Project update 1 - File search

This week I have been trawling through old Admin files to locate information about the development of Rare Books and Special collections. What have I learnt this week?

• The Special Collections Branch was set up in 1963 to manage material and collections requiring special treatment. The term Rare books and Special collections did not come into being until July 1979.
• The 'L' prefix in front of the location number of some material held in the RB stack originates from their previous location in the 'Librarians Room'.
• Special collections Librarians and cataloguers have been stewing over the number of prefixes and " fossilized" notations since the 1960s.

I've also read an interesting article...
Waving not drowning: rare books in a digital Age by Sydney F. Huttner from Rare books & Manuscripts Librarianship 13, no. 2, p. 97-108, '99
You can find it on WilsonWeb - Library Lit & Inf Full Text - The URL link was too long to paste into the blog!