In September our colleagues in Technical Services and Cataloging added 317 items to Special Collections holdings.  Most (240) fed into the main print collection (which we call REST), several going into unbound periodicals and the general rare books collection.  A few more were added to the ACU Authors, ACU Archive, and Taylor hymnal collections.  As has been the case for several steady months, most of the additions to REST are tracts and pamphlets.  The tract project continues at a very good pace and we will have a fine set of tracts, all cataloged, when this project is complete. The current count for this collection is just over 5,400 titles, with many titles represented by multiple copies. There are probably above 7,200 items already cataloged.  Several sets of manuscripts and personal papers are in the group, too.  As usual, we added monographs which we either lacked altogether, or lacked in some variant of the edition or printing.  Some of the additions are newly published, others are new-to-us, and still others represent a second copy or a new-to-us edition or printing.  Of the new additions to the general rare books collection is the first batch of western Americana and Texana items, with what will also prove to be some very nice additions in Mexican history.  We’ll have more to say about this gift soon.

Callie Faye Milliken (Special Collections Librarian) and Dr. John Stevens (President) at the beginning of the transfer of books from the ‘old’ library in Chambers Hall to the ‘new’ Brown Library. Dr. Stevens, holding a rare copy of Biblia Sacra, led a procession of students and faculty carrying volumes into the new facility. From https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth597528/?q=books

Our goal is to build a comprehensive research-level collection of print materials by, for, and about the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.  But beyond assembly and preservation, a collection should be discoverable by those who need the information.  Collecting and preserving is only part of our task; those objects must be described and made available.  Thanks to the close and careful work of our colleagues upstairs, who describe our holdings, these materials are now discoverable. By discoverable I mean a patron can utilize our online catalog (such as by searching by author, or title, or subject) to find these materials.

317 new items…cataloged, shelved, and ready for research:  Continue reading →