News Archives

Durham University Collections Fellowships, 2025–2026

Deadline: September 3, 2025

Durham University is delighted to invite applications from researchers for Visiting Fellowships of one month in duration. The aim of the Durham Collections Fellowships is to enable and foster research across the historic collections of Durham, notably Archives and Special Collections at Palace Green Library, the Oriental Museum, the library and archives of Ushaw College (the former Roman Catholic seminary just outside the city), the Cathedral Library, and the archives of Durham Priory and Cathedral.

The resources available to scholars include not only libraries and archives, but also collections of visual and material culture, […]

RBS in Oxford: “A Match Made in Library/Book History Heaven”

This summer, Rare Book School hosted its first-ever international courses at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. H-195 Transmission of the Bible from the Beginnings to 1500 was taught by Peter Toth, the Cornelia Starks Curator of Greek Collections at the Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries and former Curator of Ancient and Medieval Manuscripts at the British Library. David Rundle, Senior Lecturer in Latin and Palaeography in the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Kent, taught
M-60 Researching Medieval Manuscripts: From Cataloging to Cultural History.  […]

Study Days for Blooks

Mindell Dubansky, Conservator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Thomas J. Watson Library, would like to offer an opportunity for a small group of established scholars and educators in the area of book history, the book arts, and material culture to visit her private collection of blooks during a two-day study period. The collection includes over 1,000 objects made in the form of books, from the 18th century to the present.

The event will occur in Tivoli, New York, on 12 and 13 September 2025.

To apply, send a brief bio and description of your experience with the subject and the reasons you are interested in attending. […]

Watch Newly Posted RBS Summer 2025 Lecture Videos

Video recordings of our first two summer lectures are now available to watch online!

A Parallel History of Books and Blooks
Watch on YouTube
Mindell Dubansky, Conservator, Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jane Austen on the Cheap
Watch on YouTube
Janine Barchas, Chancellor’s Council Centennial Professor in the Book Arts, University of Texas at Austin
The Kenneth W. Rendell Endowed Lecture         

If you like what you see, please join us—either in person or over Zoom—when our lecture series resumes in July. […]

Summer Protocols Regarding Infectious Illness

Rare Book School Guidelines and Recommendations Regarding Infectious Illness

Rare Book School is very excited to welcome back to Charlottesville—and to our partner institutions in Ann Arbor, Chapel Hill, Chicago, New Haven, Oxford (England), Philadelphia, Princeton, and Upperville, VA—the faculty, students, and lecturers who form the RBS community. In order to protect the health and well-being of this wonderful community of like-minded learners, we ask all those attending in-person courses and programs this summer to adhere to some basic public health precautions recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local health experts at each course location. […]

Watch RBS Executive Director’s UVA Commencement Address, “The American University: A Celebration”

Rare Book School Executive Director Michael F. Suarez, S.J. delivered the 2025 commencement address, on the vital importance of American higher education, at the University of Virginia’s Final Exercises this past weekend. 

On Saturday, 17 May, Suarez addressed more than 4,600 graduates, along with faculty and guests, of the university’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and School of Education and Human Development. 

A Jesuit priest, Suarez also serves as Professor of English, University Professor, and Honorary Curator of Special Collections at the University of Virginia (UVA). […]

RBS Announces Summer 2025 Lecture Series

Rare Book School is thrilled to announce the lineup for this summer’s lecture series at the University of Virginia.

All lectures are free and open to the public. Unless noted, these talks will take place at 5:30 p.m. ET. Lectures are 30–40 minutes in length, with approximately 10 minutes for Q&A. Each lecture will be followed by a reception in UVA’s Edgar Shannon Library Room 230 (RBS Suite). RSVPs to attend in person are not required.

This year, for the first time, RBS will offer an option to attend a livestream of the in-person lectures via Zoom. […]

Mindi Zhang Receives Inaugural Jon A. Lindseth Fellowship

Rare Book School’s Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) is pleased to announce its new Jon A. Lindseth Fellowship, along with the Society’s inaugural Lindseth Fellow, Mindi Zhang.

A businessman with a background in mechanical engineering, Lindseth is passionate about book collecting and bibliography. He has developed multiple landmark collections that he has gifted to public institutions, often working in close collaboration with scholars, bibliographers, and editors as part of his endeavors. Over the years, Lindseth has gifted multiple collections to his alma mater, Cornell University, including a collection on women’s suffrage, […]

Announcing the 2025–27 RBS-Mellon SoFCB Junior Fellows

The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) at Rare Book School is pleased to welcome its 2025–27 cohort of Junior Fellows. Many congratulations to all the new Junior Fellows; we look forward to seeing you at RBS! […]

Rare Book School Executive Director Michael F. Suarez, S.J. To Give 2025 UVA Commencement Address

Rare Book School is delighted to announce that Michael F. Suarez, S.J. will deliver the 2025 commencement address at the University of Virginia’s Final Exercises on 17 May.

A Jesuit priest, Suarez serves as Executive Director of Rare Book School (RBS), Professor of English, University Professor, and Honorary Curator of Special Collections at the University of Virginia (UVA). He previously held a joint appointment as J. A. Kavanaugh Professor of English at Fordham University and as Fellow and Tutor in English at Campion Hall, Oxford University. Former UVA President John T. Casteen III appointed Suarez to succeed RBS Founding Director Terry Belanger in 2009. […]

RBS at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair

Rare Book School will be at the 65th annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, which runs from Thursday, 3 April to Sunday, 6 April.

RBS Executive Director Michael F. Suarez, S.J., along with Barbara Heritage and Zoe Langer of the RBS Collections team, will be “on the ground” at the Park Avenue Armory. So, if you see them, be sure to say hello! […]

Remembering John T. Casteen III, Bibliophile and UVA President Emeritus

It is with profound sadness that we announce the death of John T. Casteen III on 18 March 2025, after a brief illness. A scholar of medieval literature and an advocate for public education, Casteen served with great distinction as the seventh president of the University of Virginia. Over the course of two decades (1990–2010), he guided UVA to greater national prominence, significantly expanded programs and facilities on Grounds, and led the University through two enormously successful capital campaigns. 

A visionary leader, Casteen brought Rare Book School to UVA from Columbia University in 1992, hiring RBS Founding Director Terry Belanger as University Professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections and giving the School a new home in Alderman Library (now known as Shannon Library). […]

RBS General and Buice Scholarship Awards for 2025 Announced

Rare Book School is pleased to announce the 2025 recipients of its General Scholarship Committee awards, as well as the winners of the Buice Scholarships for returning RBS students. Congratulations to these recipients! […]

Breaking Bread and Building Catalogs: How an RBS Course Led to a Years-Long Bibliographical Collaboration

On a summer day in 2017, Szilvia Szmuk-Tanenbaum and Jay Moschella sat down to discuss Spanish plays over lunch at a Korean restaurant near the grounds of the University of Virginia. 

The two were in Charlottesville for the week, attending Stephen Tabor’s Rare Book School (RBS) course G-45 Analytical Bibliography. For Szmuk-Tanenbaum, a longtime RBS supporter, one of the School’s great strengths is the way it brings people together, not in a commercially minded way, but rather for “something much more familiar and casual and friendly,” fostered through shared meals and breaks with other RBS students.  […]

RBS Fellowship to Offer Prize for Winning Essay on Bibliographical Scholarship

The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) is pleased to announce its annual Essay Prize for 2025, to be awarded to a scholarly article that exemplifies the Society’s mission of advancing the study of texts, images, and artifacts as material objects through capacious, interdisciplinary scholarship. The $500 prize seeks to recognize innovative scholarship that brings together multiple fields of study and that strives to be accessible to the bibliographical community at large.

Articles published in any format (journal, edited collection, book chapter, digital platform), in any field, and of any time period are eligible for consideration. […]

Special Collections Cataloging Librarian – Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is now accepting applications for a Special Collections Cataloging Librarian. Reporting to the Head of Special Collections, the Cataloging Librarian is responsible for ensuring the accurate and appropriate bibliographical description of Special Collections material. Specific tasks include cataloging new acquisitions; processing backlogs; reviewing, revising, and updating existing metadata as appropriate; creating and modifying authority records through the Library of Congress Name Authority Cooperative Program; and performing related research. The full posting and application instructions can be found here. For full consideration, please apply by 1 April 2025. […]

New RBS Course on Censorship Added to Summer 2025 Schedule

Rare Book School is excited to announce a newly added course to its Summer 2025 schedule. H-205 Censorship from the Inquisition to the Present will run 3–8 August 2025 at the University of Chicago. The first-round deadline to apply for H-205 is Friday, 7 March 2025. 

H-205, taught by the University of Chicago’s Ada Palmer, will examine the histories of censorship and information control, with a focus on books and on changes in information technologies. Many sessions will specifically explore censorship in early modern Europe, including the Inquisition and its practices, the impact of the printing press, […]

Endowed Scholarship and Matching-Gift Challenge, Totaling $2 Million, to Honor RBS Founding Director Terry Belanger

Rare Book School is proud to announce that it has received a $1 million commitment from bibliophiles, collectors, and RBS supporters Cathy and Glen Miranker to honor the legacy of our founding director and long-time course instructor Terry Belanger by increasing scholarship access for RBS students.

To maximize the Miranker Family’s generosity, we are endeavoring to raise an additional $1 million for the Terry Belanger Endowed Scholarship before 30 September 2026, coinciding with the year of Terry’s 85th birthday. Each dollar raised toward this amount will be matched dollar for dollar, doubling the impact of each gift received. […]

Rare Book School Summer Course Applications Now Open

Rare Book School (RBS) is now accepting applications for its summer 2025 courses. This year’s schedule features more than 40 classes, including online courses and  in-person offerings at two new partner institutions: the University of Michigan and Oxford University’s Bodleian Library (also RBS’s first international courses).

Rare Book School’s summer 2025 in-person courses in Charlottesville will be offered in the University of Virginia’s recently renovated Edgar Shannon Library. Other in-person courses will run in Chapel Hill (NC), Chicago, New Haven (CT), Philadelphia, Princeton (NJ), and Upperville (VA). […]

RBS Announces Summer 2025 Course Schedule

Rare Book School is pleased to share its summer 2025 course schedule! The list of more than 40 in-person and online courses can be found at rarebookschool.org/schedule.

This summer’s course schedule includes classes at two new partner institutions: the University of Michigan and Oxford University’s Bodleian Library (also RBS’s first international courses). […]