RBMS Newsletter - No. 41 / Fall 2004

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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, 800-545-2433, x2523. Editors: Jeff Barton, Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY, 10027, 212-854-1640, jb2252@columbia.edu; Michael Forstrom, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven CT, 06520, 203-432-7215, michael.forstrom@yale.edu. Asst. Ed.: Marianne Hansen, Mariam Coffin Canaday Library, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr PA, 19010, 610-526-5289, mhansen@brynmawr. Typesetting and layout by Michael Forstrom using PageMaker 6.5 for Windows. Typefaces used are Lucida Sans and Times New Roman. Printed in the USA. RBMS Chair: Elaine Smyth, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA, 70803, 225-578-6547, esmyth@lsu.edu.

©American Library Association, 2004
ISSN 0743-1481 (paper)
ISSN 1098-4291 (electronic)

CONTENTS

From the Chair

For Americans there is a third certainty in life beyond death and taxes: the tumult of the presidential election, which dominates public discourse every four years. RBMS is not a political organization, but politics must be a core concern for its members. Beyond preserving and serving our collections, it is our professional responsibility to preserve our right to collect materials and our access to the financial resources needed to do our jobs.

Information flows out of, as well as into, our repositories. Libraries and archives hold documents that tell who did what when and to whom-information used to form people's opinions. When we vote, those opinions get translated into policies that effect everything from our funding resources to what gets preserved in the National Archives and who gets to speak on our university campuses. Political involvement for special collections librarians is not optional; we're in it, like it or not. RBMS may not be a political organization, but we, as individuals, must recognize our involvement and act on it for the good of our profession.

Whatever the upshot of this fall's political hurly burly, RBMSers, like Candide, are sensibly cultivating our own garden: a legion of Section members are engaged in making our professional affiliation worthwhile. With scholarships, outreach programs, and individual commitments of time and energy, members are working to broaden and diversify the organization so that our membership will better represent all the cultures we need to document in our collections. By offering workshops, programming, and networking opportunities, members are building a healthy and supportive professional environment from which we can all benefit. The mentoring program, newly launched by the Membership and Professional Development Committee, is a great addition to this array.

This summer's 45th Annual Preconference, "Ebb and Flow: The Migration of Collections to American Libraries," drew a standing room only crowd that enjoyed a thought-provoking and informative array of workshops, plenaries, seminars, and tours, as well as the splendid hospitality of our Yale University hosts. Hats off to all who worked long and hard to make that event a success! Those hardy souls who went on to Orlando for the ALA Annual Conference found RBMS well represented there by a stimulating program on "Documenting Cultural Communities in Florida," which drew a good number of non-RBMSers. The Annual Conference also brought a successful conclusion to the work of the Task Force charged with the revision of the ACRL Guidelines for the Interlibrary Loan of Rare and Unique Materials.

Plans for the 2005 Preconference are already well developed. "Bridging the Gap: Education and Special Collections" will be held June 21-24 in St. Louis, Missouri. Those traveling on to Chicago for the ALA Annual Conference can plan to attend the RBMS program "Collecting World Cultures: African, Asian, Caribbean, and Native American Cultural Materials in Chicago Institutions," which will be co-sponsored by AAMES. At the upcoming ALA Midwinter Conference (Boston, January 14-19, 2005), RBMS committees will carry forward the work you will find described in this newsletter. To all those who are currently laboring in the RBMS garden, kudos and thanks. If you have not yet ventured in, we hope you will join us for any or all of these gatherings. Come enjoy the fruits of your colleagues' hard work, and add your own contribution of comraderie and expertise!

--Elaine Smyth

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The 2004 RBMS Preconference Report

The 45th Annual RBMS Preconference, entitled "Ebb and Flow:The Migration of Collections to American Libraries," was hosted by Yale University in New Haven in late June. Over 250 registrants attended a full program of plenary sessions, short papers, and seminars. Alice Prochaska, Yale University Librarian, opened the Preconference with her incisive remarks on the ownership of cultural property. The final plenary speaker, Robert D. McChesney of New York University, spoke about the Afghan Digital Library Project. In between, plenary sessions were delivered by James Raven (University of Essex), Robert Parks (The Pierpont Morgan Library), Michael Winship (University of Texas), Thomas Staley (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center), and Anthony Rota (Bertram Rota Ltd). A theme echoed by speakers throughout the conference was the responsibility of our repositories to share the treasures in our care. In addition to these plenaries, nine exceptional short papers were presented in three sessions, each of which explored an individual case of a migrating collection or group of material.

The Local Arrangements Committee, chaired by Nicole Bouché, did an outstanding job organizing a wide range of open house visits and tours of Yale University collections. The Committee also arranged excursions to the nearby Lewis Walpole Library, Mark Twain House, and Wesleyan University Special Collections. Each day of the conference was concluded with a remarkable reception held in a unique venue: the opening reception, sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, was held in the nave of Sterling Memorial Library; a full buffet dinner was held on the mezzanine of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; and a champagne and sushi reception was held at the Yale Center for British Art.

Seminars addressed such topics as current trends in preservation, curating exhibitions, funding opportunities, and relationships with library administration. Two workshops, "Cataloging Manuscript Music," hosted by the Beinecke, and "Beyond the Eye: The Technical Examination of Rare Books, Maps and Manuscripts," held at the Yale Center for British Art, were offered Monday, before the start of the Preconference.

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RBMS Midwinter Meeting Conference Schedule

Boston, January 14-19, 2005

FRIDAY, JANUARY 14

2:00-5:30 pm Bibliographic Standards, Thesaurus Subcommittee
8:00-10:00 pm Hearing on Revised Guidelines for the Loan of Special Collections Materials for Exhibition

SATURDAY, JANUARY 15

8:30-11:00am 2005 Preconference Program Planning
Membership & Professional Development
8:30am-12:30pm Bibliographic Standards
Exhibition Awards I (closed)
9:30am-11:00am Public Services Discussion Group
9:30am-12:30pm Security
11:30am -12:30pm Nominating (closed)
2:00-4:00pm Budget and Development
Publications
Seminars
Task Force to Review Guidelines on the Selection of General Collection Materials for Transfer to Special Collections

SUNDAY, JANUARY 16

8:30-11:00am Conference Development
Diversity Action Plan Implementation Task Force
Exhibition Awards II
9:30-11:00am Curators & Conservators Discussion Group (joint meeting with PARS Discussion Group)
MARC for Special Collections Discussion Group
9:30am -12:30pm RBM Editorial Board
11:30am-12:30pm 2005 Conference Program Planning
2:00-4:00pm 2006 Conference Program Planning
2006 Preconference Program Planning
Collection Development Discussion Group (joint meeting with Manuscripts and Other Formats)
Task Force to Review Guidelines for the Loan of Special Collections Materials for Exhibition
4:30-5:30pm Information Exchange

MONDAY, JANUARY 17

8:30am-12:30pm Executive Committee

This is the schedule RBMS has requested. Be sure to check the final conference schedule for any changes.

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2004 Annual Conference Program Report

The RBMS program at this year's ALA Annual Conference in Orlando focused on "Documenting Cultural Communities in Florida." The panel of speakers was assembled by a committee chaired by Lynda Claassen, and the session was moderated by R. Arvid Nelsen, with John Pull assisting on the computer. The speakers consisted of two librarians and a faculty member: Joel Buchanan, Special Collections, University of Florida; Stephen Kerr, Stonewall Library & Archives; and Sherry Johnson, Dept. of History, Florida International University.

Joel Buchanan laid out principles to follow and topics to cover to effectively document African-American communities in Florida. He stressed the importance of understanding the mindset of the community, gaining the trust of residents so that they will be willing to share their history, recognizing regional differences in African-American culture, and bearing in mind that the African-American community contains many subcultures. Stephen Kerr gave a brief history of the Stonewall Library & Archives, which documents the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities in the southeastern United States. Although staffed mainly by volunteers, the Library & Archives has been increasingly active as an LGBT community repository and educator. Open fifty-three hours per week, it sponsored over 100 programs last year.

Lastly, Sherry Johnson described the complexities of documenting the Cuban immigrant community in Miami. She noted that Cuban exiles, Cuban Americans, and Cuban immigrants who stay are all separate groups, each with its own subculture. Among the challenges of documenting these groups are their distrust of outsiders, the ever-changing political and cultural situation, and the abundance of material. She also noted that, because of the very emotional issues that Cuban immigrants face, diplomacy is required if one is to work with them effectively. Participants in the ensuing discussion came away with a vivid sense of the complexities and importance of documenting the Florida region's rich variety of subcultures.

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Committee News

Bibliographic Standards

The gamma version of Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) is available for review and comment; see http://www.folger.edu/bsc/dcrb/dcrmtext.html. All are welcome to participate in the moderated online list set up for discussion of DCRM(B); please communicate your interest to the chair, Deborah J. Leslie, at djleslie@folger.edu. Likewise, the draft guidelines for Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Music) are ready for review and available at http://www.bol.ucla.edu/%7Ejfletchr/DCRM/DCRM_opener.htm.

The ALCTS/ACRL Task Force on Cataloging Rules for Early Printed Monographs, chaired by Robert Maxwell, has submitted its final report to Bib Standards and to the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access Committee. The Task Force has recommended that AACR3 also include rules specific to cataloging early monographic print materials, but that they be revised to align more closely with DCRM(B).

The RBMS thesaurus editor is leading her team of lexicographers in the development of an online version of the thesauri. Several feasible software packages have been identified, which the thesaurus team is now investigating. The goal is to have a freely available, web-based thesaurus supported by appropriate thesaurus software.

At the St. Louis Preconference, look for the seminar entitled "Digital Reproductions: Authenticity, Cataloging, and the Impact of Initiatives on Cataloging Departments," and a full-day workshop by Gregory Pass on Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts.

Budget and Development

One of the chief duties of the Budget and Development Committee (B & D) is to monitor Preconference budgets. This year's picture was rosy thanks to healthy attendance and highly successful fundraising for the conference in New Haven. The Preconference had more than twenty sponsors, and over half were new to RBMS.

RBMS splits any Preconference revenues not needed to cover expenses with ACRL, and B & D makes a recommendation to the Executive Committee on how to expend those funds. Since the inception of the scholarship program, B & D has always recommended that these funds be used to support Preconference scholarships. When no excess revenues from the Preconference have been available, ACRL has granted funds to support scholarships. Finding a way to put funding for scholarships on a more reliable footing is a current priority for B & D.

Thanks are due to departing member Steve Lawson for his excellent work maintaining the RBMS donors database and for his service on the Scholarship Committee as B & D representative. The Committee welcomed the new chair, Lynda Claassen (lclaassen@ucsd.edu), at the close of the ALA Annual Conference.

Conference Development

Much of the Conference Development Committee meeting in Orlando focused on a preliminary report of the Preconference in New Haven. Mike Kelly and Nicole Bouche were congratulated on presenting a very successful conference. A brief analysis of the evaluation forms revealed that the majority of the respondents rated the conference excellent or very good. The short papers and seminars, in particular, were praised for their relevance or usefulness, and local arrangements were judged to have been outstanding, with a wide variety of receptions, tours, workshops, and other events.

The Committee also discussed future conferences, beginning with the 2005 Preconfrence in St. Louis. Eric Holzenberg, program chair, announced that the 2005 Preconference would examine issues of special collections librarians as teachers and the education of special collections librarians. Plenary sessions, short papers, and seminars will address the conference theme. Anne Posega, chair of Local Arrangements, has planned tours, workshops, and special outings.

Preliminary thinking about the theme for the 2006 Preconference in Austin has focused on the intersection of special collections libraries and museums. Christian Dupont will chair the Program Committee and Kathy Henderson and Rich Oram of HRC will co-chair Local Arrangements. The Committee has also solicited site proposals for the 2007 Preconference. A recommendation will go forward to the RBMS Executive Committee before Midwinter. Discussions are underway for a possible international location in 2010.

Anticipating the ACRL National Conference in Minneapolis in April 2005, it is hoped that a roundtable will be organized to focus on the skills, qualifications, and recruitment of special collections librarians. Individual members of RBMS have submitted proposals for panels as well.

Curators and Conservators

The annual meeting of the Curators and Conservators Discussion Group was led by Lois Fischer Black. Participants partook in a lively discussion focusing on the preservation of and access to non-traditional media in special collections.

The discussion covered many varied areas under this topic, including: current initiatives in research and training; electronic records in hidden and processed collections; dealing with obsolete hardware and software; preservation copies of new electronic acquisitions; and the changing roles of preservation staff and outsourced services.

Future topics for discussion include: prioritization of special collections materials for conservation treatment; transport of special collections materials to and from off-site conservation labs; off-site storage and security planning for special collections materials; dealing with the pressures of digital projects; developing emergency response plans for special collections; and developing publication fee schedules and licensing for digital images taken from special collections materials.

Diversity Action Plan Implementation Task Force

The Task Force is currently preparing a list of undergraduate and graduate programs in ethnic studies. In a fall mailing, a letter promoting special collections librarianship as a career will be sent to all the programs on the list.

Various groups throughout RBMS are to be applauded for their implementation of items from the Diversity Action Plan. These include the Membership and Professional Development Committee, Conference Program Planning Committee (2004), Publications, and others. Of special note is the Scholarship Committee's awarding of five scholarships for the 2004 Preconference to applicants from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.

The Task Force is pleased to announce the addition of Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty.

Exhibition Awards

The Exhibition Awards Committee held its annual award ceremony at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. Representatives from each of the five winning institutions for 2003 received certificates from Committee chair Melissa Conway. The winning exhibitions catalogs, brochure, and electronic exhibition were announced in the previous Newsletter. For a complete list of the winners, and of all entrants for the 2004 competition, see the RBMS website: http://www.rbms.info/committees/exhibition_awards/submissions/past/2004_winners.shtml.

Among the many items covered by the Committee at its open meeting at ALA were: the digital distribution of the Exhibition Awards press kit created by member John Pull; the adoption of the RBMS logo for Leab Award winners; a plan to eventually add all Honorable Mention recipients to the online exhibition of winning catalogs, which currently spans 1986-1995 (http://www.rbms.info/committees/exhibition_awards/first_ten_years/); and the plan to develop a new website featuring all recipients of the Leab Award.

Interlibrary Loan of Rare and Unique Materials Task Force

This Task Force was appointed by RBMS in 2002 to determine if its Guidelines for Loan of Rare and Unique Materials, published in 1994, should be revised. This document applies specifically to the interlibrary loan of materials for research purposes, rather than loan for exhibition, for which a separate set of guidelines is being created by the Loan of Special Collections Materials for Exhibition TaskForce.

The Task Force has completed its work and engaged in a thorough vetting process this past spring. At ALA Annual, the Guidelines went to a well-attended public hearing. The document was also reviewed by the ACRL Standards and Accreditation Committee, the RBMS Executive Committee and, finally, the ACRL Board. The Guidelines were unanimously approved and can be found on both the RBMS and ACRL websites: http://www.rbms.info/standards/ill_guidelines.shtml or http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/rareguidelines.htm.

Loan of Special Collections Materials for Exhibition Task Force

The Task Force has completed its work on revisions and approved a final text at the Annual Meeting in Orlando. The revised text appears in the September issue of C&RL News and will also be posted on the ACRL and RBMS websites. A public hearing will be held at Midwinter. Comments or suggestions on the revised text should be sent to the Task Force chair, Everett Wilkie, at ewilkie@ix.netcom.com.

Manuscripts and Other Formats

The Manuscripts and Other Formats Discussion Group met jointly with the Collection Development discussion Group at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando. After introductions, general announcements from participants, and news from repositories, the group discussed collection of contemporary material and formats, including capture of electronic records.

Alvin Bregman led off the discussion by stating that the University of Illinois Archives has an electronic data archivist, serving the entire university, who helps develop policies and procedures. Issues that have come up at UI and other institutions include procedures for logging the creation of digital images created by patron requests. The group discussed how to control images in this "shadow library."

Other issues included content management software, who adds metadata, and bibliographic control. When you have a digital version, do you make a separate catalog record or link to it? Probably the latter.

In the course of discussion it came to light that microfilming is no longer done at some institutions. UIC has stopped microfilming, for example, and HRC is scanning instead of filming. The group also discussed policies regarding the acquisition of material in electronic format. As always, the question of e-mail came up.

Interest in continuing this discussion at Midwinter was expressed. The Manuscripts and Other Formats Discussion Group will meet with the Collection Development Discussion Group in Boston.

MARC for Special Collections

More than twenty-four people attended the MARC for Special Collections Discussion Group meeting in Orlando. The first item on the agenda was the sharing of rare book and special cataloging news, which included a brief presentation by Bob Maxwell on a proposed AACR3. Four institutions announced rare book catalog librarian vacancies.

Authority work for special collections cataloging was the first topic. The group discussed workflow, NACO participation, who does authority work, when institutions make authority records, how much detail is sufficient, and cross-references. Although more than two-thirds of those present perform authority work as part of their regular cataloging, significantly fewer than half contribute to NACO. Some rare book catalogers do their own authority work, including contributing to NACO. In other institutions, preliminary information is submitted to a cataloger responsible for creating authority records. Workflow for authority records also varies, with some catalogers batching them, and others doing the work as necessary. The need to balance quantity with completeness was recognized, a frequently-mentioned rare book cataloging issue. People did not agree about how many cross-references or citations to make. Most institutions make an authority record if there is a conflict, but few are in a position to make an authority record for every main or added entry.

Transfers from the open stacks to special collections was our second topic. Questions included: Who does the transfer? Are existing catalog records upgraded to current standards? Are notes added to record the old call number and locations? One issue that many catalogers now face is transfer of open stack material to offsite storage, with subsequent use restricted to special collections. There is much to do, but little time, a common cataloger's dilemma; this is especially true with respect to upgrading records for transferred items, since uncataloged material usually takes a higher priority than transfers. Where possible, libraries record old call numbers and locations, but institutions are not consistent in their policies.

Please join us at Midwinter, where topics for discussion will include: bibliographic citations: when to check, cite, and why; ephemera: how and when to catalog it; and, of course, questions from participants. Please send other ideas and comments to E.C. Schroeder at edwin.schroeder@yale.edu.

Membership and Professional Development

Committee activities were particularly successful this year. The Committee is pleased to report that both the Buddy Program and the Scholarship Program were in evidence at the RBMS Preconference at Yale. Seventeen pairs of buddies were matched up, and seven full and four partial scholarships were awarded. Twenty-seven applications for scholarships were received this year, almost twice as many as last year's fourteen applications. The effort to encourage members of underrepresented groups to apply for scholarships also showed marked success in that four of the eleven recipients identified themselves on the application form as something other than "Caucasian."

The RBMS New Members' Orientation session at the Preconference was a bigger draw than ever. Approximately 100 people attended, and RBMS committee chairs and officers provided information about the work of their respective committees and the Section. For the first time, "New Members" stickers were provided by ACRL so that new members could be more easily identified and welcomed. The Committee was also represented at the ALA New Members Round Table Orientation in Orlando and at the ACRL booth.

The Committee continues to sponsor Educational Opportunities: A Directory, available on the RBMS website. The directory provides an up-to-date list of courses related to rare books and special collections offered through ALA-accredited schools of library and information studies. Interest in the directory continues to be strong. Content and links are updated annually by sending a query to the director of each of the schools.

As a result of the Committee's representation at a November meeting in Chapel Hill sponsored by the ARL Task Force on Special Collections, where the issue of core competencies for special collections librarians was discussed, the Committee began work on the project of creating a list of core competencies.

Public Services

With fourteen people attending, the Public Services Discussion Group discussed topics relating to the growth in public service demands, in part growing out of the increasing online presence of our special collections. As we enthusiastically encourage increased access to our collections, we face growing demands in public service operations that put strains on our ability to respond effectively. In our discussion we focused on how we handle the dramatic growth in reference correspondence: how we manage, respond to, and archive electronic reference correspondence. Generally, a one- to two-week turnaround seemed normal, with most libraries using one general e-mail address. The group discussion was almost unanimously in favor of having guidelines on the website about what could and could not be answered via e-mail, while there was quite a variety of opinion about the value of a website form for reference email. Most institutions archive their e-mail reference correspondence in paper form.

Secondly, we discussed the staffing of public service operations in lean times: how do we provide enough staff for reading room or reference desk coverage when there is no budget to hire for adequate coverage? We addressed the challenges and opportunities of using interns and volunteers in public service operations. Graduate student interns and retired librarians come highly recommended.

In keeping with the ARL Task Force on Special Collections, we attempted to define some of the characteristics and competencies that we look for in our special collections librarians who have public services responsibilities. Some of the skills mentioned by the group included knowledge of the book as object, descriptive cataloging experience, ability to read music, and art history training. There was general consensus that it would be helpful for graduate programs in library and information science to provide education for special collections librarianship and for archival work.

Several libraries have recently moved to new, integrated library systems, and participants shared their experiences with various systems, especially in terms of how they handle special collections functions. Generally favorable evaluations were given for ExLibris, Horizon, and Voyager.

Please join us for discussion at Midwinter, and send ideas or comments to Hjordis Halvorson at halvorsonh@newberry.org.

Publications

The Publications Committee discussed several items at the Annual Conference. Of special note is the departure of Christian Dupont as web editor. He will serve as assistant editor (with one other person) to the new web editor, John Pull. RBMS is working with ACRL to establish a new domain name for its website, one which would enable it to exist independently of the web editor's place of employment. The RBMS Newsletter changed editorship with the departure of Jeffrey Makala at the end of his two-year term of service. Jeff Barton and Michael Forstrom are now co-editors, with Marianne Hansen serving as the new assistant editor. The Committee would like to thank both Jeffrey and Christian for their steadfast, standardsetting editorial and design work.

Everett Wilkie reported that the RBMS-L discussion list has approximately 500 members, and he reminded users not to open any attachments sent with RBMS messages, since attachments can introduce viruses. A design change to RBM will increase the amount of space available for articles. Rick Clement has also suggested that papers and seminars presented at the Preconference serve as the source of material for future issues. The RBM Editorial Board has received an ACRL white paper concerning the issue of open access to its publications, implementation of which will affect subscription revenues.

The revision of Your Old Books is progressing. Upon considering the suggestion by the Publications Committee that YOB be available only in electronic form, the Executive Committee indicated a preference that a print copy be available as well. The final version will be available to book dealers and to instructors who wish to use it in courses.

As part of the effort of RBMS to promote diversity, work on the diversity insert to accompany the RBMS brochure is progressing and a diversity "button" will be added to the website. Guidelines for use of the RBMS logo have been approved by the Executive Committee and will be incorporated into the RBMS Manual. The winners of the Leab Award were given approval to add a version of the logo to their publications and websites. The RBMS web editor will be responsible for maintaining and distributing the electronic files containing the logo, which is to be used for official RBMS publications. The Publications Committee must approve anything that falls outside these guidelines.

RBM

The next issue of RBM (5:2) will be devoted to the ARL Conference on "Exposing Hidden Collections" held at the Library of Congress a year ago. This issue is being guest-edited by Barbara Jones and Judith Panitch. Articles include: "Hidden Collections, Scholarly Barriers: Creating Access to Unprocessed Special Collections Materials in America's Research Libraries," by Barbara M. Jones; "Hidden Collections: The Elephant in the Closet," by Carol Mandel; "Scholars and Teachers: Hidden Partners for Hidden Collections," by Stanley N. Katz; "'Wherefore are these things hid?': A Report of a Survey Undertaken by the ARL Special Collections Task Force," by Winton Tabb; and an "Interview with Roger Stoddard," by Daniel J. Slive.

The Spring 2005 issue (6:1), which will be guest-edited by Mike Kelly, will feature several articles drawn from the 2004 RBMS Preconference. This will begin what is envisioned as a regular pattern of one issue a year devoted to the Preconference. This year the "Exposing Hidden Collections" issue occupies that spot, but with the Fall 2005 issue (6:2) devoted to the St. Louis Preconference, a regular pattern will be established.

Security

Alvan Bregman, who compiles the "Incidents of Theft List," has recently updated the list. The online list may be accessed as a chronological log, going back to 1987, or searched by keyword at: http://www.rbms.info/committees/security/. Alvan will continue to compile the list for the time being.

The Committee is also looking at having to revise one of the Guidelines for Security of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Other Special Collections, since the five-year cycle is again approaching. Consideration will be given during this cycle to the oft-mentioned concept of combining this document with the Guidelines Regarding Thefts in Libraries.

Seminars

Nine seminars were offered at this summer's Preconference: Preservation for Special Collections: What's Current and What's to Come; If You Build It: Usability Testing for Special Collections; The "Hidden Collections" Project: How You Can Get Involved; The Diaspora of Music Special Collections: European Music in the United States and American Music in Europe; Curating Exhibitions in Special Collections and on the Web; Funding Opportunities for Special Collections Projects; Teaching a New Generation of Researchers: The Instructional Needs of Undergraduates Using Primary Source Materials; Using TEI for Early Printed Books: An Encoding Guide and Reference; and Special Collections and Library Administrators: Building Successful Relationships. Preconference evaluations recommended more time for questions and discussion following the presentations and more detailed descriptions of the seminars. The Committee will take these suggestions as goals for the St. Louis Preconference.

Committee intern Arvid Nelsen is expanding the scope of the "Seminars Presented" database. Until the database is available on the Section website, Arvid is willing to field queries for Section members.

At Midwinter the Committee will finalize plans for the seminars to be offered in St. Louis and consider topics for the 2006 Austin Preconference. If you are interested in submitting a proposal, information about what to include and an electronic form are available on the RBMS website. You may also contact the chair, Elizabeth Johnson, at johnson1@indiana.edu or 812-855-2452. It is not necessary that you be a member of the Seminars Committee to submit a proposal.

Several Seminars Committee members will be completing their service commitment at ALA in June 2005. If you are interested in serving on the Committee, come to the Midwinter Meeting or contact Katherine Reagan at kr33@cornell.edu. You may also submit the RBMS Committee Service Interest Form from the RBMS website.

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A*Census Report

Thanks to all RBMS members who participated in the A*CENSUS (Archival Census and Education Needs Survey in the United States) survey. There were 5,619 respondents nationally and 343 from RBMS; our response rate was 61.9%, and 129 RBMS members completed the entire survey. The official survey report will be issued next spring. In the meantime, here are some early observations about archives professionals in RBMS: we are predominantly female (68%), and primarily archivists or managers working full-time in the archives or special collections unit of a college or university for a mean of eleven years; 46% of us have an annual salary of between $40,000-$60,000; we have multiple advanced degrees, get continuing education from a variety of sources, and are interested in additional training; just over half of us started our careers in fields other than archives; 22% plan to retire in the next 3-9 years, and 30% more in the next 10-19 years; most of us are members of SAA (69%) and/or a regional archival organization (55%); we attend at least one national conference a year, and 61% have held office or leadership positions within professional organizations; a strong minority (44%) would recommend RBMS membership to other archivists.

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Executive Committee 2004-2005

Elaine B. Smyth - Chair
Special Collections
Louisiana State University Libraries
225-578-6547; fax: 225-578-9425
esmyth@lsu.edu

Katherine Reagan - Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect
Rare and Manuscript Collections
Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
607-255-3530; fax: 607-255-9524
kr33@cornell.edu

Margaret F. Nichols - Past Chair
Rare and Manuscript Collections
Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
607-255-3530; fax: 607-255-9524
mnr1@cornell.edu

John M. Cullars - Secretary
Collections Development
University Library
University of Illinois at Chicago
312-996-2730; fax: 312-413-0424
jcullars@uic.edu

Isaac M. Gewirtz - Member at Large
Berg Collection
New York Public Library
212-930-0802; fax: 212-930-0079
igewirtz@nypl.org

Rachel Howarth - Member at Large
Houghton Library
Harvard University
617-496-8679; fax: 617-495-1376
rhowarth@fas.harvard.edu

Jane Gillis - Member at Large
Sterling Memorial Library
Yale University
203-432-2633; fax: 203-432-4047
jane.gillis@yale.edu

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2005 RBMS Preconference Preview

The 46th Annual RBMS Preconference will be held from Tuesday, June 21 to Friday, June 24, 2005, in St. Louis, Missouri, just a few hours by bus, train, or plane from Chicago, site of the 2005 ALA Annual Conference.

Entitled "Bridging the Gap: Education and Special Collections," this Preconference will address the needs of special collections librarians to educate themselves in order to educate others. Like most of their colleagues in other branches of the profession, special collections librarians often act as teachers, informally with individual users and formally as leaders of classes. But because of the preservation and security needs of the rare books and manuscripts under their care, special collections librarians must take on the additional roles of interpreter, impresario, advocate, and cheerleader. Fragile and valuable materials not browsable by the casual user must be showcased and interpreted through exhibitions and catalogs; faculty and students must be proselytized about the value of special collections in the curriculum; library and university administrations must be petitioned for a fair share of budget monies; donors must be told how their gift will (or will not) fit into the context of existing collections; new constituencies must be identified and reached to support diversity among users and donors; and grant agencies must be convinced as to the quality and uniqueness of collections. Funding, collection development, status within (and beyond) the institution, and fully-realized use of our collections all depend on how skillful special collections librarians are at educating these various constituencies. The skills to reach these constituencies cannot be acquired within the context of a two-year masters program. Ongoing commitment is required from practitioners.

The goals of the Preconference will be to elucidate the many ways in which special collections librarians act as educators; enumerate the skills needed to play those roles; assess the shrinking opportunities for acquiring them; and address how to meet the profession's expanding needs for additional skill-sets. The objectives of the Preconference will include providing up-to-date information about pedagogical methods, exhibition techniques, grant-writing strategies, donor relations, and effective use of web-based tools; engaging attendees in discussion of issues relating to the evolving profile of special collections in a digital world; and setting an agenda for the development of specialized continuing education for current and future generations of special collections librarians.

The 2005 Preconference Program Planning Committee held a productive meeting at ALA Annual in Orlando, and we are putting the finishing touches on a program that includes speakers from around the world, and from a number of scholarly and professional viewpoints. Eric Holzenberg is the Chair of the Committee and can be reached by e-mail at: ejh@grolierclub.org. The 2005 Preconference Local Arrangments Committee, headed by Anne Posega of Washington University, has been equally busy on your behalf. The Preconference will be headquartered at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis Hotel, part of the beautiful and historic Union Station complex; for more details visit http://stlouis.hyatt.com/property/index.jhtml). St. Louis has never hosted an RBMS Preconference, and our hosts at Washington University, the St Louis Mercantile Library, St. Louis University, and elsewhere are eager to share their collections. Details will soon be available on the Preconference website at http://www.library.wustl.edu/rbms.html.

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Transitions

Nathaniel Adams is the new Assistant Director for Programs at Rare Book School, University of Virginia. Thomas Bolze and Christopher Smith have joined Yale University Library as catalog librarians on the Rare Book Team. Richenda Brim has been appointed Head of Collection Maintenance at the Getty Research Institute. Carolyn Davis, Reference and Access Services Librarian in the Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library, will retire this December. Mark Dimunation has been named Assistant Director for Special Collections at the Library of Congress; he retains his position as Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Ellen Doon has assumed the position of Assistant Head of the Manuscript Unit, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty is now Curator of the Herbert H. Lehman Papers at Columbia University. The RBMS Executive Committee passed a resolution expressing appreciation to George Farr for his many years of service to the rare books and manuscripts community in various positions at the National Endowment for the Humanities and offering congratulations on his forthcoming retirement. Barbara Heritage is the new Curator of Collections at Rare Book School. Rebekah Irwin is now Catalog Librarian for Digital Projects in the Manuscript Unit at the Beinecke Library. Mike Kelly was awarded tenure at NYU in September and is now Curator of Books in the Fales Library & Special Collections. Jonathan Lill has been named the 2004 Kress Fellow in Art Librarianship at Yale University. Christine Lovelace is now Processing Archivist for the Human Rights Watch Archives at Columbia University. Matthew D. Mason has been appointed Processing Archivist for visual resources at the Beinecke Library. Melissa McAfee is the new Vice President for Library Services at the Newberry Library. Jesse Rossa has been appointed Assistant Librarian in the Special Collections Department at the University of Delaware Library. E.C. Schroeder has been appointed Head of Technical Services at Beinecke. Nova M. Seals has been appointed Librarian for Special Collections and Archives at Connecticut College. Daniel Slive is now Associate in the Americana Department of the William Reese Company in New Haven.

We note with sadness the deaths of J. William Matheson and Peter Graham. J. William Matheson served as chair of the Section in 1976-1977 and was active for many years on the governing board of the ESTC and in the Rare Books Section of IFLA. He was an effective leader of the rare books community in his positions as Head of Special Collections at Washington University and Chief of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.

On August 11, 2004, Peter Graham passed away after a long illness. He was University Librarian at the University of Syracuse. Through his incisive intellect and his effectiveness as a library administrator, Graham made a notable contribution to our profession. His work for intellectual preservation, his founding of ExLibris, and his promotion of the history of the book are among the accomplishments that made him a welcome force in RBMS.

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