Rare Book School

2014 Scholarship Awards Announced

[15 December 2014] Rare Book School is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2014 Scholarship Committee awards, as well as the first winners of the Buice Scholarships for returning RBS students. Congratulations!

Recipients of the IMLS-RBS Fellowships and the Fath Scholarships for Artists and Artisans of the Book will be announced in January.

Directors' Scholarship Fund:

Jennifer Bradshaw	Michelle Lyons-McFarland
Amanda Burr	Caitlin McCarthy
Lucas Dietrich	Caleb Mutch
Amelia Grounds	Philip Palmer
Katherine Hindley	Anne Peale
Sarah Hoover	Sara Powell
Mary Catherine Kinniburgh	Melissa Reynolds
Max Koss	Jason Rovito
Sjoerd Levelt	Louisa Trott

ASECS Scholarship: Christine Griffiths

Atlas Systems Scholarship: Ariadne Rehbein

BSA-RBS Scholarship: Ann Johnson

James Davis Scholarship: Andrew Stewart

SHARP-RBS Scholarships:

Anne Harding	Simon Rowberry
Alexandra Kordoski	Lauren Williams

William T. Buice III Scholarships:

Julie Christenson	Dana Hart
James Ensley	Michelle McCarthy
Erin Fletcher	Daniel Morse
Fionnuala Gerrity	Jennifer Robertson

RBS Open House Scheduled for 5 December

[25 November 2014] Rare Book School will host an open house for UVA students, faculty and staff on Friday, 5 December from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to promote the RBS-UVA Fellowship program (for students) and the UVA faculty/staff education benefit, which can be used to attend an RBS course. Students who bring a professor with them to the open house will receive an RBS-themed gift. Light refreshments will be served.

See the RBS-UVA Fellowship page for more information about the program.

Nicholas Basbanes Article on RBS Featured in Humanities

[20 November 2014] Author Nicholas Basbanes joined us for a summer session in Charlottesville this year to give a lecture and conduct interviews and research for an article about Rare Book School. We are delighted that Nick's article was recently published in Humanities, the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is now available online or in the print version of the November/December issue.

RBS at the Boston Book Fair

[10 November 2014] If you'll be in Boston this weekend (14–16 November) for the excellent Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, please be sure to stop by the Rare Book School table on Cultural Row. We'll be at Booth 617 (floor plan), with printed copies of our just-released 2015 schedule, a slideshow of images from 2014 RBS classes, and more.

Rare Book School Director Michael F. Suarez, S.J., Assistant Director & Curator of Collections Barbara Heritage, Assistant Curator of Collections Tess Goodman, and Director of Communications & Outreach Jeremy Dibbell will all be at the Fair, at the RBS table and around the show floor. We look forward to seeing many RBS friends in Boston!

RBS Announces 2015 Course Schedule

[30 October 2014] We are very pleased to announce the 2015 Rare Book School spring and summer course schedule! Along with 26 courses in Charlottesville, RBS will also offer courses at the Lilly Library at Indiana University Bloomington; in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts and the Library Company of Philadelphia; and at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Eight new courses are on the schedule for 2015: Reference Sources for Researching Printed Americana (L-45); Digital Approaches to Bibliography & Book History (L-100); The Bible and Histories of Reading (H-105); Modern Art of the Book (H-35); Reading Publishers' Archives for the Study of the American Book (H-95); The Eighteenth-Century Book (H-100); Preservation Imaging: Science, Scholarship, and the Artifact (L-105); and The Art & Science of Cartography, 200–1550 (H-110).

See the full schedule.

RBS Receives Grant for Additional RBS-Mellon Fellowships

[1 October 2014] Rare Book School has been awarded a grant in the amount of $757,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a third cohort of fellows for the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in Critical Bibliography. Forty fellows currently participate in the program; RBS will admit an additional twenty fellows to the program in the spring of 2015. The aim of the program is to reinvigorate bibliographical studies within the humanities by introducing doctoral candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty to specialized skills, methods, and professional networks for conducting advanced research with material texts. Fellows will receive funding and stipends for RBS course attendance, as well as support for research-related travel to special collections. The deadline for application to the program is 1 December 2014. Interested scholars are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. See the RBS-Mellon Fellowship page for more details. Press release.

Now Accepting Applications for RBS Scholarships, IMLS-RBS Fellowships

[2 September 2014] We are now accepting applications for the 2014 scholarship cycle. To begin the application process, please log into your myRBS account (or create a new myRBS account). On the Home screen, click the "Apply for a Scholarship or Fellowship" button on the left side of the page. If you have any trouble with myRBS, see the FAQ page or email rbs_programs@virginia.edu.

Applications are now open for RBS Scholarship Committee scholarships (for first-time RBS students); Fath Scholarships for Artists and Artisans of the Book (for first-time RBS students); William T. Buice III Scholarships (for returning RBS students); and for the IMLS-RBS Fellowships for Early-Career Librarians. See the individual scholarship pages for more information about each type of scholarship/fellowship. For general queries about scholarships or fellowships, see the Frequently Asked Questions page.

NB: The application deadline for RBS Scholarship Committee awards, Buice Scholarships for returning students, and the IMLS-RBS Fellowships is Wednesday, 15 October 2014 at 5 p.m. EDT. The application deadline for Fath Scholarships is Friday, 7 November 2014 at 5 p.m. EST.

RBS Featured in Washington Post Video

[28 August 2014] Rare Book School is the subject of a new five-minute video from the Washington Post:

To see a larger version, visit the PostTV site.

RBS Faculty Member James Reilly Receives Preservation Award

[2 July 2014] RBS faculty member James Reilly, director of the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), has received the 2014 Paul Banks and Carolyn Harris Preservation Award, given annually by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) Preservation and Reformatting Section (PARS).  The award recognizes the contribution of a professional preservation specialist who has been active in the field of preservation of library materials. James received the award on 28 June, at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony during the 2014 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

See the ALA press release for more information on the award.

RBS Announces 2014 Summer Lecture Series Schedule

[4 June 2014] The staff at Rare Book School are thrilled to announce the exciting lineup for this summer's lecture series. The schedule is packed with talks by specialists who will speak on a wide array of subjects, from braille to zines and engraving to word processing.

The lectures are free and open to the public. All talks will take place on Monday and Wednesday evenings at 5:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library (unless otherwise noted) on the lecture schedule.

Now Accepting Applications for October Courses

[12 May 2014] Applications are now being accepted via myRBS for three Rare Book School courses being offered in October:

• Advanced Rare Book Cataloging Workshop (L-35), taught by Deborah J. Leslie. 20–24 October at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
• Book Illustration Processes to 1900 (I-20), taught by Terry Belanger. 27–31 October at Rare Book School in Charlottesville.
• Introduction to Illuminated Manuscripts (M-50), taught by Roger Wieck. 27–31 October at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Please log in to your myRBS account or create a new account to begin the application process.

Applications for Rare Book School courses are considered on a rolling basis until a course has reached enrollment capacity. To be considered for the first round of admissions decisions for fall courses, submit your application(s) by 1 July.

See the Application & Admissions page for more details.

RBS-Mellon Fellowships Awarded

[6 May 2014] RBS is pleased to announce that the selection process for the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in Critical Bibliography is now complete: a second cohort of 20 RBS-Mellon Fellows has been chosen. The aim of the fellowship program is to reinvigorate bibliographical studies within the humanities by introducing doctoral candidates, postdocs, and junior faculty to specialized skills, methods, and professional networks for conducting advanced research with material texts. Read more about the 2014–16 fellows.

Announcing the 2014–15 RBS-UVA Fellows

[28 April 2014] The 2014–15 cohort of RBS-UVA Fellows has been selected. The new fellows are:

• Nora Benedict - Ph.D. student, Department of Spanish
• Mary Draper - Ph.D. student, Department of History
• Ben Lee - Ph.D. student, Department of English
• Ethan Reed - Ph.D. student, Department of English
  
• Christina Kilby Robinson - Ph.D. student, Department of Religious Studies
• Allison Wolf - CLAS '15, Department of English
  
• Gretchen York - Ph.D. student, Department of English
  

Each of the fellows will attend an RBS course this summer, and will submit a final fellowship project by 13 April 2015.

See the RBS-UVA Fellowship page for more information about the fellowship program.

RBS Receives $279,830 Grant to Fund IMLS-RBS Fellowships for Early-Career Librarians

[31 March 2014] We are extremely pleased to announce that Rare Book School has received a grant of $279,830 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through their Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program. This grant will fund a fellowship program to help educate and contribute to the professional development of early-career special collections librarians, with a special emphasis on recruiting participants currently underrepresented in the field. Over the next two years, forty library school students and library professionals in the early stages of their careers in special collections will receive funding to take a course at Rare Book School as well as to attend the annual preconference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. The grant also funds a replicable, longitudinal study of the program's impact on the professional development and career growth of participating fellows.

"Rare Book School is honored to receive this vote of confidence from one of the most prestigious organizations in our field," said Rare Book School Director Michael F. Suarez, S.J. "We very much look forward to putting the granted funds to good use to help ensure the long-term stewardship and mediation of cultural heritage in the United States for this and future generations."

Applications for the first cohort of IMLS Fellows will be accepted this fall, and the two cohorts of fellows will attend RBS courses and the RBMS preconference in the summers of 2015 and 2016. Watch our Fellowships page for more information.

For the complete IMLS announcement, see the full post.

Reminder: RBS-UVA Fellowship Applications Due 7 April

[26 March 2014] Applications for the 2014–15 RBS-UVA Fellowships are due on Monday, 7 April, by 5 pm. Undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Virginia are invited to apply for these fellowships, designed to enhance research employing special collections, including written, printed, and born-digital materials.

Accepted applicants will attend a week-long course at RBS in 2014, and will submit a final project to RBS by 13 April 2015.

See the RBS-UVA Fellowships page for eligibility requirements and application information, and for links to biographies and projects of previous RBS-UVA Fellows.

Michael Suarez to Deliver Lecture on Franklin's Way to Wealth

[13 March 2014] Rare Book School, in partnership with the Virginia Festival of the Book, is pleased to announce a lecture by RBS Director Michael F. Suarez, S.J.: "Benjamin Franklin's Way to Wealth: The Making of an International Best-Seller." The lecture will be held on Thursday, 20 March at 4:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Harrison Institute / Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at UVA. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the RBS suite, 118 Alderman Library. More details here.

Announcing the Fath Scholarships for Artists and Artisans of the Book

[25 February 2014] Rare Book School is delighted to announce a grant from the Creekmore and Adele Fath Foundation to fund the Fath Scholarships for Artists and Artisans of the Book. These scholarships will include tuition and stipends to attend an RBS course, and will be awarded to individuals actively engaged in hands-on work with printed artifacts and who are ineligible for funding or financial aid through their places of work. Bookbinders, letterpress printers, graphic designers, conservators, papermakers, printmakers, type designers, and other book artists and artisans are invited to apply.

Applicants will be asked to submit a short personal statement in which they describe: their work with books; their reasons for wishing to attend RBS; the likelihood of their ability to share the knowledge they gained at RBS with others in the book arts or conservation communities; and their need for financial aid. Fath Scholars will be selected on the basis of their ability to address these points, as well as the demonstrated quality of their work, their seriousness of purpose in attending RBS, and their financial need. Extra consideration will be given to applicants who own and operate their own businesses, and/or whose work has an especially historical focus.

Fath Scholarships will be awarded on a competitive basis as part of the regular RBS scholarship cycle, with applications available in early September and due on 15 October. Scholarship recipients must claim their award within two years.

RBS Establishes Buice Scholarship Fund for Returning Students

[12 February 2014] Rare Book School is extremely pleased to announce the establishment of our first-ever scholarship opportunity for returning RBS students. In honor of Bill Buice, member of the Rare Book School Board of Directors for a dozen years and Chairman of the Board from 2008 until January 2014, we have created the William T. Buice III Scholarship, which will cover full RBS tuition for returning students with demonstrable financial need. Applicants from all fields are invited to apply.

The Buice Scholarships will be awarded on a competitive basis as part of the regular RBS Scholarship cycle, with applications available in early September and due on 15 October. Scholarship recipients must claim their awards within two years.

We have long recognized the pressing need to provide scholarships for returning students as part of the School's service to the ongoing education of librarians, conservators, and others who do not have the means to support their professional development. We are delighted to be able to do so now in recognition of Bill Buice's exemplary service to Rare Book School, and we are thankful indeed to those who have contributed to the fund.

Read more.

Alice Schreyer to Chair RBS Board of Directors

[28 January 2014] The Rare Book School Board of Directors held their annual meeting on Saturday, 25 January at the New York Public Library. This meeting marked the completion of the term of William T. Buice III as chairman of the Board of Directors, a post he has held with great distinction since 2008. Bill has served on the Board since 2002, and his organizational insight, sagacious advice, and generosity of spirit have been deeply appreciated by the Rare Book School Board and staff. The Board honored Bill with a heartfelt resolution in recognition of his many years of service, and with the establishment of a scholarship fund in his honor (public announcement coming soon!).

The Board approved the election of Alice Schreyer as its new chair, with Robert Gross as vice-chair, Giovanni Favretti as secretary, and Joan Friedman as treasurer.

Alice Schreyer is Assistant University Librarian for Humanities, Social Sciences, and Special Collections at the University of Chicago Library, where she was previously director of the Special Collections Research Center. Before coming to the University of Chicago, she held positions at the University of Delaware, the Library of Congress, and Columbia University. Alice was the founding editor of Rare Books & Manuscripts from 1988 to 1993, and has taught the Rare Book School course Special Collections Librarianship since 2001. She has served on the RBS Board since 2004, and has been secretary since 2009.

See the full post for more updates and announcements from the January Board meeting.

RBS-UVA Fellowship Applications Open

[21 January 2014] Applications for the 2014–15 RBS-UVA Fellowships are now being accepted. Rare Book School invites students at the University of Virginia to apply for a fellowship designed to enhance research employing special collections, including written, printed, and born-digital materials.

Significant dates for the fellowship application process:

5 February 2014: Information Reception (4–6 pm; 118 Alderman Library)
6 February 2014: Information Reception (4–6 pm; 118 Alderman Library)
25 March 2014: Project Proposal Workshop (4:30–6 pm; 118 Alderman Library)
7 April 2014: Application Deadline (5 pm)

Accepted applicants will attend a week-long course at RBS in 2014, and will submit a final project to RBS by 13 April 2015.

See the RBS-UVA Fellowships page for eligibility requirements and application information, and for links to biographies and projects of previous RBS-UVA Fellows.

Apply Now for Summer 2014 Courses

[8 January 2014] Applications for summer 2014 courses are now being accepted via the myRBS online application system.

Please log in to your myRBS account or create a new account to begin the application process.

Applications for Rare Book School courses are considered on a rolling basis until a course has reached enrollment capacity. To be considered for the first round of admissions decisions, submit your application(s) for summer courses by 15 February.

See the Application & Admissions page for more details.

---

Earlier news: 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006