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University Daily Kansan. August 18, 1983
Library of rare books special
By CHRIS McMENEMY Staff Reporter
When it comes to libraries of rare books, the Kenneth Spencer Research Library's Department of Special Collections is one of the onearest. Some experts have ranked it as the 10th best in North America.
"This is unbelievable considering we only started in 1933," said Alexandra Mason, chief librarian of special library Sheffield. "And we've done it on a sheeotring."
THE DEPARTMENT OF Special Collections, on the main terrace level of the library, specializes in obtaining rare manuscripts, books and drawings on subjects ranging from Irish culture to ornithology to renaissance European culture and more. Many pieces are the only known copies existing.
And because of these collections, people from around the country and overseas have visited Spencer.
"You never know who's going to walk in the door next," Mason said.
In addition to helping the researchers who come to KU, Mason corresponds with others from around the country and from overseas. Mason will look up answers to specific questions or answer queries as to whether it is appropriate to come to the library, depending on the type of research they are doing.
“It’s kind of astonishing to see it grow and to know that we’re contributing to scholarship worldwide,” she said. “Once you acquire an object that exists in only one copy, then you’re responsible for assisting scholars, wherever they may be, in the use of that material.”
DESPIITE THE NUMBER of people from outside the Midwest using the library, the staff does not do much to publicize it.
She said, however, that most of the library's public came from word of mind.
Mason said that the library was listed in various national reference books and that she was active in a professional organization of rare-book librarians.
"We have requests from all over the world. These people mention the library to their friends and use it in footnotes." Mason said.
The word would not spread, though, if the library did not have the collections, if they were out of stock.
The staff thinks that the library's Irish Collection is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. It contains documents and manuscripts on most aspects of Irish history from the 17th
century to the revolutionary movements of the 20th century.
THE DEPARTMENT'S Ellis Collection of Ornithology contains more than 2,000 drawings by John Gould, a wildlife artist. Its holdings include a first edition of Darwin's "Origin of Animals" on scientific voyages and travels.
There is a globe from 1602, depicting the world as it was known then. California is an island, and Australia doesn't exist. The library also has books from the personal library of the poet William Butler Yeats, in which Yeats had changed words or phrases of his already published works.
The library also contains collections of books and manuscripts in the history of science, science fiction, architecture, Latin American history, and American and other early travel maps of the 16th through 18th centuries.
One student using the special collections this summer is Rachel Schmidt. Clay Center, somphorem, anCLA university, illustrated editions of "Don Quixote."
"I'M LOOKING AT how the historiator Interds Don Quixote, the character and his actions, and comparing that with the literary interpretations of Don Quixote. Schmidt said. "I'm not a puritan parallels in the era, and the country both."
Schmidt has an undergraduate research grant and will write a paper about her findings at the end of the summer. Next summer, she will put together an exhibit for the library using some of the Quixote editions.
"I'm looking at books published from 1620 to 1960. Some are in French; other editions are Italian, German, Spanish, English and Dutch."
Despite the books' ages, most are in good condition, Schmidt said. The books are leather bound and the paper is of higher quality than is used now.
"IT'S EXCITING TO hold a 300-year-old book in your hands," Schmidt said, "It's like holding histori-
Robert Melton, librarian at Watson, said he used Spencer's collections to improve his working knowledge. He said he was doing research on 19th-century house he is in charge of the English and American literature section in Watson.
“One of Watson's strongest holdings is in 19th century literature,” Melton said. “What we have in Watson would many rare-books libraries proud
"I feel I need to develop more knowledge for myself to be able to know the value when I look at a 19th-century printer." And because I can be able to make intelligent decisions."
MELTON USES SPENCER because it contains journals on the history of books and because it has books that he can use to see changes that took place during the 19th century — changes in surfaces, inks, format and illustrations.
The collections that Melton and Schmidt are using, as well as the other collections in the library, have been purchased primarily by the Department of Special Collections, despite a shearring budget.
The library has received some gifts, such as the H.L. Mencken and the ornithology collections, but most have not been used in the funds very carefully. Mason said.
A price cannot really be placed on the value of the library since so many books have no author.
"It it were to burn down, there would be gone out of stuff that would be gone forever."
"WHEN YOU WAKE UP in the middle of the night and it's the university police calling saying the fire has gone off, it makes your heart sink."
So far all calls have been false alarms, Mason said.
Mason's immediate goal for improving the library is to get two vacant positions filled and to restore one that was eliminated by budget cuts. According to Mason, this would allow the staff to keep up with its work and allow members to develop material that would aid faculty in teaching classes.
In the future, Mason said she would like to see another library built to relieve space problems at Spencer Spencer is providing space for the maps collection and government documents. But Spencer's collections did not belong in Spencer.
"We have to spend an inordinate amount of time moving stuff around to make room for the new collections," she said.
MASON SAID SHE would like to have a fellowship program to ensure a scholarship for people who want to come to the University to do research. She also said she would like to have the funds to start moving into some new areas since they are now only strengthening the areas they already have.
Although future plans may be uncertain, Mason seems certain about the way to finish the project.
"If the humanities are important, then what I am doing is important. If to know what happened, what was thought of, and what I am doing in importance," she said.
"If there is any virtue in the continued memory of civilization, then surely to preserve that memory is important."
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