ROBERT H. JACKSON
This book grew out of a colloquium on special collections entitled “Acknowledging the Past, Forging the Future,” which was held in October 2014 and organized by the Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. The colloquium evolved from a Rare Book Forum at the Library of Congress that was given in April 2001, “Private Collectors and Special Collections Libraries,” which was organized by Mark Dimunation, Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress, aided by Dan De Simone. It turned out to be a very special occasion as librarians, book dealers, and collectors came together and exchanged a great deal of valuable information. The speakers on that program were Alice Schreyer, William Reese, and myself, and there were several panels.
In 2001, my talk, “Will the Collector of Today Be the Donor of Tomorrow?”1 seemed to hit a nerve. We were at the turn of the century. There was anxiety about the future of collecting, the future of rare book libraries, and the future of the book itself.
That was the heyday of the printed book, with millions of books coming off the presses every year. At the same time, things were about to change. The Internet opened up new horizons in book sales, but it was also stepping up the pace of digitization. Writers no longer had any use for handwritten manuscripts, typescripts, or the kind of notes and ephemera that formed the backbone of author archives. I noted that a page of manuscript in Charles Dickens’s own hand (from my own collection) was an example of what would be lost, and with that the loss of insight that we gain from seeing revisions, additions, and the occasional ink blot or coffee stain.
I commented then that the field of book collecting had changed drastically in recent years. Book collectors were younger, more heterogeneous, and less clubby than their predecessors. Books and ephemera that were once considered marginal were now moving to center stage. I described the rise of library special collections, and their changing fortunes. At one time, libraries were the dominant purchasers of rare books, but by 2001 they were becoming more and more dependent on donors and endowments to fill out their collections.
I concluded that in the future, special collections libraries would need to act like other successful nonprofit organizations. They would need to assess their wants, survey the pool of potential donors, and target those individuals whose collections complement their own. They would need to build relationships of trust that would stimulate collectors’ altruistic impulses.
Today, we’re living in the future we speculated about in 2001. Many of the trends identified then have come to pass. The digitization of culture has been relentless. The ebook is now mainstream. The physical book persists, but it is far from the center of culture. Handwriting itself is on the way out, and the smart phone is the central fact of modern life. Library special collections continue to straddle the world between digital phenomena and the world of physical objects. All that is solid melts into air.
Now we are forced back to the existential questions. What is a book? What is it good for? Why do we collect and preserve books? Who’s interested in our special collections and who will use them in years to come?
Since 2001, the market for rare books and manuscripts has changed a great deal. The canonical works and their associated manuscripts are off the market. The Internet leveled the playing field, and the middle ground of collecting has been devalued, and lost much of its excitement and appeal.
Author archives used to be purchased by private collectors. My own collection has included several major archives, but this is becoming rarer. Authors and their descendants today are donating or selling their archives to libraries and special collections. Today’s private collectors are looking for something more rare and wonderful—their own private “blockbusters” that will create talk and publicity.
The sheer volume of information available online means that today’s librarians have the opportunity to be more knowledgeable and better trained than ever. However, those who have been trained in the digital era are increasingly oriented to the digital world. Special collections may be losing their edge in the field of unique and rare books, and in the long-run special collections may suffer.
I stand by the original conclusion of my 2001 talk. The future of special collections is a matter of building and nurturing relationships between librarians and collectors. The more we learn about one another, the more we can help each other achieve our goals.
The papers contained in this book, which were inspired by the Kelvin Smith Library colloquium in 2014, are part of the process of redefinition and renewal. We chose to call this “Forging the Future” not “Waiting for the Future” nor “Wondering about the Future.” The implication is that the future is in our hands. We will control it. We will shape it. The decisions we make as readers, collectors, and special librarians today will determine what happens to our fields tomorrow. This is a hopeful message, and this book presents a hopeful future as well.
The 2014 “Forging the Future” colloquium appealed to a national audience and videos of the colloquium were watched extensively online.2 This book expands and enriches the ideas presented at the colloquium by including significant additional material from the contributors. The chapters are thoughtful, insightful, and provocative.
We are in the early stages of what Stephen J. Gould called “punctuated evolution” for special collections. Although it may be difficult to predict, I believe this book will demonstrate that special collections has a vigorous and lively future.
NOTES
1. Robert H. Jackson, “Will the Collector of Today Be the Donor of Tomorrow?,” in Book Talk: Essays on Books, Book Sellers, Collecting, and Special Collections, ed. Robert H. Jackson and Carol Zeman Rothkopf (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2006).
2. The videos of the 2014 colloquium can be found at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBELrG1nZ2U5jXND2u48h4RScCZwngM5g.