Rare Book librarianship

I went to a lecture yesterday called "So You Want to be a Rare Book Librarian in the Digital Age" by Sid Berger, rare books librarian at the Peabody Essex Museum. Excellent discussion on what is happening to "the book" and how to prepare for a career in this area. A lot of the lecture was discussing the drawbacks of technology, including the bad info out on the web, and the idea that the computer does save some work, but that we are now expected to do three to five times more work because of it.

Another area of discussion was how we as librarians have created the need (actually it is a desire) for instant information to be available for patrons. In academic settings, if we have a book in the OPAC, a patron wants the table of contents. If we have the ToC, then they want the book digitally available. Cost is not an option for them, but we see the trend toward instant gratification becoming more and more prevalent.

One other area discussed was that donors do not always understand how much it costs to catalog materials that are donated. Many feel "I have given you the materials, how much more do you want?" Dealing with donors of library materials on a fairly regular basis, I make sure that they understand that there is a substantial cost of both time and money to get materials cataloged. Will we refuse a collection because someone cannot give us money towards cataloging? Of course not. But with cataloging costs what they are today and dwindling resources, the best course of action is to keep the donor informed. Discuss with them why something is not cataloged. If they donated the materials, there is a good chance that they explicitly know the particular item that might be causing you a cataloging problem. If other collections have changes the priorities, then let them know. Let them know that the amount of time spent cataloging their materials has changed for whatever reason it has happened. Communication is a wonderful thing.