New Master’s Concentration in Rare Books & Special Collections

When Samuel Beckett sent a copy of his "Poems in English" to friend and American novelist and short-story writer Kay Boyle in April 1963, she sent it back. It wasn't that she didn't like the book or appreciate the gesture. It was just that Beckett had made an error in the last poem, one of four French texts with English translations on facing pages.

So, Boyle wrote to Beckett, asking him "to be more accurate in his translating of his work from French into English." Beckett obliged, crossing off the mistake and writing the correct translation in ink. He initialed the change and sent it back to Boyle.

That book, along with an inserted note of explanation from Boyle, was purchased for the Winthrop Palmer Collection of French and Irish Rare Books, which is housed in the Special Collections Department at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville, N.Y. That's where a new graduate program is striving to preserve such literary treasures.

In September 2003, the college's Palmer School of Library and Information Science will launch a new master's concentration in Rare Books and Special Collections. Designed for students who wish to pursue careers in research institutions, libraries and the book trade, this program gives new life to a library specialty that has been all but forgotten in the rush to embrace digital technologies.

"Library schools always had a rare books specialty, but most of them dropped it in their desire to seem more modern," says Deirdre C. Stam, who heads up the program and directs the New York Center for Books and Reading, based at the Palmer School. "About two years ago, people realized that there was no longer any master's program in library and information science where you could specialize in rare books. Now there is.

The closest thing to a rare books specialization has been a certificate program at the University of Virginia's Rare Books School, recognized internationally as one of the best training grounds for rare books librarians. Palmer School students will take some courses at the Rare Books School, along with courses at C.W. Post, New York University's Bobst Library. It will also draw on the rich book resources of the New York-metropolitan area. Library meetings and events will provide students with opportunities to meet working professionals. Trips to various museums and libraries will give them direct exposure to the types of materials they will someday work on.

The 36-credit program will explore them all. Courses cover the history of books and reading, preservation, archive and manuscripts, and digital libraries. Basic library courses include introductions to digital information technologies, library and information science, sources and services, and knowledge organization. All students are required to complete a 120-hour internship, which the school helps arrange.

Despite their enthusiasm, Stam and her colleagues aren't concerned about preserving every book. They concentrate their efforts on books and materials with some special value. A rare book typically has some research or aesthetic potential. It could also be valuable by association-perhaps it was owned, for instance, by Theodore Roosevelt, as were many of the items in C.W. Post's Theodore Roosevelt Collection. Special collections are more difficult to define, as they can range from railroad timetables to comic book collections. C.W. Post's Long Island Collection includes historic maps, letters and pamphlets. Its Movie Posters Collection feature more than 5,000 original posters from 1940 to 1962, including an extensive collection of posters made during or about World War II.

Stam points out that the Palmer program will stress the importance of physical materials as a record of the past, and as a means of understanding the meaning and intent of certain documents. A copy of David Copperfield, complete with editing marks from Charles Dickens' own hand, leaves little doubt about the author's work. Notes from the Founding Fathers' meetings about the Constitution might answer questions about their intentions.

"When you have original documents like those, it's easier to understand the meaning or intent of their authors, and to understand the past," says Stam. "Those are the vestiges of our time, and it is our mission to make sure they are preserved and understood. It's important that library professionals-and the public-understand that."

For more information contact the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at 516-299-2866 or palmer@liu.edu.