RBMS Newsletter - No. 34 / Spring 2001

RBMS Newsletter is a publication of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611 (312-944-6780. Editors: Daren Callahan, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University, 618-453-7681, dcallaha@lib.siu.edu; Manon Théroux, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, 203-432-8376, manon.theroux@yale.edu. Asst. Ed.: Jeffrey Makala, Olin Library, Wesleyan University, 860-685-3863, jmakala@wesleyan.edu. Typesetting and layout done by Daren Callahan. The type is True Type® Times New Roman and Shelley-Allegro Script. RBMS Chair: Mark Dimunation, Library of Congress, 202-707-2025, mdim@loc.gov.

©American Library Association, 2001
ISSN 0743-1481 (paper)
ISSN 1098-4291 (electronic)

CONTENTS

From the Chair

The recent ACRL membership survey indicates that RBMS remains an active, vital professional organization. We participate in section activities at a higher rate than most sections, are more active in our committees than our counterparts, and we produce publications that subscribers actually read. Of all ACRL publications, RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, is one of the few that is read cover-to-cover. At its Midwinter meeting, the ACRL Board passed a resolution congratulating "RBMS and the editors of RBM, the revised publication formerly known as RBML, for their proactive efforts to expand the audience for this journal and to extend the collaboration between special collections libraries and scholars in a wide range of disciplines."

Other RBMS initiatives were also recognized. The section's successful use of shared revenue for Pre-conference scholarships was praised by the Board. The RBMS Executive Committee accepted the Budget and Development Committee's proposal to renew the scholarship program for another year, and encouraged the Membership and Professional Development Committee to continue in its worthy efforts to expand the section's constituency. As other programs and outlets for professional development fall to the wayside, it becomes increasing important for RBMS to take the lead in sponsoring new opportunities for those entering special collections librarianship. We can do this by furthering our efforts at outreach to new professionals, by strengthening our increasingly important liaisons with other organizations, and by bolstering our presence as an organization.

In many ways the Preconference in San Francisco is a step in this direction. Katherine Reagan and the Program Planning Committee have designed a magnificent and provocative program addressing the theoretical and practical challenges of coping with twentieth-century materials in myriad formats. Speakers will address contemporary literary trends, the documentation of political and scientific movements, and the vexing modern problem of building intelligent special collections in an age of information. The conceptual, procedural, and legal issues that confront all of us in this area are shared by our colleagues in SAA and related organizations, and we hope that the San Francisco program offers us an opportunity to extend this conversation to them as well. All of this in the splendid setting of the Bay Area. Theresa Salazar and John Hawk, along with the entire Local Arrangements Committee, have created for us a lively program in San Francisco and Berkeley. A starlight reception at the top of the Fairmont, a tour of The Bancroft Library, a visit to the San Francisco Public Library and the new Stanford facility await all of us in the City by the Bay. Bring your ideas, your solutions, and a sweater. See you in San Francisco.

-- Mark Dimunation

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2001 RBMS Preconference

The 42nd annual Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Preconference will take place June 12-15, 2001, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. Entitled "The Twentieth Century," the Preconference will explore the challenges and opportunities we face as builders of twentieth-century research collections. The program will examine collecting practices, formats, and constituencies, together with the evolutionary cultural and technological changes that bear upon the nature of contemporary recorded information.

Plenary sessions will explore the issues confronted by librarians, curators, and archivists as they document twentieth-century culture in partnership with the academy. Sessions will address: the relationship between institutional collection building and scholarship; documenting the history of computer science and technology; changes in the patterns of literary collecting; the challenge of managing multiple formats and media; legal aspects of building and disseminating collections; and the future of research artifacts in the age of digital information.

Seminar presentations will provide a forum for discussing technical service, collection development, and public service issues, including: online manuscript finding aids; the experience of outsourcing the OPAC; oral history programs and collections; ethical and legal issues involved in donor relations; and subject access to Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts.

A workshop, entitled "Encoded Archival Description: A Look at the Past and the Promising Future," will be offered on Tuesday, June 12. There is a $35 fee and advance registration is required. Conducted by Robin Chandler, Manager, Online Archive of California, and Bill Landis, Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine, the workshop will examine future implications of Encoded Archival Description (EAD). The four-hour workshop will take place at the Gleeson Library, University of San Francisco. The campus is located three miles from the Fairmont Hotel and is served by several bus lines.

The Fairmont Hotel is centrally located at the top of Nob Hill at the corner of Mason and Powell Streets, and offers panoramic views of the city and the San Francisco Bay. A renovation completed in 1999 has restored the Fairmont to its original Beaux Arts design as conceived by the celebrated San Francisco architect Julia Morgan in 1906. ALA single room rates are $189 per night, with double room rates starting at $199. Reservations for the Fairmont Hotel must be made through the ALA Travel Desk (800-999-0925) before May 11, 2001. Please identify yourself as an RBMS attendee.

Preconference registration fees are $195 for ACRL members and $230 for non-members. Fees include entrance to all Preconference receptions, coffee breaks, papers, and seminars. A registration form and additional details about the 2001 RBMS Preconference are available on the RBMS Preconference website at: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/BANC/RBMS. Questions can be sent to the program chair Katherine Reagan (kr33@cornell.edu), or to local arrangements co-chairs Theresa Salazar, (tsalazar@library.berkeley.edu), or John Hawk, (hawkj@usfca.edu).

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RBMS Annual Conference Schedule

San Francisco, June 16-18, 2001

This is the schedule RBMS has requested. Check the final conference schedule for changes.

SATURDAY, June 16 

8:30-11:00a         2002 Preconference Program Planning
                    Manuscripts & Other Formats Discussion
                    Public Services Discussion

8:30a-12:30p        Bibliographic Standards I
                    Exhibition Awards (Open)

11:30a-12:30p       2003 Preconference Program Planning
                    Nominating (Closed)

2:00-4:00p          Budget & Development
                    Membership & Professional Development
                    Publications
                    Security
                    Seminars     

4:30-5:30p          Hearing: Guidelines for Borrowing and
                    Loaning Special Collections Materials for         
                    Exhibition

SUNDAY, June 1 

8:30-11:00a         Conference Development
                    Curators & Conservators Discussion
                    RBM Editorial Board

8:30a-12:30p        Bibliographic Standards II          

9:30-11:30a         2002 Conference Program Planning          

11:30a-12:30p       MARC for Special Collections Discussion

2:00-4:30p          RBMS Program/Business Meeting/Awards

4:30-5:30p          Information Exchange

MONDAY, June 18 

8:30-11:00a         Executive I and II

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Committee News

Bibliographic Standards

The Bibliographic Standards Committee oversees standards for the North American rare materials cataloging community. The committee has essentially finished work on Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early-Modern Manuscripts (AMREMM), and ACRL will publish the standard within a few months. Revision of DCRB and the RBMS genre-form thesauri continues; for details, see the committee's website at http://www.lib.byu.edu/~catalog/people/rlm/bsc/home.htm. Catalogers will also be interested in the committee's "Rare Materials Cataloger's HelpNet," at http://www.library.yale.edu/bibstand/resource.html. This evolving site is divided into areas of expertise (systems, material type, genre, subject, periods, languages) and under each area are listed the names and e-mail addresses of experienced catalogers and other librarians who are willing to help with cataloging questions. We invite all to use the site and to volunteer as resource persons.

Budget and Development

The committee addressed three agenda items at its ALA Midwinter Meeting: RBMS Preconference budgets from 2000 to 2004, the committee's donor database, and a one-time allocation of $1500 from the ACRL Board, to be used by the section before August 15th.

The donor database, managed by committee member Mike Kelly, continues to be used by Preconference planners to stimulate fundraising. About $18,000 was raised for last year's Chicago Preconference. Most of the donors were new, and their names have been added to the database, but there were also a few repeat donors. The database has been updated with this information so that an accurate history of giving to the section can be maintained.

The committee is pleased to report that a small surplus was generated as a result of successful fundraising for the Chicago Preconference. The committee has recommended to the RBMS Executive Committee that these funds be used to support the section's Preconference Scholarship Program for a second year. The committee has also recommended proposals for spending the one-time allocation of funds from the ACRL Board.

Conference Development

The Conference Development Committee has established firm commitments for RBMS Preconference locations for the next three years: June 11-14, 2002 (Atlanta, Georgia); June 17-20, 2003 (Toronto, Canada); and 2004 (New Haven, Connecticut). The New Haven Preconference will be based at Yale University.

The ALA Annual Conference will be held in the same city as the RBMS Preconference in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, the Annual Conference will meet in Orlando, Florida, from June 24-30. The 2004 Preconference will most likely be held June 21-24, starting on a Monday and ending on a Thursday, to give Preconference attendees time to travel between the two cities.

Elaine Smyth will become chair of the committee after the upcoming Annual Conference in San Francisco.

Curators and Conservators

At the Curators and Conservators Discussion Group meeting at Midwinter, members shared information about the use of barcodes and the merits and demerits of polyethylene sealing strips; heat-sealed book jackets used to protect dust-jackets, paperbacks, cloth bindings, and powdery leather; and protective enclosures and whether there is there a trend away from boxing. The question was raised, "How do we protect the book and still provide access to the information we expect to see when working at the shelf?". One suggestion was to attach a color photocopy of the spine to the outside of the box. Members agreed on the need to evaluate protective enclosures for integrated use in public and technical services (including digitization projects) and on the need to understand the life-cycle of an item in order to plan preservation treatments.

All members were interested in digital imaging units and models for cost analysis. Preservation treatment decisions for materials held in off-site storage facilities were discussed, as well as the preservation challenges faced by libraries as new special collections are formed. More and more libraries are looking at the costs involved in preserving new acquisitions.

Topics on the agenda for the San Francisco meeting include: use of barcoding and online circulation in special collections; care and handling of material in the reading room and the equipment and supplies needed to help preserve these materials; and exhibition loans, including requirements for the preparation of materials for display at remote locations.

Exhibition Awards

At the ALA Midwinter Meeting in January, the RBMS Executive Committee formally approved changing the name of the Exhibition Catalogue Awards Committee to the Exhibition Awards Committee. The full name of the awards has changed as well, from "The Katharine Kyes Leab & Daniel J. Leab ëAmerican Book Prices Current' Exhibition Catalogue Awards for Excellence" to "The Katharine Kyes Leab & Daniel J. Leab ëAmerican Book Prices Current' Exhibition Awards." These name changes reflect the broadened scope of the awards, which as of 2001 now include categories for exhibition brochures and electronic exhibitions.

The committee met at Midwinter in a closed session for the selection of the 2001 Leab Award winners. There were 46 entries in the four categories of printed materials and 30 entries in the electronic exhibitions category. The entries selected for awards include the following:

Printed exhibition catalogs and brochures:

Winner, Division 1 (Expensive): Ulysses in Hand: The Rosenbach Manuscript, submitted by the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia.

Honorable Mention, Division 1 (Expensive): The Art of Publishers' Bookbindings, 1815-1915, submitted by The Grolier Club, New York City.

Winner, Division 2 (Moderately expensive): Word and Image: Samuel Beckett and the Visual Text, submitted by the Robert W. Woodruff Library and the Correspondence of Samuel Beckett Project, Emory University, in collaboration with Institut MÈmoires de l'Èdition contemporaine (IMEC), Paris.

Winner, Division 3 (Inexpensive): Curious George Comes to Hattiesburg: The Life and Work of H.A. and Margret Rey, submitted by the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries, Hattiesburg.

Winner, Division 4 (Brochures): So Fairly Bound: Fine Twentieth-Century Bookbindings and Illuminated Manuscripts from the Edward R. Leahy Collection, submitted by The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library, the University of Scranton.

Electronic exhibitions recognized for Special Commendation:

1. Bridging the Bay: Bridging the Campus (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/Bridge/), submitted by the Water Resources Center Archives and Environmental Design Archives of the University of California, Berkeley. This site was selected in particular for its overall graphic design, easy site navigation, and its collaborative teamwork in making use of materials from several archives and special collections at the University of California, Berkeley.

2. Nabokov Under Glass (http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/epo/nabokov), submitted by The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, The New York Public Library. This site was selected because of its good site organization and its multi-level integration of the narrative text and the accompanying images.

Since this is the first year of a three-year pilot project to evaluate electronic exhibitions, the committee chose to use the phrase "Special Commendation" instead of "Winner" in the electronic exhibitions category. As the entries in this category vary greatly in approach and format, the Committee wanted to recognize some of the best specific examples of site design while not appearing to hold all entries to a single standard of excellence. In general, the committee hopes that the addition of the electronic exhibitions category will encourage institutions to undertake more of these projects.

Manuscripts and Other Formats

The Manuscripts and Other Formats Discussion Group meeting at Midwinter was co-chaired by Rebecca Johnson Melvin and Timothy D. Murray. As part of the regular agenda, members shared news of: acquisitions; recent conferences attended; grant projects; an EAD finding aid project for African-American sources from five repositories in Virginia; and two digital imaging projects (Images of Connecticut History and The Global Performing Arts Consortium, based at Cornell). Brief practical issues discussed included off-site storage for special collections materials, copyright (including permission to publish on the Web), and, a perennial favorite, overlapping collections at several repositories.

The two primary topics of discussion were the use of online reference forms and the effect of online resources (catalogs, auctions, email, electronic discussion lists) for collection development, especially of archives and manuscripts. The increase of online finding aids for archival collections and other detailed online descriptions of special collections, not to mention the basic "home page" presence of libraries on the Internet, has dramatically increased electronic communication regarding reference assistance with collection holdings. Printed versions of a number of online reference forms were circulated and reviewed. Committee members discussed useful features and the use of forms (or plans to do so) at their own repositories. It was the general consensus of the group that forms are helpful in communicating with researchers, and that the minimum desirable fields should include researcher identification to expedite follow-up (such as mailing photocopy request forms).

Regarding the use of online resources for collection development, all members were extremely interested in following news of this trend. One member mentioned the use of the high profile eBay auctions to acquire performing arts ephemera, and we learned how one library also used eBay to acquire scarce memorabilia for an exhibition. The trend of researchers directly acquiring primary sources from online auctions was discussed, noting the possible rise of new competition for collections traditionally acquired only by libraries or archival repositories. The use of online dealer catalogs has become widely accepted, further affecting the immediacy of the market. Other issues discussed related to online acquisitions of primary sources and the problems of authenticity of items and the integrity of collections.

MARC for Special Collections

The first topic at the Midwinter Meeting in January was a discussion of the guidelines and policies for deciding the level of cataloging for special collections material. The most frequently mentioned guideline was the use of a chronological division: for example, DCRB for pre-1800 and AACR2 for post-1800 material. Strengths and needs of specific institutions also played a role in deciding the appropriate level of cataloging. Other deciding factors mentioned were the format of the material and the cataloger's judgement regarding a specific item.

Cataloging digitized copies of original material from special collections was the second topic. It was apparent from the discussion that many institutions are still deciding upon cataloging standards for this material. Some institutions have created catalog records for their digital copies that are much more detailed than the catalog records for the original material. Many other libraries are only now beginning to deal with the cataloging issues for their digitized holdings.

The third topic was the new generation of online systems and their impact on cataloging materials for special collections. A lively discussion ensued regarding some of the shortcomings of these newer online systems. Information regarding migration and potential workflow shortcuts or "work arounds" was also shared.

All section members are invited to join us at the next discussion group in San Francisco; potential topics will be solicited through the RBMS electronic discussion list.

Membership and Professional Development

If you would like to learn more about RBMS, you may want to attend the orientation session sponsored by the Membership and Professional Development Committee at the Preconference in San Francisco, scheduled from 4:30 until 5:30 on Tuesday, June 12, at the Fairmont Hotel. At the orientation, section officers and RBMS committee chairs will describe the function of each committee and new members and first-time Preconference attendees will learn how to get involved in RBMS. The orientation will also be an opportunity for new and more experienced members of the section to get to know one another.

If you are new to RBMS or are attending a conference for the first time, you will also be interested to know about the buddy program, which seeks to help demystify RBMS by matching new members with more experienced members of the section. Anyone interested in participating in the buddy program at the 2001 Preconference and/or the ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco, either as a new member or as an experienced member of the section, should contact Henry Raine at henry.raine@nyu.edu, or 212-595-3036. Information about the buddy program and a call for participants will be posted on the RBMS electronic discussion list (rbms@library.berkeley.edu) prior to the Preconference. The committee wishes to thank all of those who are participating in this program, which is now in its sixth successful year.

Among the committee's other ongoing projects is Educational Opportunities: A Directory, an electronic listing of coursework relevant to special collections librarianship currently offered through graduate programs, available at http://www.rbms.info/committees/membership_and_professional educational_opportunities/index.shtml. The committee is currently exploring the possibility of expanding the scope of this directory to include workshops and continuing education opportunities relating to special collections that are not offered through graduate degree programs.

Nominating

The Nominating Committee has chosen the following candidates for the 2001 election: for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Juliet McLaren and Daniel J. Slive; for Member-at-Large, Katherine Reagan and Diane Shaw; for Secretary, Cynthia J. Burgess.

Public Services

The RBMS Public Services Discussion Group serves as a forum for discussing access policy, reference service, and the promotion, visibility and use of original research materials. The 2001 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Washington, D.C., was the first meeting facilitated by the new co-chairs, Mike Kelly, Fales Library, New York University, and Rachel Howarth, Houghton Library, Harvard.

The center point for this meeting was public services documentation. Approximately twenty people attended and many brought copies of forms from their home institutions to share with the group. A lively discussion was had about current practices for collecting registration information; regulations governing access (who we allow in, when, and carrying what); what works best in a call slip; how to teach and enforce handling guidelines; what we really need in the public display of our OPACs, and much more.

Topics generated for our next meeting include: permissions and reprography; on-going staff training; how to monitor user response to our services; and reading room designs that work, or "the Feng Shui of the Reading Room." Please join us. The co-chairs welcome your comments and suggestions: Mike Kelly, mike.kelly@nyu.edu, or 212-998-2598, or Rachel Howarth, rhowarth@fas.harvard.edu, or 617-496-8679.

Publications

The committee is in the final stages of editing the RBMS brochure, which should come out this spring. Work on the logo has been slowed temporarily by the need to find a new designer. Meanwhile, the RBMS website has been completely overhauled and has an exciting new look (http://www.rbms.info/). Bravos and thanks go to webmaster Christian Dupont for his remodeling work, which has made the site visually striking and much easier to navigate. Meanwhile, the RBMS electronic discussion list is holding steady at about 500 subscribers. Your Old Books was remaindered at the ALA store at Midwinter and has disappeared from the store's online list at the ALA website. It is still available in electronic form via the RBMS website.

Security

The Midwinter Meeting allowed members the opportunity to review current projects and discuss future activities. A revised charge for the committee was reviewed and agreed upon; it was later presented to and accepted by the RBMS Executive Committee. In the future, the committee's work will focus on education, dissemination of information, and liaison work between RBMS and other professional groups. Ongoing projects include the Library Security Officer list, the "Incidents of Theft" reports, comparing state laws regarding library theft, and developing relations within and outside of ALA. In addition, the process of revising the Guidelines Regarding Thefts in Libraries continues. It is hoped that a draft version of the guidelines will be available for review at the Annual Conference in San Francisco.

Seminars

The committee invites you to propose a seminar for the 2002 RBMS Preconference in Atlanta. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2001. Seminars that address the Preconference theme, "New Occasions, New Duties: Changing Roles and Expectations in Special Collections," are sought, but unrelated topics are also welcomed. Seminars that address or incorporate practical solutions to everyday problems are especially welcome, as are seminars on manuscript and archival materials and issues. Proposals will be reviewed at the committee's meeting during the Annual Conference in San Francisco in June.

It is not necessary to be a member of the committee to make a proposal. For more information, check the RBMS website: http://www.rbms.info/committees/seminars/index.shtml. You may also contact James D. Fox, Chair, at jdfox@oregon.uoregon.edu.

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Note from the Archivist

Committee chairs are reminded to deposit their official records in the ALA archives. Guidelines are available at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/transfer.htm. Files ready for transfer may be sent to the Archivist, Alvan Bregman, at: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 346 Library, 1408 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61822.

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Transitions

Dorothy Auyong has been appointed principal rare book cataloger at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Ronald A. Bogdan has accepted the position of senior cataloger at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The new curator of manuscripts in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University is Margaret Burri. The Lauinger Library at Georgetown University has appointed Lynn Conway as university archivist. Carol Crawford is now laboratory director and senior conservator at the University of South Carolina's Conservation Laboratory. Erin Davis is the new curator of rare books in the department of special collections at Washington University in St. Louis. Christine DeZelar-Tiedman has been named special collections and archives technical services librarian at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The new curator of modern literature and manuscripts in the department of special collections at Washington University is Chatham Ewing. James D. Fox has been appointed director of special collections and archives at the University of Oregon. Connell Gallagher, director of research collections at the University of Vermont, is the recipient of the New England Archivists' Distinguished Service Award. After twenty nine years of service, Jean Geil, former coordinator of music special collections at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has retired. Julia Hendry has been appointed resident librarian in the special collections department of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Jennifer Jacobs is the new university archivist at the University of California at Irvine. The Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama has appointed Jessica Lacher-Feldman as coordinator of public and outreach services. Mardi Mahaffy has been named government documents and special collections librarian at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma. José Fernando Peña has accepted the position of cataloger at The Grolier Club of New York. Nora Quinlan has been appointed head of reference and access services at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Katia Roberto is now special collections cataloger at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Gerianne Schaad is now head of archives at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Barbara A. Shailor has been named the new director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. The James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis has appointed Susan Stekel as assistant curator. Elizabeth Sudduth has been named head of cataloging in the department of rare books and special collections in the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina. Ed Vermue is the special collections and preservation librarian at Oberlin College Library. Everett Wilkie is working in the editorial department of Kamico Instructional Media/Pearson Publishing, an educational publishing firm in Austin,Texas. Heather Wolfe is the new curator of manuscripts at the Folger Shakespeare Library; the former curator of manuscripts, Laetitia Yeandle, has retired.

We note with regret the following recent deaths: Esther Bradford Aresty, collector of rare books on etiquette and the culinary arts; Ben C. Bowman, library director and bookman associated with the Newberry Library, Johns Hopkins University, and other academic institutions; Dr. Harriet C. Jameson, head of the department of rare books and special collections at the University of Michigan from 1959 to 1980; Sharon C. Johnson, former archivist at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage; Philadelphia bookseller Jocelyn Ann Konigsmark; and Felice Stampfle, former curator of drawings and prints at the Morgan Library.

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Annual Report from the Chair, 1999-2000

The first year of the new millennium (or final year of the old millennium -- take your pick) was a banner one for RBMS. Officers, committees, and members cooperated to develop section activities along lines laid down by ACRL in the Strategic Plan 2005 adopted in January 2000.

We worked to raise the profile of RBMS outside our core constituency through a number of initiatives. As a group, RBMS publications are a crucial means by which other scholarly and professional groups are made aware of our section and its activities. A revitalized RBM (formerly Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship) has been revised to suit the interests of a broader scholarly audience, with such success that the journal was awarded, by unanimous vote, a Resolution of Commendation at the Midwinter meeting of the ACRL Board: "The Board congratulates RBMS and the editors of RBM, the revised publication formerly known as RBML, for their proactive efforts to expand the audience for this journal and to extend the collaboration between special collections libraries and scholars in a wide range of disciplines ...." The section continues to forge collaborations with other groups of librarians, and with affiliated organizations. For instance, RBMS has maintained an information booth at the last four ABAA Antiquarian Book Fairs, through the courtesy of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, and joint programs with other organizations are in the works.

As always, we fostered professional development among our members through our annual Preconference, and the 2000 conference, "Beyond Words: Visual Materials in Special Collections," was particularly successful. The program was skillfully assembled, and deservedly well-received. This year, thanks to a pilot ACRL/RBMS revenue-sharing program, RBMS was able to apply excess revenue from the previous year's Preconference to fund a series of full and partial scholarships to first-time Preconference attendees. Ten scholarships (four full, and six partial) were awarded, and the response from the winners was overwhelmingly positive. The program continues this year, and, we hope, into the future.

As a candidate for Chair of RBMS I suggested in my statement of concern that "if we are to continue to meet the needs of today's research community, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section must ... lead by example in the promotion and creative use of new technologies." The section -- without any prodding from me -- has more than met that challenge. The renovated RBMS website, which is overseen by the Publications Committee, reflects the creativity and energy of its dynamic new webmaster; the Exhibitions Award Committee (note the new moniker) has revised its charge to include online as well as physical exhibitions; and the Bibliographic Standards Committee (which has already developed a series of online resources for the rare book cataloger) is vigorously pursuing electronic publication for RBMS thesauri and other works. In fact, there is no RBMS committee that has not remade itself in order to take advantage of new technologies, and the section as a whole runs better, faster, cheaper, and more smoothly. At least, we hope so: the beneficiary of all this technological innovation is (or ought to be) you, the RBMS membership. Do our programs fill your needs? Do you hear about them in a timely fashion? Let us know what we can do, through improvements in communication, outreach, and programs, to better serve you.

-- Eric Holzenberg