Behind the scenes : Special Collections cataloging

Some of the most brilliant work in the Library takes place behind the scenes, where most people never see it.  In fact, if we do our work really well, it's often invisible!

Over the past year, Ted Winter has been cataloging and reshelving a whole range of large, folio-sized rare books.  Over 250 valuable items were stored safely and inventoried, but not available through our online catalog.  Ted has meticulously identified each of these -- a difficult task in the case of a missing title page or other irregularities -- and created catalog records for them.  Some works are so rare that we own the only cataloged copy in WorldCat.  He also had to rearrange all of the rare folios in our collection to make room for these additions, a big task when dealing with huge, heavy multi-volume works that need delicate handling.

Ted is also doing a redistribution of the ordinary-sized rare books in our collection, shelving them in a much more manageable way.   When this is finished, they will be in good shape for years to come.

A Rare Books Cataloger doesn't have high visibility on campus.  But Ted's work is amazing and you should know about it!

Paula