsibilities. In a few cases the stock of a specialist library may fall almost entirely into the special collections category and its care may require a full-time special collections librarian. There are many rare book and special collections in the public library sector which are managed alongside current collections. This applies particularly to local studies collections which frequently hold, for example, unique copies of early local printing and sometimes whole collections (on any subject) gifted by local collectors. Cathedral libraries hold a large amount of early material, including local studies resources. There are also special collections in national libraries and many university and other research libraries, requiring part-time special collections librarians or, in 11 some cases, one or more full-time special collections librarians.”

On the first day of this conference, Professor Stam talked about the American Library Association (ALA) and Association of College & Research Libraries competencies12 and identified an emphasis on functions, in which knowledge 10 QS Top Universities, “QS world university rankings overall in 2011”, www.topuniversities. com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011, last accessed 9 June 2012. 11 CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group, “Careers in Rare books and special collections”, www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/rare-books/pages/careers. aspx, last accessed 9 June 2012. 12 Association of college and research libraries, “Guidelines: Competencies for special collections professionals”, www.ala.org/acrl/standards/comp4specollect, last accessed 9 June 2012.

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about the book is tucked into collection development.13 The UK’s Rare Books and Special Collections Group differentiates between ‘skills’ and ‘knowledge’ in its Skills of a rare books and special collections librarian: framework, identifying the following as skills: ‒ historical bibliography and understanding the characteristics of a wide range of formats … ‒ preservation issues and practical knowledge relating to environmental control and the safe handling of material being stored, consulted, displayed, photocopied … ‒ other collection management issues, for example, providing a secure environment for storage and consultation, insurance, loans in/out ‒ cataloguing of rare book and special collections … also having an understanding of national and international union and other catalogues as a means of assessing rarity and promoting the library’s holdings (for example, knowing how to derive maximum benefit from the English short title catalogue) ‒ library management systems … ‒ reference work … ‒ methods for promoting the collections, ranging from large-scale ‒ digitisation projects to setting out a small selection of items for a visiting group or single potential benefactor … ‒ the basics of market research … ‒ presentations … ‒ writing … ‒ fund-raising … ‒ project planning and management … ‒ people management … covering both employed staff … and volunteers ‒ legislation and standards … ‒ intellectual property rights.14 The same document continues: “But in addition to these skills the rare books and special collections librarian also requires knowledge of ‒ the collections that he/she looks after in order to identify items to meet specified needs: for example, what would be appropriate exhibits for anniversaries, special occasions, special visitors, etc., or what would provide worthwhile content for digitisation projects, including collaborative projects; ‒ the subject areas of the collections to help interpret them and also to facilitate appreciation of the research value of items in the collections; 13 See Deirdre C. Stam, “Competence assessment: challenges for heritage librarians”, 25-41. 14 CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group, “Skills of a rare books and special collections librarian: framework,” published 2007, www.cilip.org.uk/filedownloadslibrary/groups/ rbsc/skills%20of%20a%20rare%20books%20librarian.pdf.

152 Anne Welsh ‒ languages, to help manage and research the collections and also to assist users (for example, increasingly users come without any Latin); ‒ related collections of similar material in other libraries, to help appreciate the particular strengths of one’s own collections and the possibilities for collaboration.”

Crucially, this document acknowledges the life-long learning in which heritage librarians engage: “Many of the skills will be needed from the start when a librarian joins an institution; others will follow in due course, as the librarian acquires more responsibility.”

A later document, published in 2010, outlines the need for advocacy of the heritage librarian’s skills, in contrast to and complementing the skills of the professional archivist. This highlights the need for professional qualifications and training in information handling skills (specific to ‘the complex features of rare books’); knowledge of collections; and self-promotion in the workplace. In particular, it identifies the responsibility of heritage librarians and archivists “to highlight the value of rare books and archives”.15 The curriculum for Historical bibliography at UCL was designed against this backdrop, and we continue to monitor the needs of the special collections profession, not only by following the publication of formal documents in the UK and more widely, but also by maintaining close links with colleagues responsible for the management of heritage collections.

Bibliography as an Academic Discipline Within the Historical bibliography module, a balance has to be maintained between equipping students for their life in practice and providing them with the core knowledge of the discipline. We might categorize these activities broadly as: 1. Training ‒ Skills for rare books curation ‒ How to be a rare books librarian 2. Education ‒ Bibliography as an academic discipline in its own right ‒ Bibliography as foundational knowledge for rare books librarians ‒ Bibliography as foundational knowledge for all librarians 15 CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group, “Advocating the role of the Rare books librarian”, published 2010, www.cilip.org.uk/filedownloadslibrary/groups/rbsc/advocating% 20the%20role%20of%20a%20rare%20books%20librarian.pdf .

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The module aims to provide a suitable level of training, while emphasizing the foundational aspect of bibliography in the education of heritage librarians. This historical perspective provides students with a wider context for other concerns in 21st century librarianship: “As they have in many other transition periods in book history – from the scroll to the codex, for instance, or from manuscript to print – librarians will have to decide which materials to preserve in their original format, which to transfer to new media, and which to leave behind … Likewise, they will face the even thornier issue of deciding what new print collections their libraries will build in this increasingly digital era … Does the printed codex … still have a role for researchers? … A grounding in book history can help librarians face these and other issues by presenting past periods of transition in the history of the book, and analyzing how similar problems in those periods were faced and, perhaps, resolved”.16

The academic component of the course comprises an introduction to the different branches of bibliography. Enumerative bibliography is highlighted as a useful practical resource for rare book curators and the importance of being able to decipher and understand bibliographies is introduced in the first week of class, which immediately opens the subject out from LIS as the curation and documentation of materials to a discussion of those outside the library community with bibliographic interests, and to the textual bibliography that has been the core of bibliography within the academic community. This allows for the introduction of the concept of the ideal copy. Descriptive and analytical bibliography skills are taught, including quasi-facsimile, collation and foliation, supported by classes and reading on the processes of book production (Historical bibliography in the narrower sense of the term). These processes are set within the wider social context of the history of the book, following Darnton’s model of the Communications Circuit17, and discussing the concepts of the history of technology as innovation versus the history of technology-in-use.18 As well as introducing book history, we also touch on the related disciplines of Digital humanities and Manuscript studies, stressing that “All documents, manuscript and printed, are the bibliographer’s province; and it may be added that the aims and procedures of bibliography apply not only to written and printed books, but also to any document, disc, tape or film where reproduction is involved and variant versions may result.”19 16 Erik Delfino, “Book history and librarian education in the twenty-first century”, in Teaching bibliography, textual criticism and book history, ed. Ann R. Hawkins (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2007), 81. 17 Robert Darnton, “What is the history of books?”, Daedalus, 111, 3 (1982), 65-83. 18 David Edgerton, The shock of the old: technology and global history since 1900 (London: Profile, 2008). 19 Philip Gaskell, A new introduction to bibliography (Winchester: St Paul’s Bibliographies, 1995), 1.

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Teaching and Learning Activities It should be clear from this overview that the module covers a lot of ground in only thirty hours contact time. Because it is taught at the master’s level, and because it is an optional module that tends to attract students who enjoy learning through self-study, it is possible to rely on students to keep up with reading in support of the book history element. Nevertheless, in designing the current iteration of the module in 2009, constructive alignment was used to ensure the presence of activities designed for the deep learning in which most students wish to engage but also to have a clear route to success in assessments for those few students who employ strategic learning in the module. In constructive alignment, it is acknowledged that students learn by what they do (‘active learning’), Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO) are communicated to them at the beginning of the course, and these form the basis of assessment.20 In the Historical bibliography module, students demonstrate their skills of observation and accuracy and their ability to understand bibliographic descriptions by creating a quasi-facsimile of an early modern title page, which is worth 30 % of the overall mark. An historical essay is also submitted, from a choice of ten topics, ranging from the theoretical (e.g. ‘What is historical bibliography?’) through book history (e.g. ‘Why was Venice significant in the history of the book?’) to the pragmatic (e.g. ‘Whose book is it? What is so important about provenance?’). This essay is worth 70 % of the overall mark and is graded according to the same standards as any other UCL master’s-level history essay. Teaching and learning activities are structured in three categories. In-class activities include lectures; practicals (e.g. book-handling, exercises on collation and foliation, cataloguing and binding identification and description); and the assessed quasi-facsimile exercise and practice for it. It is assumed that students will attend all classes. In personal study, students work on their assessed essay and read in support of it and of in-class activities. There is only one essential text, Gaskell’s A new introduction to bibliography (Winchester: St. Paul’s Bibliographies, 1995), but they are expected to know this cover to cover and to supplement it with readings from an extensive reading list according to their interests, the requirements of the essay topic they have chosen, and more importantly, their self-assessed needs in terms of keeping up with in-class activities. Because students have already completed at least one degree, they are expected to have the self-knowledge to identify when they understand a concept and when they do not. At UCL we operate the standard English ‘office hour’, in which module tutors make themselves available to students for at least one 20 John Biggs and Catherine Tang, Teaching for quality learning at University: what the student does, 3rd ed. (London: McGraw-Hill, 2007).

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designated hour a week on a ‘drop-in’ basis (i.e. there is no need for the student to book an appointment: the tutor is available for any course-related question however large or small). It is expected that students will use the office hour to discuss any individual requirements. Since 2009, this has ranged from the fairly common ‘I’m really interested in this particular area, I’ve read the books on the suggested reading list, what else do you recommend?’ to the much less common but extremely important ‘I was ill on Monday and have gone through the online handouts but can we please go over collation with one of your practice examples because it’s hard to grasp just from Gaskell?’ The final category of teaching and learning activities is excursions. We arrange one compulsory excursion that takes place during class time to see a printing press. Until 2012, this was always a visit to St. Bride’s printing library, where the then librarian, Nigel Roche, talked students through the printing process, using the Library’s range of presses, compositor’s trays and type. In 2010‒2011 we were also able to offer an optional excursion outside class time, to the Bibliography Room in Oxford, where Dr Paul Nash ran a session in which students were able to compose and print their names. In 2010‒2011, class time was structured to comprise ten hours of lectures of lengths varying from 20-40 minutes, eight practicals of lengths varying from thirty minutes to three hours (excluding breaks), and one excursion.

Experiential Learning In the field of education, the concept of experiential learning was first proposed by John Dewey in the 1930s. It encompasses the idea that learning is not solely about the teaching offered: we all learn differently, drawing on our previous experiences. A commonly-used diagram by Kolb shows experiential learning as a dynamic process inside a triangle whose three angles are labeled ‘Education’, ‘Work’, and ‘Personal development’.21 Kolb’s model applies to any learning situation. Within a vocational subject like LIS, it is not only generally useful, but also allows an educational framework that acknowledges that learning does not necessarily start in the classroom – students arriving with years of work-experience bring with them years of learning, and educators need to target these students as well as those to whom concepts are brand new when we raise them in the classroom. The model also allows room for the life-long learning that is so much a part of many library roles, and which was highlighted by the Rare Books and Special Collections Group’s documentation on the skills and knowledge of the rare books librarian. 21 David A. Kolb, Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1984).

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In 2010‒2011, an investigation was conducted into the learning experience of students on the Historical bibliography module. Knowing the teaching offered on the module, it set out to explore what the students felt they learned. In the 21st century, when educators are utilizing more and more online learning activities, it was felt particularly important to discover the right balance between direct knowledge transfer (lectures and reading, which are easy to deliver remotely) and active learning (practical activities that can only be experienced physically in real life). The observations in the rest of this paper highlight the findings related to the education of heritage librarians from a paper-based survey of 31 (100 %) course participants at the end of the module in December 2010; an online survey in April 2011, completed by 16 students (51.61 %); interviews with 7 students (22.58 %) in Summer 2011; and free-form feedback received from students for a presentation-style report on the optional visit to the Bibliography Room in Oxford. A full analysis of the investigation will be published shortly. The observations here are limited to those related to training for competencies and its role within wider education.

Pre-Library School Experience Although students must have at least one year’s experience working in a library environment to be admitted to the MA LIS course, it is not necessary to have rare books experience to take the Historical bibliography module. Of the sixteen respondents to the online questionnaire, nine stated they had no professional special collections experience prior to the course, while seven had worked with rare books in various degrees, including one antique bookseller. Tasks undertaken by members of the group included cataloguing; preservation; reference work; providing access to materials; and carrying out research for a cataloguing project. Interviewee 4 is representative of the more experienced students on the course: “Chronologically, working forwards, I started in a cathedral library which was a mix of modern lending library, manuscripts, early printed books and incunabula … , a large academic library, dealing with law books from 1800 onwards … dealing with preservation issues.”

By the time the interview was conducted, she had also undertaken her twoweek MA LIS work placement in the special collections department of a large academic library. Whatever their experience-level, just under half (44 %) of the students in the module were strongly motivated, with 31 % of students in the online questionnaire checking the box that the module was a reason they chose the UCL MA LIS course and a further 13 % checking the box that the module was the

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main reason they chose UCL. In free-text answers, twelve of the sixteen respondents to the online questionnaire offered reasons that included an element of personal interest when asked why they chose Historical bibliography as an option: “It seemed like a course that I would not be able to take anywhere else. It also seemed to be a little more academic in nature than some of the other options, which appealed to me” (Respondent 15).

In answer to the question “Do you want to work in special collections?”, eight respondents to the online questionnaire checked the box for ‘maybe’; six for ‘Yes’ and two for ‘No, I took the course for interest’.

The Practical Elements of the Module In the paper questionnaire in December 2011, twenty-seven students said the balance of practicals to lectures was right, while three said there were too many lectures and one said there were too many practicals. In the online questionnaire, it was clear from free-text answers that those who liked the practical element felt very strongly about it: “I think that the hands on sessions with the books were vital and really brought the subject to life. I think that objects have an immediacy that makes the tactile aspects of the course both interesting and memorable” (Respondent 6).

However, there was great disagreement over which of the classes were most successful. This was most marked in response to the bindings session, which topped the paper-based questionnaire’s results for both favourite and least favourite class. The free-text comments elucidate some reasons: “The binding class frustrated me because I love the subject and felt that others who may not have seen binding material before – or done some binding themselves (as I have) may have been a bit overwhelmed” (Student 3). “I enjoyed the bindings class ‒ enjoyed the challenge of trying to identify and describe the form of bindings” (Student 9).

Collation was chosen as least favourite practical by three students but favourite practical by five students. Again, the free-text answers are helpful in unpacking this: “Collation, because it was quite hard to get to grips with, but that’s not a criticism of how it was taught!” (Student 5). “Collation has been really useful in my job!” (Student 29).

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These answers are also indicative of the level of self-awareness students possess. Degree-educated and with some experience working in a library setting, it is hardly surprising that they show appreciation that learning is not always an enjoyable experience but that some unpleasant things can be important to learn. Students also showed their awareness of learning in their descriptions of the optional excursion to the Bibliography Room in Oxford. As Heather McKenna summarized in her contribution to the online slideshow of the visit, this was “An exciting opportunity to get hands on experience of traditional printing processes that we had been taught during the course”22, or, in the more educational parlance of Respondent 3 in the online questionnaire: “It was really helpful to use this kind of kinetic learning opportunity to gain an insight into the printing process. As librarians we are learning to conserve books as material sources of social history, not just repositories of intellectual knowledge, so it was revealing to put oneself into the position of the nameless compositors and printers who played such a crucial role in the production of texts.”

In reading the students’ responses to questionnaires and their free-text contributions to the online slideshow, it was apparent that while the Historical bibliography module instructors had introduced practical learning mainly with a view to aiding the acquisition of practical skills, students were expressing benefits from practical learning in gaining more theoretical knowledge. Several students formed connections between the historical experience of the printers and our experiences today: “Things that we had to think carefully about such as spacing are still relevant today in the way we present information” (Frances Cassidy).23 “In the digital age we are so used to seeing text printed and reproduced effortlessly, but the technology is hidden inside computers and printers. Having actually printed something myself, I have a greater appreciation for how the letters actually ended up on the page” (Helen Doyle).24

Other students expressed an increased understanding of processes they had heard about in class or read about in books, as in these answers from the online questionnaire: “It put into perspective the detailed work that went into printing a book” (Respondent 8). 22 Anne Welsh, “Visit to the Bodleian bibliography room, 10 March 2011”, www.slideshare. net/AnneWelsh/bib-room, slide 7, accessed 4th July 2012. 23 Ibid., slide 6. 24 Ibid., slide 13.

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“The way the matrix worked, finally, finally clicked for me seeing one in my hand with the mould in the other. No matter how many times I read about the parts of type I never got how all the pieces were put together and how the casting process worked” (Respondent 4). “I learnt about the human involvement in printing. I learnt what it felt like to be in a printing-house, compositing and using the press, rather than learning just about the mechanics. It is easy to say ’then the compositor composed the text’ but that gives you no indication of how long it took, how small the pieces of type were or how hard the justification of the text was!” (Respondent 9).

Respondent 9’s comment on learning how something felt indicates the importance that they set on experience as a tool to understanding and also highlights the individual nature of learning. Slide 3 of the online report provides visual evidence that when an instructor is teaching a group, each student is experiencing learning on their own. In the picture on the bottom right, the group are watching Dr Paul Nash demonstrate the printing of a sheet. While six of the students are smiling, enjoying the demonstration, two of the students have expressions that show uncertainty (far left) and displeasure (third left). When we saw the picture, and asked them, separately, what they were thinking, they each reported noticing that the alignment was slightly out. While the other students, who were seeing a printing press working for the first time, were concentrating on the overall experience and listening to the commentary, the two unsmiling students had enough pre-existing knowledge of the process to identify a minor error. Moments later, Paul Nash himself noticed the sheet was misaligned, and ran another through the press, which reinforced the learning of the two observant students. In this photograph, the camera has captured the different experience of the students in the group. Having been asked to submit a maximum of three sentences summarizing their two hours at the Bibliography Room, the comments students offered suggested subtle differences in their learning experiences. Sian Prosser illustrates the distinction between knowing something and understanding it in her comment: “In the Bibliography Room I handled heavy machinery and leaden pieces and it was not until I had to proofread upside down and back to front in order to create a properly composed sheet of print that I began to understand the complexity of the process.”25

For her, the physicality of the activity aided understanding. Joanne Maddocks’ comment revealed that her experience was rooted in some of the core concepts in bibliography that she was learning on the course, most notably the differences between editions, impressions and states of printed books: 25 Ibid., slide 10.

160 Anne Welsh “Having the chance to do some compositing ourselves really showed how many decisions about spelling, word breaks and spacing were made by the compositor in the course of his work. This and the number of errors caught in the proofreading stage of even our small sheet really brought home the inevitability of differences between editions and the effect these would have had on the way the text was interpreted by readers.”26

The progress of the students from knowledge to synthesis and evaluation indicated by their brief synopses of their excursion is reminiscent of Bloom’s taxonomy. In its classic form, this is shown as a pyramid with ‘lower order learning’ at the bottom and ‘higher order learning’ at the top. In any experience, an individual might progress from knowledge, at the bottom, through four stages – comprehension, application, analysis and synthesis – to the highest order of learning, evaluation. Bloom’s taxonomy has undergone many revisions and developments since its original publication in 1956, with some commentators arguing against its hierarchical structure, but the original pyramid diagram remains the dominant form of the taxonomy in the educational literature.27 In the few quotations from students here, it is clear that the learning outcomes are more complex than those first envisaged. Within the presentationstyle report and the answers to the online questionnaire, students demonstrated analysis of their experience and the desire to synthesize it with existing knowledge, not only of printing processes but also of their impact on word processing. Student comments also indicated their personalization of the information as they evaluated it and integrated it in their world view: “For me, the most valuable part of the visit was being reminded that technology has always been vital to the dissemination of ideas. There has been a massive shift from the use of the type mould and typeset plate to the use of Word and programming languages for Web publishing, but that only made me realize how much potential there still is for things to change later on” (Jennifer Howard).28

Interviews with the students about their practical experiences within the module provided more evidence of higher order learning achieved through active learning. Some students expressed a decided preference for learning through experience as opposed to reading or listening: “I’ve always felt that practical elements are really important in things because I don’t like dealing with abstract concepts … I think it’s essential to put the theory into practice and to do hands-on things. I suppose that is partly the way I learn. I do need to do things to learn them effectively” (Interviewee 7).

26 Ibid., slide 12. 27 Robert J. Marzano and John S. Kendall, The new taxonomy of educational objectives, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2007), 2-8. 28 Anne Welsh, “Visit to the Bodleian bibliography room, 10 March 2011”, slide 15.

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“I think practical learning more than any other type encourages people to talk to each other, so that helped me to get my head round it, because if I’m talking about it, I’m asking questions and I can understand it more” (Interviewee 5).

One part-time student reported the transfer of knowledge from the classroom to the workplace: “I think having the practical experience of working with the books is what gave me the confidence to look at the books that I’ve got to work with now, not as a scary thing … I’ve gotten to the point where I can look at something and have a reasonable idea of what it is and where it’s come from, which means that I can then go on and start cataloguing it” (Interviewee 1).

Gaining professional confidence in handling books and working with them was one of the main intended learning outcomes for the module. Another parttime student demonstrated high order learning in evaluating his knowledge from the course and using it appropriately in his workplace: “I was using the techniques I had learned for the Western book to apply to the Middle Eastern Book … there’s a physical difference, but in terms of printing whatever’s been happening in the West was happening in the Middle East, but in a different time frame” (Interviewee 3).

The clearest example of higher order learning came from a student who took the module purely out of interest and expressed the impact of her learning experience on her world view: “Working in a public library setting and knowing the history behind what we were putting onto the shelves really made me aware of my place in the information chain …” “I’m quite knowledgeable on how to look at a Web site and decide whether it’s authoritative, and so seeing the issues now trying to deal with Web sites and how you can look back and see how all that evolved, when the printed book came about, it’s the same issues …” “Making people aware that it’s a device for transferring information just as much as the computer is nowadays … I don’t know if that’s a practical thing, but that’s something that I would say I got out of the course” (Interviewee 2).

Conclusions The results of the exploration revealed that practical activities have deeper impact on the student learning experience than educators teaching the Historical bibliography module appreciated when they designed its curriculum. The predicted direct relationship of doing practical activities in order to learn prac-

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tical skills, such as book-handling, collation and identification of different binding materials, was borne out by the study. However, it also revealed that active learning contributed to students’ understanding of more theoretical concepts in bibliography such as differences between editions, impressions and states. Beyond this, evidence was found of the individual nature of experiential learning and, as students progressed from knowledge and comprehension to analysis, synthesis and evaluation, it became clear that learning from the course was being integrated not only into their practice at work but, in some cases, into their world view. The study took place at an important time in the development of the module. In September 2011 the first cohort of students on UCL’s new MA/MSc in Digital Humanities (DH) were offered the course as an option. Before undertaking this exploration of experiential learning in Historical bibliography, the course tutors had been discussing the appropriate balance of practical to theoretical activities when the student body became a mix of those who needed to acquire special collections curatorial skills and those who were studying for entirely academic reasons. Discovering the benefits of the practicum to the acquisition of theoretical knowledge encouraged its retention in the module, with only a small reduction in the rare books cataloguing element. Some cataloguing was retained, with further practice transferred to the optional module Cataloguing & classification 2, which is taught in the Spring term. MA LIS students from the Historical bibliography module were encouraged to attend the session in Cataloguing & classification 2 that covered rare books cataloguing. In fact the small proportion of cataloguing practice that was removed from the Historical bibliography module was replaced with a practical activity on types of printing for book illustrations, and so the balance of practical to theoretical learning remained the same. As technology makes it increasingly possible to offer elements of LIS courses online, it is becoming more important for educators to consider their modules’ modes of delivery. On the evidence of this small study, it can be argued that a proportion of the education of heritage librarians must continue to be conducted using face-to-face, practical activities. It would be timely to conduct a study with a larger cohort of students into exactly which elements of learning are most beneficial to the widest range of people when offered as practicum. While there is a common-sense element to this question (for example, it is clear that one can only learn how to handle rare books by actually doing so), this small study at UCL indicates that experiential learning has the potential to benefit the study of more theoretical branches of bibliography, and it would be interesting to pinpoint areas in which student experience can be enhanced by active learning activities.

The STCV Workshop: Practical Training in Analytical Bibliography for Staff of Heritage Libraries Diederik Lanoye and Susanna De Schepper Specialist-Cataloguer for Early Prints at the University of Louvain, Belgium; Projectmedewerker, Short-Title Catalogus Vlaanderen (STCV) at the Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek, Belguim

Flanders Heritage Library: a Network Organisation Until a few years ago, the policies, attitudes and general public awareness surrounding library heritage in Flanders were trailing behind those of more traditional heritage organisations such as museum and archives. This changed in an almost revolutionary way in 2008, when the Flemish parliament voted into law a new cultural heritage decree. For the first time, legislation in this region recognised the value and importance of libraries and their special collections for the history and culture of Flanders. Dedicated heritage libraries are the exception in Flanders. They are usually part of a university, a public library, a museum, an archive or a religious institution. As such, they have diverse profiles and cater to different communities. The heritage function, rarely being the libraries’ primary role, often remains invisible to the public at large and to policy makers. In an attempt to fulfil the multifarious needs of these libraries, the Flemish authorities chose to introduce an instrument to unite and support the budding heritage library sector. Rather than financing a single institution as “the” heritage library (as is commonly the model for national libraries), the “Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek” or “Flanders Heritage Library” was established as a non-profit network organisation with several specific goals aimed at supporting, advising and developing this “new” sector in Flanders. As of October 2008, Flanders Heritage library consists of six partner libraries that operate in diverse settings and structures and are geographically spread out across Flanders: the heritage library Hendrik Conscience in Antwerp, the public library of Bruges, the provincial library of Limburg in Hasselt and the university libraries of Antwerp, Ghent and Leuven.1 The set goals of Flanders Heritage Library currently are to: 1

“Flanders heritage library: organisation”, www.vlaamse-erfgoedbibliotheek.be/en/dossier/ organisation, last modified 2 June 2010.

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1. Develop a coordinated collection development policy for heritage libraries in Flanders, especially for Flandrica, publications of importance to Flanders from a cultural or historical point of view or because of their heritage value; 2. Develop expertise and build competence in the preservation of cultural heritage collections of heritage libraries and make this available; 3. Develop expertise in digitising cultural heritage collections of heritage libraries and make this available; 4. Support the long-term preservation, access and dissemination of cultural heritage collections of heritage libraries in digital form; 5. Catalogue cultural heritage collections of heritage libraries and develop and share the relevant expertise around bibliography, metadata and standards; 6. Organise and participate in communication initiatives to raise public awareness of the heritage libraries in Flanders and develop competence in the area of community communication.2 Such broad ambitions can only be achieved by collaborating and sharing expertise and knowledge with a common goal in mind, which is made possible by the innovative institutional structure of a network organisation. The majority of heritage collections in Flanders were mostly invisible, unknown and/or unappreciated. They reside in a mixture of institutions such as public libraries, monasteries, archives, universities etc., and have differing needs. There is still a long way to go, but important changes have already been made in the course of the last few years, not the least of which is that the “heritage library” is now a well-established concept. There is now greater awareness of the collections and the need to make them accessible to the public. One such project, focussing specifically on improving accessibility through bibliographical description by cataloguing and indexing, is the Short title catalogue Flanders.

Short Title Catalogue Flanders (STCV): Project and Methodology The STCV is a database with bibliographical descriptions of books and other printed materials from Flanders dated before 1801.3 This project was started in the year 2000 as an attempt to bridge the gap between Flanders and other countries in Europe in the field of retrospective national bibliography. The longestablished Dutch STCN-project (Short title catalogue Netherlands) was the guiding light for the STCV.4 Their bibliographical methodology was adopted (and adapted and improved on a few minor points only). The first two STCV2 3 4

“Flanders heritage library: objectives”, last modified 31 January 2011, www.vlaamse-erfgoed bibliotheek.be/en/dossier/organisation/objectives. “Short title catalogue Flanders (STCV)”, last modified 31 May 2012, www.vlaamse-erfgoed bibliotheek.be/en/oude-drukken. “Short title catalogue Netherlands”, www.kb.nl/stcn/index-en.html, accessed 11 June 2012.

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cataloguers were trained by the STCN-team at the Royal library in The Hague. This also meant adopting their workflow, which includes the so-called “ABCmethod” for quality control: each record is composed by a first cataloguer (A), then checked by a second senior cataloguer (B) before being corrected by the first cataloguer (C). Following this method guarantees the quality of each individual record but also the consistent interpretation of the many rules and guidelines throughout the database. For several years, things went smoothly for the young STCV-project. Thanks to sufficient means, a team of two cataloguers could operate almost independently, each checking the records made by the other. Occasional changes in staff did not cause too much trouble as each new cataloguer received practical and individual training. Hence there was no need for involving others in the project and therefore also no need to provide training. Nevertheless, a first important step in this direction was taken in 2005, when the second edition of the STCV Handleiding (STCV manual) was published.5 Much more elaborate than the first one and illustrated with a multitude of practical examples, it offered, at least to people with a basic knowledge of analytical bibliography, a possibility to get acquainted with the principles of the STCV-method. After a few years, however, funding for the project was drastically cut back: only one project cataloguer remained, making it impossible to continue the ABC-method of quality control. After a time of temporary and not entirely satisfactory solutions, a more stable answer to this problem came with the ‘adoption’ of the STCV-project by the Flanders heritage library in 2009. Funding was still limited, so the decision was made to work with temporary teams for each new phase of the project: when the STCV establishes a new partnership with a heritage library, a team is put together consisting of the one remaining senior STCV-cataloguer and at least one staff member of the host library. This new working method obviously did create the need for a more formal training for new STCV-cataloguers. A model was required that allowed for the training of several future cataloguers simultaneously; hence the idea of a workshop in which employees of partner libraries and other heritage libraries in Flanders could participate.

Printed Heritage Collections in Flemish Libraries The somewhat ‘selfish’ needs of the STCV-project were not the only reason for organising this workshop. One of the main goals of the Flanders heritage library is to facilitate the development of the field of heritage libraries in Flanders. Exploring and developing the concept of heritage in general, and of heri5

Steven van Impe, Stijn van Rossem, Goran Proot, Handleiding voor de Short title catalogus Vlaanderen (Antwerp: Armarium, 2005).

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tage libraries in particular, led to the ‘rediscovery’ of many heritage collections. A large number of institutions are owners or keepers of collections that date back several centuries but awareness of their value as heritage and, consequently, the need to make these collections available to the public, is a recent phenomenon. Before the public can be given access to these collections, however, systems for access have to be created. A recent survey by the Flanders heritage library presents a clear picture of the problem. Only two of the twenty-four participating institutions have registered their entire heritage collections in an online catalogue; the backlog is substantial. In eighteen institutions, only half or less than half of the collections can be accessed through an online catalogue. This is not just an issue for smaller libraries; several partner libraries of the Flanders Heritage Library, each possessing impressive collections, face the same problem. For three of the six partner libraries, more than a third are not catalogued at all or are only accessible via offline (printed or handwritten) search aids. This means that a huge amount of work remains to be done and, as is usually the case in this field, funds are limited. Only three out of twenty-four libraries can afford a team specialised in cataloguing heritage collections. The task is therefore often given to staff members who have some familiarity with cataloguing or with historical documents; or, to those who are simply available (working in reading rooms, administration, etc.). Processing heritage collections is also very often a part-time job. In the eighteen libraries participating in the survey and currently registering their heritage collections in online catalogues, approximately sixty people are allocated to this task but their combined efforts only amount to thirty-three full time equivalents (FTE). Only ten libraries can afford more than one FTE dedicated to heritage registration. Finally, in most institutions, ‘retro-cataloguing’ (clearing the backlog of un-catalogued objects or those only found in offline catalogues) is most often project-based rather than structurally embedded in the institution’s workflow. For those libraries that do have a structural focus on retro-cataloguing, the backlog is usually of such epic proportions that the end is nowhere in sight. Because most of the allocated staff members are not specialists, cataloguing is in most cases limited to a basic level. General bibliographical principles and rules are followed rather than methods focussed on specific document types. The survey showed that some librarians think their staff members have the necessary expertise for this type of basic cataloguing, but that they are also looking for opportunities to broaden and deepen their expertise. A number of librarians referred to the STCV and a collaboration with this project as a possibility to train some of their staff members as specialist-cataloguers for early printed materials. So, in organising the workshop, Flanders Heritage Library also responded to an existing need.

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The STCV Workshop The dual motivation discussed above: instruction of future collaborators of the project and a more general training concerning bibliography of early printed works for staff of heritage libraries, determined the concept and format of the initiative we wanted to develop.

Concept First of all, the workshop had to be focussed and limited in time, because our target audience were professionals delegated by heritage libraries who could only be absent for a short period of time. We opted for a four-day workshop, not spread over several weeks, as is often the case, but concentrated within one week. Four days of intensive work, courses, processing new information and applying the acquired knowledge in practical exercises, is rather long. However, this concentration guarantees a complete immersion of the participants; they are fully focussed and less distracted. There is almost no need for refreshing and repeating information at each new stage of the course and recurring themes can be made more explicit. Lastly, the intensity also promotes communication between the participants. Besides limitations of time, the subject of the workshop also had to be limited and focussed. We restricted ourselves to a focus on the printed matter of early books. Other aspects of specific copies, such as the binding, provenance and owner’s marks, or physical condition and possible damage – although very important elements in processing heritage objects – were beyond the scope of this workshop. Furthermore, we made a distinction between using the STCVguidelines as a general bibliographical method and its application within the STCV-project. The latter is not offered within the workshop but remains an individual training to be completed by STCV-cataloguers at the beginning of each new stage of the project. Thirdly, we wanted a practical training and workshop that offered participants the possibility to train themselves in composing elaborate bibliographical descriptions and to use this experience and knowledge within their jobs. This demand for practical, hands-on exercises during the workshop also imposed a limitation on the number of participants.

First Workshop (2010) The first workshop began on 17 May 17 2010, and was run by Diederik Lanoye (the senior STCV-cataloguer at the time), Steven van Impe (editor of the STCV Manual) and Goran Proot (one of the founding fathers of the project).

168 Diederik Lanoye and Susanna De Schepper

Day one was dedicated completely to the history and future of the STCVproject and the project management. The following three days formed the core of the workshop and took place in the historical collections reading room of the University of Antwerp. Two presentations were given each morning on different aspects of the STCV-method; the aim was to give an overview of the basic principles and rules of the STCV-method for each of these aspects. Rather than simply following the chapters of the manual, the sometimes dry rules were clarified by explaining the underlying rationale and illustrating the theory with well-chosen examples. Afternoons were reserved for hands-on experience, where we tried to simulate as much as possible the real work of a specialist-cataloguer. Each participant was given a set of early printed works, carefully selected from the collections of the University of Antwerp, whereby each set contained both regular works and books with “a bit of a bibliographical twist”. The participants’ task was to compose complete bibliographical descriptions of the selected items step by step, by building them up gradually; adding to them each time a new aspect that was covered in the morning sessions. They were all given a copy of the STCV manual, to help them solve specific problems and get better acquainted with its structure and method. Additionally, the three organisers were constantly available and indeed busy answering questions, giving feedback, correcting errors and explaining certain interpretations of the rules. After four days, the participants had practiced the basic bibliographical skills such as transcribing titles, searching for and registering information on authors, printers, places and dates, but also more advanced techniques such as the composition of a correct collational formula and a bibliographical fingerprint; these last two techniques being entirely new to most participants.

A Revised Approach for the Second Workshop (2011) A small participant survey was done at the end of the workshop and it showed that, overall, they were pleased with what they had learned and how. The hands-on exercises were appreciated most of all. Nevertheless, a number of remarks and suggestions for improvement were given. Firstly, it quickly became apparent that there were huge differences in the level of pre-existing knowledge on early printed books and experience in handling these materials. Generally speaking, participants were less familiar with early printed books than we assumed; terminology that we believed to be common knowledge obviously was not. Secondly, we had not taken into account the fact that several participants might not have a sufficient grasp of Latin. Cataloguers do not need to be able to read Cicero, but cataloguing Latin books – which feature abundantly in heritage collections – requires a basic knowledge of Latin vocabulary and

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grammar. This was especially problematic during the afternoon exercises as our selection of books for the participants was a well-balanced mixture of Dutch books, Latin works, and some items in other vernaculars. Therefore, when preparing the second workshop, we tried to find solutions for these issues. The problem of Latin was easily solved; by asking the participants on the registration form about their existing knowledge of Latin, we could put together sets of books tailored to each participant’s profile, containing more or less works in Latin of varying difficulty. Nevertheless, the concern remains for libraries regarding the cataloguing of Latin books when even the supposed specialist lacks the necessary linguistic skills. The problem of different levels of pre-existing knowledge on early printed books was solved by a complete overhaul of the programme for the first day. The history and management of the project was reduced to a brief introduction and replaced by three presentations aiming to give a quick overview of the history of the printed book with the goal of creating a common basic knowledge on which to build in the following days. It is true that cataloguers do not need to be book historians, but basic historical knowledge of the (genesis of the) materials they are faced with makes describing them much easier. The first presentation concerned the production and physical appearance of the hand-printed book. Terms and concepts such as typesetting, imposition, gathering, quire signature and the differences between bibliographical formats were explained. The second presentation addressed the problems of discerning different bibliographical units, editions, impressions or states. Finally, the question of book distribution and the changes they underwent during the long period between their production and the present were discussed. Changing the programme for that first day by presenting all this knowledge at the beginning, created the necessary breathing space in an otherwise very busy schedule for the remaining three days. The participants had less difficulty following the theoretical presentations and were better able to immediately apply the theory in the afternoon exercises. They also asked very different questions; rather than wanting further clarification, they were thinking ahead and applying the theory to their own experiences or jobs.

Results Did we reach the target audience that we had in mind? Thirty-three people attended the workshops: seventeen in 2010, and sixteen in 2011. Fifteen participants were delegated by partner libraries of Flanders heritage library; thirteen people came from a further twelve libraries in Flanders, two participants were linked to other organisations in the field of heritage conservation and three were students or researchers.

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Was the workshop useful for the STCV-project and did it indeed function as a first step in the training of new STCV-cataloguers? Absolutely. In the following years, the senior STCV cataloguer will travel from one partner library to the next to catalogue 18th century Flemish printed books. In each of these libraries, she will find one or more team mates that are already familiar with the STCV-method. Thus, with a little help from the library directors and managers who have to allow their staff to spend part of their time working for STCV, the ABC-method, the key to the descriptions’ quality, can be upheld. The workshop also created possibilities for collaboration with other libraries. In 2011, more than eight hundred copies kept by the city archives of Oudenaarde were registered in the STCV-database by a local staff member who had attended the 2010 workshop. A long-term collaboration with the Museum Plantin-Moretus was set up in which the majority of the work is done by an experienced cataloguer of the museum who also attended the first workshop. In the beginning of 2012, a new collaboration was started with the city of Turnhout thanks to a staff member of the city archives attending the workshop in 2011. It is very much the case that, when new STCV-cataloguers are already acquainted with the theory and practice of the STCV-method, each stage of the project is guaranteed a “flying start”. An additional bonus resulting from the workshop is the formation of an informal STCV-network and the introduction of the “STCV-lingo” as a lingua franca among cataloguers in heritage libraries across Flanders. This is a great help to the project: when a STCV-cataloguer has doubts about an existing STCV-record, for example when a new copy does not exactly match the collational formula, they can ask cataloguers at the library where the previously registered copy is held and get answers, even when the question is asked in true “STCV-slang”. So far we have discussed the benefits for the project, but what do heritage libraries get out of this exchange when they send their cataloguers to the workshop. Do they get value for their money? The exact results vary according to what happens after the workshop. If it is followed by collaboration with the STCV, the return for the library involved is obvious: an important part of its holdings is registered in the STCV database and the training of one or more local cataloguers is taken care of. After completion, the acquired expertise can be further applied to the rest of the collection. The greatest result was obtained in the provincial library of Limburg in Hasselt. This library, one of the partners of Flanders heritage library, holds a collection of approximately 8,000 volumes printed before 1839. Only a minority was accessible through outdated printed or handwritten catalogues; most of them were simply sitting on the shelves. The library sent two of their staff members to the 2010 workshop and a few months later the collaboration began. The team (the library’s two employees and the STCV senior cataloguer)

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processed about 1,800 volumes in the STCV database. Afterwards, these records were transferred to the library’s own electronic catalogue and the local cataloguers are now busy processing the non-Flemish books following the STCV-method in which they are by now thoroughly trained and experienced. Even if the workshop is not followed by collaboration with STCV, it is our belief that staff members trained in the STCV-method are a bonus to heritage libraries. They are better aware of the specific characteristics of early printed materials and more capable of looking for and finding necessary elements of information. One could question whether it is really necessary to know how to compose a collational formula or a bibliographical fingerprint since these elements are, in many libraries, not a part of the data model for basic cataloguing. However, cataloguers who are able to read a collational formula can at least compare the copies held in their collections to descriptions in specialised databases and determine whether or not the local copy is complete or shows defects. A cataloguer able to read and compose a fingerprint can compare their copy of a Flemish or Dutch printed book with descriptions in the STCV and the STCN. Furthermore, the STCV recently became available for copy cataloguing. So, if a cataloguer in a heritage library can identify a local copy with a STCV record (with 100% certainty thanks to the fingerprint) and if their cataloguing system allows copy cataloguing, they can import a complete description from a reliable source.

Looking to the Future The Flanders Heritage Library will organise new editions of this four-day workshop in the coming years. We are also considering a new, more compact version which would be aimed at showing employees of heritage libraries how they can use the STCV as a tool for the registration of their own collections. The new format will thus address questions similar to those already discussed earlier, such as how to check a copy for completeness based on a given collational formula, how to identify a copy with a record using the fingerprint and how to import a record from the STCV to a local catalogue. Organising this type of practical training ensures that the mission of the Flanders heritage library is further applied to the STCV, which evolved over the past years from an independent (both in the positive and negative sense of the word) research project to an important agent and stimulant for the registration of Flemish printed heritage collections to a platform that allows the gathering and distribution of relevant knowledge and expertise.

Writings and Books: History and Stories to Enhance Rare Book Collections and to Promote Reading* Adriana Paolini University of Trento

In this paper I would like to share my experience in devising ways to encourage people unacquainted with rare books to discover them – especially children and young people. I will refer to my experience, which is based mainly in Italy. In particular, I am going to describe the methods and content of training courses for librarians that I have conducted on this subject. The aim of these courses is on the one hand to highlight the value of rare collections in order to make them better known and to revamp them, and on the other hand to explore ways to promote reading. My opinion is that librarians are the key figures in acquiring knowledge of rare book collections as they play a major role in the dissemination of knowledge and in the promotion of reading. Therefore, my aim is to raise awareness of the fact that the rare book collections in libraries can be excellent tools for the promotion of culture across all age groups. No one questions the importance of exhibitions or catalogues, but it is clear that those activities engage only a small number of people, i.e. scholars or enthusiasts. It is thus up to librarians to find other tools and means to publicize the rare book collections in their libraries. In Italy, for instance, there exist various educational events linked to rare books, but their number is still too small and their potential not yet fully exploited. The proposed training courses stem directly from my experience, as I have worked for many years on manuscripts and rare books collaborating with, among others, the Italian governmental office for books and libraries and the official cataloguing institute, Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico (ICCU). I have taken part in various cataloguing projects ‒ among the most recent, one on manuscripts preserved in the archives of popular writings in Trento, and the census of mediaeval fragments in the libraries of the Trentino region of Italy. Finally, I have been teaching codicology as a contract professor for several years at the University of Trento (Italy). *

Very special thanks to my friend, Elisabetta Morelli Vilday, who helped and above all, supported me with her competence not only during the translation of the paper, but also by continually ‘provoking’ me with lively discussions about the text.

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All these work experiences have allowed me to grow professionally, and I have been privileged to have access to such a wealth of materials, but I have also felt that something was missing: the involvement of the reading public. Therefore, I decided to start teaching, which also allowed me to combine (and enjoy) two of my passions: books, reading, studying and writing, and children, because it is a great pleasure for me to play and work with them. A few years ago I began using the particular advantage of my experience as a specialist in rare writing to find different ways of proposing the history of books and the history of writing to adults and children. My determination led me to design my own workshops and lectures, which I have been successfully offering since 2003 in Italian libraries, schools and museums. I would like to highlight an important experience that consolidated my preparation, namely talking about the history of writing and books in schools and libraries where rare samples were not present. It may come as a surprise that often my classes have continued to work because of the stimuli I provided or have visited the nearest library to see manuscripts, in order to widen and deepen their knowledge and understanding of the subject. Three years ago, I also began to collaborate with the Museo diocesano tridentino (Tridentine diocesan Museum), Trento, and that occasion allowed me to broaden my experience further, thanks to the exchange of different competences with the museum’s educators. This enabled me to learn how to plan effective learning courses. The designing and running of training courses has come as a natural development of these undertakings. My experience, though, also made me acutely aware of the lack of teaching tools and materials available to people who want to stimulate the curiosity and interest of the public. So after years of holding workshops with different age groups, accumulating experience, tools and methods (such as the right language to use, strategies, tricks, etc.) to share the history of books with children and adults, I decided to create specific tools for teachers and librarians. This is how my two children’s books (the third is forthcoming), L’invenzione di Kuta and Che rivoluzione!, written in collaboration with leading author Roberto Piumini, were published by “Carthusia” in Milan.1 These books are about the history of writing, manuscripts and the printed book, and mix history and narrative in a fun way to give children the opportunity to use their imaginations to ‘play’ with rare books. Teachers can use them to introduce the history of writing, whereas librarians can get some indications as to the appropriate language, materials and aspects of the topic to use with schoolchildren, so as to make the educational experience a voyage of discovery. Of course, children can also read them alone, if they like … 1

Adriana Paolini, Roberto Piumini, L’invenzione di Kuta (Milano: Carthusia, 2009); Che rivoluzione! Da Gutenberg all’ebook: la storia dei libri a stampa (Milano: Carthusia, 2010).

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Teaching Objectives With regard to the history workshops, while aiming to make those teaching encounters exciting and therefore valuable (for children and for adults), I also sought to systematize my experiences by developing a method that could be transferred to other subjects and adapted to different collections needing (or deserving) to be boosted or revamped. I have thus identified objectives for my teaching (which is different from dissemination) about rare books. I usually propose this small list at the beginning of my training courses, to explain why I choose to teach this way. First of all, I think it is important to make people aware of the cultural wealth (and financial, too) that belongs to every one. It is always a good idea to stimulate their curiosity about the local heritage that is in their library, which may consist of precious things such as books, documents and other objects belonging to the history of their city. Then, I find it necessary to teach about the structure and make-up of a book, as an object containing ideas that enables them to be put into circulation. That’s because every book has a meaning, every part of a book has a reason. Nothing is accidental in the writing and shaping of a book, neither in the ancient world nor today. Currently, it is very difficult to convey the importance of writing, because not every one realizes it plays an indispensable part in communication. It is used to record and preserve memories, to express one’s creativity, and to exercise control over other people, which is an aspect that should not be underestimated. Additionally, it is particularly difficult to talk about the importance of handwriting, which is a way to express our personalities, too. More crucially, it is important to find the right way to tell the history of writing and the people who write. One of the aims of my work is therefore to familiarise participants with a critical method for the analysis of historical facts. This includes teaching how to question historical sources or to phrase questions in the right way in order to appreciate the real meaning of a rare object, for example a book, and to try to understand the real context of a certain period or a particular situation. This method may also be applied to other subjects in school, as well as in everyday life. Finally, I give participants the (logical) tools to understand modern books, and emphasise how important it is to know the people who work on them, which should result in a greater appreciation of the objects that we (hopefully) have in our hands every day. Also, after all these suggestions, I like to encourage the public to visit libraries to discover rare books, not only modern ones. I know that all of the above is nothing new. Some suggestions from the action-research method, and also hints from the guidelines of the Lifelong learning programme may be recognized. In particular, I found that the actionresearch method, which has been used in libraries primarily for Information

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Literacy and reference, is key in teaching too. The cultural richness of rare books allows us to select many ways (and many stories) to make them interesting. We can talk about them with any one, provided that the language is clear and appropriate.

Training Courses for Librarians The training courses that I propose are intended for librarians taking care mainly, but not exclusively, of rare book collections and for those involved in cultural animation – often volunteers – in libraries or museums. The courses consist of a theoretical part and a workshop, and may last one day or several sessions, depending on the specific needs and resources. Typically the course starts with each person briefly introducing him/herself and their competences and describing the rare book collections in their respective libraries. Then I get participants to brainstorm ideas, helping them to think in a different way about these rare book collections. I like to lay the bases for research on what is interesting to show and highlight to the public. So we discuss the method(s) we can use to do so, taking the collection as the starting point to set the cultural context, although the other way around would work too, i.e. using the cultural context to frame the collection. I also explain our relationship with writing and reading, to draw attention to something that may seem obvious but is not, because familiarity with the written world prevents us from becoming fully aware of its importance and social function. Another aspect worth mentioning is how the transmission, selection and control of cultural heritage have always been regulated through writing. In other words, writing literally fixes what can be remembered and what can or must be forgotten (hence the role of censorship, the consequences of accidents or contingent practical needs, like in the case of palimpsests, etc.). For this reason it is important to show librarians, so that they can in turn share with the public, the different choices that are behind every book. This means, for instance, explaining why parchment rather than paper was used, why a certain type of writing, or mise en page (layout), why those colours and that style of decoration, and so on. During each meeting with librarians, I try to explain all these aspects with examples and using simple questions encourage them to approach their collections with a critical eye, for example: Why is a book so small? Or, why is it so big, or why is it decorated or has a humble appearance? Through observation we can highlight the connection between text and object, which is one of the most interesting and engaging perspectives from which to approach the history of books. Rare books can talk to people who discover the tools necessary to understand their historical value. Similarly, with regard to modern writing we can learn the meaning of every choice relating to modern books, by applying the

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same method. For example, in the past the cover was chosen by the owner, today by the editor – the typefaces and, in the case of children’s books, the materials or illustrations are all carefully considered and selected.

Designing the Project The librarians who attend my courses usually have little or no teaching experience and are often astonished at the difficulties they encounter while elaborating a project. What I want to transmit to them is the idea that a good project requires clear objectives, effective strategies, helpful tools, valid documentation and suitable means for verifying and evaluating the success of the project. One point to bear in mind is that for projects to be successful, they have to involve all stakeholders (librarians, teachers, etc., depending on the intended target group, i.e. the recipients) at the planning stage. It is then necessary to carefully document each stage of the project, following its development and realization, to gather quantitative and qualitative elements for a critical evaluation. Ultimately, we need to document the activity in order to have material to discuss and modify, to improve planning and make future events even more effective. Moreover, documenting the project makes it easier for people who may become involved at a later stage to prepare adequately. In addition to the main objectives mentioned earlier, it is important to remember that there are other micro-objectives or factors which ‘define’ the contents (or the structure) of the individual projects, for example the intended recipients (or audience). Identifying the recipients is not as obvious as it may seem. It is clear when we work with students or with adults, but if a library decides to open its heritage to any and everybody it is necessary to be equipped to receive families, young uneducated people, foreigners, disabled people, and elderly people. Who a group should include is also not immediately evident. During the last course, for instance, a librarian wanted to know what I meant by “a group of elderly people”. She asked me if she would have to publish a notice for a meeting dedicated to all people between 50 and 65 years of age. But how old is old? Before someone protested, I specified that I meant people from elderly people’s associations or clubs, as well as retirement homes. However, this funny incident provided the opportunity to identify some practical problems that a librarian may have to deal with and to list specific objectives accordingly. For example, what are suitable activities for groups of people who are wheelchair bound? Developing these skills helps us identify the objectives of competence, knowledge and ability that we aim to address through our project. All these suggestions demonstrate that to design a project it is necessary to study the history of books, the history of collections and the history of the city; but it is just as important to be familiar with some methodological guidelines

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for teaching and heritage education. However, the first thing that we have to realise is that it is necessary to get involved. Librarians can choose to offer a selection of different workshops: conceptual or practical, based on manual ability, on play or involving active participation. These are good opportunities for children and young people, of course, but for adults as well; a way to express our creativity, as well as a historical experiment, as I call it with a certain grandiloquence. Workshops require careful planning. We must specify all details, e.g. what the librarians and students have to do, where, using which instruments, over how many sessions, whether requirements for participation are necessary, and so on. I will illustrate what I mean using two examples taken from my experience, which I use on the training courses. I have designed a popular project for primary schools about the shapes of rare books, which consists of a theoretical part (during which I teach and show children materials, tools, books and how they change depending on the owner, their use, the text, etc.) followed by a practical workshop. During the workshop the younger children can draw on a bifolium the shape of the particular book that contains their story (and on which I sew a paper cover, using a mediaeval technique a rare book restorer taught me) whereas the older children write a brief text in humanistic writing using a quill pen. I have planned this type of workshop with the following objectives in mind: ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒

to stimulate curiosity; to develop the participants’ listening ability; to improve their manual ability; of course, to let them experiment with materials and the main writing tools; ‒ to help them interpret the shapes (why they change, etc.) of the rare writing and decoration in certain books; ‒ for them to learn some elements of the history of books; ‒ to encourage participation in group projects with appropriate interventions at suitable times. As another example of a project, this time for high school students, I can talk about “Exposed writing”. I have been working on this project in the Museo diocesano tridentino, but I think it would work well in a library, too. The workshop is divided into several stages. During the first stage, I introduce what exposed writings are by using examples and specific questions to encourage the students to elaborate their own definition(s). Then, in the second stage, the students have to fill out a questionnaire on some writings (which I have already studied) in the museum and outdoors, in the streets around it. At the end of their research, we meet again to discuss their observations and their conclusions. The first part of the questionnaire involves the description of the writing (its transcription, but also descriptions of the kind of writing, dimensions, localiza-

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tion on the wall and in the environment). In the second part of the questionnaire, the students try to evaluate the effectiveness of the writing, based on an analysis of the choice of typefaces, the dimensions; in short, of everything that makes the exposed writing readable and therefore effective. For me it was important in that project to succeed in raising the students’ awareness of the importance of writing for the circulation of ideas and in suggesting a critical approach to the study of history. Effectively, through workshops, I hope to equip young participants with some critical tools to enable them to read and analyze graphic evidence from different periods, so that they can learn something about the method of historical analysis, thus becoming the real actors in their own learning process. Finally, I aim to enable them to widen their knowledge and to develop an awareness of the local cultural heritage. I usually prefer to propose modern writings to young people, to show them, through recent documents, the efforts of those people who could not write well but who needed to do it, for different reasons. Additionally, by focusing on modern writings I try to stimulate reflection on the predominance of reading and writing text messages, or e-mails, by young people, which is not enough to truly get to know others and to express themselves. I also give them some food for thought as I let them consider how they can use their talent. This workshop may look like a promotion of writing rather than of reading, and as a matter of fact it is. So, I have often proposed to teenagers the beautiful words of Wislawa Symborska: “Why does this written doe bound through these written woods? … The joy of writing. / The power of preserving. / Revenge of a mortal hand”.2 In the final part of training courses for librarians, I usually get people to divide into small groups to work on an idea for a project. Every group has to choose a point of focus, i.e. an actual example from their collection, or a hypothetical one. Starting from a checklist that identifies recipients, logistics, timing, requirements, objectives of competence, knowledge and ability, they can begin to work on ideas to design a project. I set a time limit, after which the draft projects are discussed with other groups, to analyze any critical aspects. First of all, we discuss whether the ideas can actually be put into practice, and if they can, we try to decide together in which direction they should develop. Every participant can decide to follow my suggestions in full, or only in part, of course, depending on their particular interests, skills and expertise. They can 2

These lines prompted me to suggest a project to a group of librarians, which consisted of organizing some little archives of popular writings (maybe working with the archive of popular writings of Trento, mentioned at the beginning). By asking people to bring to the library personal diaries, letters, exercise-books belonging to their families as a testimony of the recent history of the city (or alternatively of the country, the area, etc.), we could create a new collection, built up by citizens, where documents help us learn about a different way to write, a different way to use language, another way to live.

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use them to plan their project, or they may decide to reject them, but all the possible conclusions must be and will be discussed. Therefore, whatever the resolution, it is reached with strong intellectual and practical motivation, depending on the individual participants’ jobs, their library, and the goals they set themselves. Ultimately, the aim of the training course is to equip participants with strategic tools for the successful realisation of projects for the enhancement of rare book collections and the promotion of reading. Teaching the history of books in the way I have described means learning to see ourselves as educators, which is rewarding, albeit not easy. In conclusion, exploiting the cultural heritage preserved in libraries is a challenge that I hope librarians will be willing to undertake, for by doing so they will transform their rare book collections into exciting learning opportunities for people of all ages.

The Scholar/Librarian Goes Digital: New Times Require New Skills and Aptitudes1 Gillian M. McCombs Dean and Director of Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas “Some things have changed, other things have not.” So said Richard Wendorf, director of the Boston Athenaeum in 2000, at the fourth Flair Symposium, held at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, in reference to a 1992 conference at the Houghton Library.2 The thrust of this paper is that, 12 years later, the same statement is applicable. Although some Special Collections librarians and archivists – our scholar/librarians ‒ are comfortable in their sense that it is okay to be running about 75 years late, today’s Internet-based culture requires more urgency, a consolidated focus and an entrepreneurial bent in order to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to move their collections center stage. The scholar/librarian stereotype was well described by Nicolas Barker in his introduction to Celebrating research: rare and apecial collections from the membership of the Association of Research Libraries: “If some of the books were, so to speak, an odd lot, so too were some of the librarians. Many of them seemed to have drifted into position, rather than being appointed to it.”3 Barker was speaking of the special collections librarians he knew in the early 1970s, but this concept has been alive and well since the time books were first collected. Before libraries became big business operations, enmeshed in issues varying from intellectual freedom and publishing to digital rights and high tech space planning, the quintessential academic library director was thought of as a scholar/librarian of the highest order. Some familiar names come to mind – Lucas Holstenius, librarian to Henri de Mesmes in seventeenth century France, Richard Garnett, Keeper of Printed Books at Oxford in the 19th century and in the 20th century, the historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. 1

2 3

Paper presented at the IFLA RBMS off-site session, The public face of special collections, held at the National Library of Finland, 78th World Library and Information Congress, August 2012, Helsinki, Finland. Richard Wendorf, “Special collections libraries: looking ahead by looking back”, Libraries & culture, 37, No. 1 (Winter 2002): 19-25. Nicholas Barker, “Introduction”, in Celebrating research: rare and special collections from the membership of the Association of Research Libraries (Washington: ARL, 2007), www.cele bratingresearch.org/intro/intro.shtml, accessed 20 August 2012.

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The US has consistently passed over librarians for scholars to fill the position of Librarian of Congress – held most recently by Archibald MacLeish (poetry), Daniel Boorstin (American history) and James Billington (European history). The most important attribute was an intellectual reputation of the highest repute (often validated with a Ph.D., Pulitzer Prize or equivalent scholarly record). According to Boorstin, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter had advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt not to worry about picking a librarian for the job but to select someone who “knows books, loves books and makes books”.4 Roosevelt took his advice and ultimately selected poet Archibald MacLeish. In today’s world, however, this concept seems almost quaint. Library directors at great libraries may well be academically gifted (such as Robert Darnton at Harvard), but they must also come with a multitude of other skills and aptitudes that enable them to succeed in the 21st century and to play a leadership role in the changing culture on their campuses. These aptitudes must include the ability to develop a vision for the library in the digital revolution; to move material into the electronic realm while often maintaining large print collections (and entrenched attitudes about using them); to support the information needs and environments of students (digital natives) and faculty (often proud to be digital Luddites.) Today’s library directors must be skilled in positioning their units in leadership roles or suffer the consequences in concomitant funding declines, loss of resources and a move to the sidelines of academic life. Daniel Traister was referring to Special Collections Libraries specifically when he said: “Managers of such collections must seek innovative ways of increasing their functionality or expect to see these collections cease to exist.”5 New research-based competencies for leadership in this complex environment have been identified by Mary Wilkins-Jordan. Her research demonstrated that the competencies most selected as important for library directors were vision, communication skills, customer service, credibility, interpersonal skills and creativity.6 Although Jordan’s focus was on public library directors, there is much to be learned from her research for academic libraries. For instance, it is clear that the competency of ‘credibility’ for a director of a Special Collections or rare book library (referred to here for convenience as SCL) would be manifested by credentials in a particular relevant discipline. In order to build relationships with the faculty and other scholarly users, credibility and subject expertize remain a constant. Today, the additional aptitudes for a library direc4 5 6

Carol Krucoff, “The 6 O’clock scholar: Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin and his love affair with books”, The Washington Post, 19 January 1984, K1. Daniel Traister, “Is there a future for special collections? And should there be? A polemic essay”, RBM: a journal of rare books, manuscripts, and cultural heritage, 1, 1 (2000): 54-76. Mary Wilkins-Jordan, “Developing leadership competencies in librarians”, IFLA Journal, 38, 1 (2012): 37-46.

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tor must be also mirrored in the SCL directors and reflected again in their hiring of curatorial and library staff. An ability to understand new approaches to learning is essential. Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown described the three principles on which they see the new ‘culture of learning’ is built: “(1) The old ways of learning are unable to keep up with our rapidly changing world. (2) New media forms are making peer-to-peer learning easier and more natural. (3) Peer-to-peer learning is amplified by emergent technologies that shape the collective nature or participation with those new media.”7

Some of these new competencies are also listed in the Council on Library and Information Resources’ (CLIR) seminal work No Brief Candle: Reconceiving Research Libraries for the 21st Century.8 So, is the scholar/librarian model still valid and/or still in play? Even as far back as 1997, there was an awareness that “The function of the librarian seemed to be evolving from the keeper of the books to that of network navigator.”9 On many campuses the scholar/librarian can often be found directing SCLs, such as the immensely successful Thomas Staley (James Joyce scholar) at the Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC) of the University of Texas at Austin. However, there are many small SCLs and historical societies without such ‘rock star’ directors, and which have not yet successfully made the leap into the 21st century. What do we need to do to create the appropriate culture and incentives for growth and innovation in the SCL? At many academic institutions, the SCL has a bimodal reputation – the star of the show for many a trustee board tour or exciting exhibit, but a backwater as far as general access to these collections and willingness to look at different ways of doing things. Libraries that include renowned special collections bring significant prestige to their institutions.10 However, these former backwaters are now roaring rivers of extreme whitewater, poised to become magnificent waterfalls or to dry up altogether. In 1992 Stanley Katz, at that same conference at the Houghton Library, was quoted as exhorting academic librarians “to move from the periphery to the center, to make the library genuinely play a role at the heart of the college or university.”11 It is clear that the SCL can be enormously effective in assisting in this goal. There is no question that the HRC today is a very large diamond in the UT crown, with its director report7

Douglas Thomas, John Seely Brown, A new culture of learning: cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change (Lexington, KY : CreateSpace, 2011). The italics are theirs. 8 Council on Library Resources, No brief candle: reconceiving research libraries for the 21st century, CLIR publication 142 (Washington: CLIR, 2008). 9 Mary Lynn Rice-Lively, J. Drew Racine, “The role of academic librarians in the era of information technology”, Journal of academic librarianship, 23, 1 (1997): 31-40. 10 Barbara Fister, “Academic libraries, a view from the administration building,” Library journal, 135, 8 (May 2010): 24-27. 11 Richard Wendorf, op. cit.

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ing directly to the president of the University of Texas, not to the Vice Provost and Director of the University of Texas Libraries. One of the challenges a library director faces today is to change the culture and set a vision for 21st century library services. It is commonly cited as one of the most difficult challenges – harder than securing resources or increasing space.12 But even if progress is being made throughout the library as a whole, SCLs are specifically charged with preserving the past and may not yet be convinced that digital technology and the Internet are their friends. What are the characteristics that we should be looking to hire for to bring about culture change?13 The StrengthsFinder Profile Tool, created by Gallup, Inc. is one of several tools available to help analyze and parse this conundrum.14 This writer’s research has shown that the most common set of strengths for academic librarians are those of Input (inquisitive, collecting things) and Learner (love to learn, enjoy the process). For SCL librarians, these strengths are often combined with Context (looking back to understand the present). Clearly this latter is a strength to be valued, but could it perhaps be combined with other strengths such as Strategic (saying ‘what if?’) and Futuristic (fascinated by the future) which might provide for a better blend for the 21st century? This approach can also be used to look at how to revitalize current SCL directors, as well as to hire for the additional competencies we might need. Peter Hernon’s research in this area enabled him to develop a list of attributes for the library director, and he was amused to find that a goodly number of Deans and faculty members were still looking for a scholar/librarian – someone who was “both a producer and consumer of scholarship.”15 He went on to qualify this finding: “Those individuals mentioned, however, might not be regarded as that successful as managers of complex and fast-changing organizations.” Interestingly enough, the seemingly comprehensive Association of Research Libraries (ARL) report on special collections omits any reference to the need for training and/or staff development in SCLs.16 We also need to examine what we are asking our SCL directors to do. For instance, we expect them to adhere to and expand appropriately the mission of the unit under their aegis (clearly, building content is king); manage the facilities; develop resources; nurture and manage staff; develop a strategic plan for the future of the unit – the traditional tasks of managing a branch or special12 Lisa Spiro, Geneva Henry, “Can a new research library be all-digital?”, The idea of order: transforming research collections for 21st century scholarship, CLIR publication 147 (CLIR: Washington D.C., 2010). 13 Council on Library Resources, No brief candle … , op. cit. 14 Tom Rath, StrengthsFinder 2.0 (New York: Gallup, Inc., 2007). 15 Peter Hernon, “Editorial: the Library director as scholar-librarian,” Journal of academic librarianship, 24, 3 (1998): 111-112. 16 Special collections in ARL libraries: A discussion report from the ARL working group on special collections, March 2009, www.arl.org, accessed 8 May 2012.

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ized library within a larger institution. But one of the most important tasks of an SCL director today is to ensure that the unit’s functions and activities are keeping pace with their changing communities and that they are serving their constituencies as effectively as possible, abiding by John Cotton Dana’s vision of “an accessible institution committed to the dissemination of useful knowledge.”17 Today, this means using digital technology to make the collections accessible when the physical building is not. The expectation – of our digital native students and of many of our faculty and researchers – is that most of these primary resources will be digitally available. The creation of large text databases such as Early English Books Online and Early American Imprints only fuels this expectation. When archives and manuscripts are donated, the first question asked by the donor is often along the lines of “When will you be able to have them digitized?”18 The SCL constituency is more broad-based than might be thought at first. Many SCLs serve a much wider community than their home base of campus faculty, students, and the odd visiting scholar. SCLs will often have more users from outside the immediate university family. The advantages of the Internet for expanding the user community were noted by Barker: “The Internet and international databases have had a liberating effect on individual libraries, their contents, and how they are used. Synergy, hitherto undreamed of, has grown up between libraries and researchers geographically distant.”19

The opportunities afforded in the digital environment were underscored by Sarah Pritchard in her portal editorial “Special Collections Surge to the Fore”20. She makes the important point that the values of access and preservation should not be set in opposition to each other. Imagine how both excited and overwhelmed SCLs would be if the millions of hits they receive annually (Tom Staley cited 17M hits for the month after the HRC had digitized the Gutenberg Bible21) were physically made manifest by individual researchers walking in to look at or use their collections. This use rate could not be sustained in the previous access mode. It is abundantly clear that staffing requirements to address the new functionality and expectations have grown considerably. SCLs need talented technolo17 Stephen E. Weil, “Introduction”, in The new museum: selected writings by John Cotton Dana, ed. William A. Penniston (Newark, NJ: The Museum, 1999), 13-17. 18 Special collections in ARL libraries … , op. cit. 19 Nicholas Barker, op. cit. 20 Sarah M. Pritchard, “Special collections surge to the fore”, Portal: libraries and the academy, 9, 2 (April 2009), 177-180. 21 Tim Taliaferro, “Oh, the Humanities: how Tom Staley took the Ransom Humanities Research Center from good to awesome”, The Alcalde, March/April 2009, www.texasexes.org/alcalde/ feature.asp?p+4169, accessed 9 May 2012.

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gists, metadata specialists, graphic design artists, marketing professionals, publishing and programming experts. The staffing infrastructure needed at the HRC in order to create and maintain its high level of collection acquisition, digital infrastructure, exhibits and public programming is phenomenal. A 2009 article lists 88 full-time staff, 7 graduate interns, 30 work-study students and 15 temporary workers.22 If SCLs themselves are not able to support the appropriate infrastructure, it must be provided for centrally. But this in turn provides a dilemma for the library dean or director. How to decide between funding electronic resources for expanding research programs in the sciences, or creating an infrastructure to support arguably more prestigious but usually lesser used collections of rare books and manuscripts that are sometimes more valued off than on campus? Here the potential fundraising skills of the SCL directors might come into play to bridge the funding gap. Meanwhile, some institutions are taking advantage of pooling resources and collections to create consortial opportunities for partnerships, particularly in the museum world. The Online Scholarly Catalogue Initiative, a joint initiative by the Getty Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Museum, aims to “transform how museums disseminate scholarly information about their permanent collections to make them available through web-based digital formats.”23 The project brings together a consortium of nine premier museums. The intent is for readers to be able to study the artworks online and “overlay them with conservation documentation, discover scholarly essays in easy-to-read formats, take notes in the margins that can be stored for later use, and export citations to their desktops.”24 A recent ARL briefing statement states that for libraries “a multi-institutional approach is the only one that now makes sense.”25 SCLs need to move ahead in the same way. Some seminal success stories are beautifully and lavishly illustrated in the previously mentioned ARL publication on special collections.26 A very small example from my own institution is that of the Texas Artists digitization project. A small grant from the State of Texas enabled Southern Methodist University’s Central University Libraries, the Dallas Public Library and the Dallas Museum of Art to digitize the drawings, sketchbooks and manuscripts of the early Texas artists in their collections. Staff created a showcase sampler collection that could then be used as a tool for additional fundraising. Today, there are over 1,500 images in that collection.27 22 Ibid. 23 Getty Foundation, “Online Scholarly Catalog Initiative”, www.getty.edu/foundation/funding/ access/current/online_cataloging.html, accessed 5 May 2012. 24 Ibid. 25 Association of Research Libraries, “21st-century collections: calibration of investment and collaborative action”, issue brief, www.arl.org/bm~doc/21stctfreport_11may12.pdf, accessed 19 May 2012. 26 Nicholas Barker, op. cit. 27 http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/cul/tar/index.asp, accessed 19 August 2012.

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In order to encourage institutions to provide access to their “hidden collections”, CLIR has developed a new program specifically focused on funding access projects for “hidden collections”, and many of the larger libraries with mature digital operations in place have taken advantage of those grants.28 There is also a movement to re-converge museums, libraries and archives (in the nineteenth century, when these organizations first came into being, there were few separate units) with an eye to looking at what could be gained by expanding education and training to include a more broad-based curriculum that would involve elements of each. Thus the museum takes on more of the library’s public service role, the archives look at making access more of a priority, while the library expands its holdings beyond written sources.29 This sets the stage for a merger such as created in Canada in 2004 with the merger of the National Archives of Canada with the National Library, resulting in the Library and Archives Canada. Certainly for the users, the lines are becoming blurred.30 This topic was also the theme of the 47th Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (ACRL, ALA) preconference – “Libraries, Archives and Museums in the Twenty-First Century: Intersecting Missions, Converging Futures?” Participants from fields outside the traditional rare books libraries and SCLs were specifically invited.31 However, more progress in this area requires that each branch move beyond its current disciplinary boundaries. The American Library Association (ALA), for instance, has no mention of curators, archivists or museologists in its Career paths for librarians.32 Nor do any of the listed accredited programs specialize solely in archival or museum studies.33 Students interested in museum or archival studies do not have an accredited system to guide them, and will most likely be experiencing a curriculum that is lacking in some of the user-centric courses that imbue library values.34 Many SCLs already include a university archives repository under their aegis, a reporting structure that can occasionally provide some friction with conflicting priorities, educational training and customer service models. Few of us ever get the opportunity to create a SCL from scratch, but if we were given the chance, how would we begin? Which SCLs would we take for our benchmark and aspirant models? For sure, one might aspire to be a library 28 Council on Library Resources, “CLIR announces hidden collections awards”, www.clir.org/ about/news/pressrelease/08 hiddenpr3. html, accessed 22 May 2011. 29 Lisa M. Given, Lianne McTavish, “What’s old is new again: the reconvergence of libraries, archives, and museums in the digital age”, The Library Quarterly, 80, 1 (Jan. 2010): 7-32. 30 Ibid. 31 Beth M. Whittaker, Lynne M. Thomas, Special collections 2.0: new technologies for rare books, manuscripts and archival collections, ABC CLIO (Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2009). 32 www.ala.org/educationcareers/careers/paths, accessed 19 August 2012. 33 Lisa M. Given, Lianne McTavish, op. cit. 34 Beth M. Whittaker, Lynne M. Thomas, op. cit.

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such as the Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, but most of us might want to start with a scaled down version that would be appropriate to our institution. So first, one needs to look to the mother ship: what kind of SCL is appropriate to support the mission – research, teaching and learning – of the institution? Clearly one will usually start with a collection corpus – what then is needed to preserve and maintain the collection, to make the collection accessible, and to expand as appropriate? The number of staff needed to provide these basic functions can be developed and their basic skill set. We have already ascertained that we want to hire, if possible, digital natives skilled in Web 2.0 technologies and cognizant of the importance of technology to enable access. Can we add program development and exhibit staff?35 Should we add content specialists who might spend some time in curatorial duties, but other hours in the classroom with faculty, engaging the student in experiencing the thrill of using primary resources in the classroom?36 Who sets the vision? Why not a SCL director who comes with a background in one of the content specialties, but also with several years of managing a small museum which won prizes for the innovative use of technology to increase the number of visitors and a record of consortial initiatives?37 This director would also be skilled in prioritization, understanding that in order to do more, one occasionally really does have to stop doing something, and so is able to engage staff in buying into this process and examining their daily tasks and responsibilities so as to free themselves for some of those essential higher level duties. He/she is creative and innovative – but does not need to do everything himself/herself. Delegation is imperative, and will require use of the SCL’s time in coaching and training staff to take on these duties. It doesn’t hurt to blue sky, to put down what you might actually want to do, if given the chance. You never know, but in doing this you might actually find that some of these ‘dreams’ have legs and can be set in motion. Perhaps the Dean of Libraries can be persuaded to provide more time/funds centrally for cataloguing, or fundraising, or support of digitization. My experience is that a Dean will often prefer to have more ideas than she/he can fund than to have to spend time trying to pull ideas out of people.

Conclusion I began this paper with a quotation from Richard Wendorf and would like to close with him. In the essay previously mentioned, Wendorf reminds us that, no matter how big or complex a SCL might become, 35 Ibid. 36 Eleanor Mitchell, Past or portal: enhancing undergraduate learning through special collections and archives (Chicago: ACRL, 2012). 37 Lisa M. Given, Lianne McTavish, op. cit.

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“The primal encounter still takes place when the student … takes pen, pencil, keyboard or Dictaphone in hand and begins the hardest task of all, which is to 38 make interpretative sense of the material he or she has been examining.”

And that is where the magic happens! We are fortunate indeed to have a role in creating magic, and at the same time to be part of one of the greatest revolutionary developments of all time – the World Wide Web of digital information.

38 Richard Wendorf, op. cit.

Index of Names and Institutions Aberystwyth University 148 Addom, Benjamin K. 64 Allen, Susan M. 111, 115 American Library Association 9, 17, 26-30, 119, 150, 187 Andersson-Schmitt, Margarete 49 Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire 57 Arnett, John Andrews 83 Association of College and Research Libraries 9, 26-30, 95 Association of Research Libraries 17, 96, 181, 184, 186 Austen, Jane 58 Bancroft Library at the University of California 113 Bandini, Angelo Maria 139 Barker, Nicolas 56, 181, 185, 186 Barlow, William P. 115 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich 12, 85 Belanger, Terry 115, 117 Berger, Sid 112 Berkhout, Carl 115 Berlin, Isaiah 22 Berners-Lee, Tim 143 Bertrand, Anne-Marie 132 Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana 139 Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana 139 Bibliotheek Brugge 163 Bibliothèque municipale, Lyon 13, 124 Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris 33 Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris 129, 131 Billanovich, Giuseppe 137-140 Billington, James 182 Blackwell Publishing 45 Blaeu, Johannes and Willem 43, 59

Blickling Hall, Norfolk 57 Bloom, Benjamin 160 Bodleian Library, Oxford 22, 85 Book Club of California 113, 120 Boorstin, Daniel 182 Booth, George, 2nd Earl of Warrington 59 Booth, Mary 59 Borges, Jorge 35 Bottigheimer, Ruth, B. 115 Brandt, Randal 115 Brill, Evert Jan 43, 45 British Library, London 12, 34, 84, 87, 130, 139 Brockmann, Michaela 37, 38 Brown, John Seely 183 California Historical Society 113, 120 California Rare Book School 9, 111113, 120, 121 Calke Abbey, Derbyshire 57 Cambridge University Library 60 Carlyle, Thomas 57 Caroline Wilhelmine, Princess of Brandenburg-Ansbach 57 Casanova, Giacomo 35 Cassidy, Frances 158 Center for 17th-and-18th-Century Sudies, UCLA 112, 119 Center for Research Libraries, Chicago 9 Centre for the Study of the Book, Bodleian Library, Oxford 87 Chapman, Robert William 58 Charles Young Research Library, UCLA 120 Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) 9, 60, 148, 150-152 Chirk Castle, Wales 59 Churchill, Winston 57

192 Index of Names and Institutions Cicero 138, 168 Claassen, Lynda 112, 115 Columbia University, New York 96 Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) 87 Contini, Gianfranco 138 Council on Library and Information Resources 183 Da Costa Greene, Belle 35 Dallas Museum of Art 186 Dallas Public Library 186 Dana, John Cotton 185 Darnton, Robert 153, 182 Davidsson, Åke 49 Descartes 57 Dewey, John 155 Digital Curation Centre, Edinburgh 53 Digital Preservation Europe 53 Dimunation, Mark 117 Disraeli, Benjamin 57 Doerr, Martin 87, 89 Doyle, Helen 158 Drucker, Johanna 115, 117 Duchamp, Marcel 35 Dunham Massey (Cheshire) 59 École nationale des chartes, Paris 104 École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques (ENSSIB), LyonVilleurbanne 9, 12, 104-107, 123, 124, 127, 128, 130, 131, 133, 134 Ellys, Richard 57 Elsevier Publishing 43, 45 Elzevier family 43 Emory University, Atlanta 22 Eppard, Philip B. 40 Erddig, Wales 57 Eton College 60 Evans, Charles 34 Ferrari, Mirella 137, 138 Foffano, Tino 137, 138

Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C. 115 FORTH Institute, Herakleion 89 Francis I, King of France 15, 16 Frankfurter, Felix 182 Franklin, Benjamin 35, 121, 182 Gallup, Inc. 184 Garnett, Richard 181 Gaskell, Roger 153-155 Genis, Mary 112 George II, King of Great-Britain 57 George Mason University, Center for History and New Media 99 Getty Foundation 186 Getty Research Institute 43, 112, 113, 117 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 20, 21, 195 Gothenburg University Library 51 Grolier, Jean 57 Grotius, Hugo 18, 19, 195 Groves, Jeffrey D. 115 Hagman, Anders, Ulric 51 Hedlund, Monica 49 Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, Antwerp 13 Hermansson, Lennart 51 Hernon, Peter 184 Hobson, Anthony 85, 87 Hollis, Gordon 112 Holstenius, Lucas 181 Horace 138 Howard, Jennifer 85, 112, 117, 160 Hulvey, Monique 13, 123 Huntington Library 116 Huntington Library, San Marino CA. 112, 113, 115-117 Ickworth, Suffolk 57 IFLA Preservation and Conservation core activity 17 IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section 15-17, 44, 129

Index of Names and Institutions 193

Impe, Steven van 165, 167 Institut d’histoire du livre, Lyon 127 J. Paul Getty Museum 186 Karmiole, Kenneth 112, 117 Katz, Stanley 183 Kipling, Rudyard 57 Kolb, David A. 155 Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague 19, 20, 43, 44, 195 Krimpen, Jan van 43 Kurutz, Gary F. 115 Lanhydrock, Cornwall 57 Lanoye, Diederik 167 Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel 181 Lefferts, Marian 12, 13 Leibnitz, Gottfried 35 Lepel, Molly 57 Leslie, Deborah J. 115 Lewis, Daniel 57, 115 Li Dazhao 35 LIBER (Ligue européenne des bibliothèques de recherche) 17, 18, 19 Library and Archives Canada 187 Ligatus Research Centre, London 87, 89, 93 Lindberg, Sten G. 49 Long Island University, New York, Palmer School 25, 39, 96 Los Angeles County Museum of Art 18 Luchtmans, Jordaan 43 Lynch, Beverly P. 111-113, 119 Maack, Mary M. 112 Machiavelli, Niccolò 37 MacLeish, Archibald 182 Maddocks, Joanne 159 Magritte, René 18 Mao Tse-Tung 35 Marsh, Carrie 115 Marty, Paul 95 McKenna, Heather 158

Mesme, Henri de 181 Mittler, Elmar 12 Morgan Library & Museum, New York 35 Mouren, Raphaële 12, 13, 107, 129, 130, 135 Museo diocesano tridentino, Trento 174, 178 Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp 170 Nadal, Jacob 115 Nash, Paul 155, 159 National Trust 55-60, 62 Nelson, Axel 50 NESTOR (Network of expertise in long-term storage) 53 Neuroth, Heike 64 Newberry Library, Chicago 25 Niccoli, Niccolò 138 Nijhoff, Martinus 43 Orwell, George 16 Osswald, Achim 64 Oxford University Press 45, 85 Panizzi, Antonio 34 Paque, Diana 112 Pavlov, Ivan 36 Peach, Caroline 12 Peking University Library 35 Petrarca, Francesco 138, 139 Piumini, Roberto 174 Plantin, Christophe 13, 43, 170 Poliziano, Agnolo 138 Pollard, Graham 84 Portico 45 Pritchard, Sarah 185 Proot, Goran 165, 167 Prosser, Sian 159 Provinciale Bibliotheek Limburg, Hasselt 163 Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin 183, 185

194 Index of Names and Institutions Raphelengius, Franciscus 43 Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, ACRL, ALA 9, 13, 15-17, 23, 26, 29, 43, 44, 95, 129, 187 Reill, Peter 112 Rips, David 117 Ritchie, Roy 112 Roche, Nigel 155 Roos, Sjoerd Hendrik de 43 Roosa, Mark S. 112, 115 Roosevelt, Franklin 182 Rootenberg, Howard 112, 117 Roth, Ryan 111 Rothschild, Ferdinand de 57 Rovetta, Alessandro 145 Royal College of Physicians, London 60 Rushdie, Salman 22 Sackville-West, Vita 57 Sallander, Hans 50 Salmon, Frances 17 Sandberg, Carol 112, 117 Scheffel, Regine 64 Schuetze-Coburn, Marje 112 Shaw, George Bernard 57 Skinner, Burrhus Frederic 36 Slive, Daniel J. 115 Southern Methodist University 115, 181, 186 Springhill, Northern Ireland 57 Staley, Thomas 183, 185 Stalker, Laura 112, 116 Stam, David H. 13, 25, 95, 117, 150, 151 Stam, Deirdre 13, 25, 95, 117, 150, 151 Stanton, Jeffrey M. 64 Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin 56 Strong, Gary 112, 117 Suarez, Michael J. 13 Symborska, Wislawa 179 Syracuse University Library 34 Szewczyk, David 116

Tatton Park, Cheshire 58 Taylor, Frederick 36 Thomas, Douglas 56, 183, 187 Thompson, Michael 112, 117 Traister, Daniel 182 Trent, Ivy 116 UNESCO 16, 20 Università cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan 137-140, 145 Università degli studi di Trento 173 Universiteit Antwerpen bibliotheek 12 University College London 9, 147149 University Library, Cambridge 12, 13, 35, 49, 51, 63 University Library, Gothenburg 51 University Library, Uppsala 49, 50 University of Albany, New York State 40 University of Arts London 87 University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Information Studies, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies 111-113, 120 University of Dundee 148 University of Kentucky Special Collections 96-98, 100, 101 University of Kentucky, School of Library and Information Science 95-100, 101 University of London 148 University of West Indies 17 Valla, Lorenzo 138 Vecchio, Stefania 145 Verhoeven, Garrelt 13 Virgil 138 Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek 11, 163 Voltaire 57 Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire 57 Wagner, Bettina 12, 85

Index of Names and Institutions 195

Weaver, Gawain 116 Wendorf, Richard 181, 183, 188, 189 Whalen, Maureen 116 Whiteman, Bruce 112, 116 Wilkins-Jordan, Mary 182 William Andrews Clark Memorial Library 111, 113, 117, 120

Willoughby, Edwin Eliott 25 Xenophon 50 Youngseek, Kim 64 Zeidberg, David 112, 116

Table of Figures Unless otherwise indicated, all reproductions are by permission of the Library holding the copy. Fig. 2.1: Hugo Grotius, Mare liberum siue de iure quod Batauis competit ad Indicana commercial dissertation (Lugduni Batauorum, Ex officinal Ludouici Elzeuirii: 1609). The Hague, The Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KBH 893 G 6. Fig. 2.2: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The Hague, The Koninklijke Bibliotheek. Fig. 2.3: Walt Disney Co., Donald Duck Fig. 12.1: Marks of ownership of the Collège de la Trinité, with representations of the Collège and its library in Plan scenographique (ca. 1550), photographed in the nineteenth century. Fig. 12.2: Georg Braun, Théâtre des cités du monde, (Köln? Bruxelles?: s.n., ca. 1575), 11 : Lugdunum.