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Reference Sources for Researching Printed Americana

“This is a course particularly useful for those researching or cataloging printed Americana. No matter how much you think you know, you will learn new things that will help you in your work or hobby.” — 2016 student

The European exploration and colonization of the New World coincided with the expansion of printing in Europe. From 1493 on, an increasing flow of printed materials relating to the Western Hemisphere informed readers about the wonders and riches to be found beyond the seas. Beginning with the establishment of printing in Mexico in the sixteenth century, a steadily-increasing number of books, […]

Developing Collections: Donors, Libraries & Booksellers

This course is aimed at librarians, booksellers, collectors, scholars, and others who seek an introduction to theoretical and practical approaches to building and stewarding modern collections. The course will cover the changing landscape for locating and selecting historically significant cultural material of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including books, archives, ephemera, photographs, art, sound and video recording, and other materials. Special attention will be paid to non-traditional materials and obsolete formats, such as texts reproduced on home/office equipment, and sound and video recordings on vinyl and tape. Topics will include institutional stewardship; navigating the antiquarian marketplace for cultural materials; how to assess the aesthetic, […]

Digitizing the Cultural Record

This course treats the scholarly, theoretical, institutional, and practical issues involved in the digitization of our various and shared cultural heritage—an activity we will consider at many levels of scale (from “boutique” editorial projects to efforts in mass digitization) and across many types of objects and collections (from literary and historical documents to scientific specimens, art objects, and material culture).

It is not, however, a training program in specific tools, standards, or workflows. Instead, we will consider what is at stake, both locally and systemically, for large institutions and for individual scholars or librarians who create, […]