Orientation to Materials

In academic libraries today "special collections" has often replaced the term "rare books" in order to reflect the variety of printed formats as well as to emphasize contexts rather than isolated titles. Wesleyan's excellent library holdings in this category number about 25,000. While some have been purchased with funds provided for specific purposes, most have come as gifts or bequests from alumni and friends of the University over the past 175 years.

Many of Wesleyan's rare books have been defined by standard criteria like date and place of printing, quality and interest of illustration, impact on the evolution of western civilization, local association, or condition of our copy. Today these criteria are broadening to include new and often interdisciplinary fields of study, with increasing recognition of the role of everyday printed artifacts as primary sources for any period.

Wesleyan's special collections do not aim to serve as comprehensive research collections but rather to stimulate undergraduate minds about the past, offer laboratory materials in the humanities, and provide some preparation for advanced scholarship. The Special Collections librarian is glad to consult about specific types of holdings and to make suggestions or gather materials for class presentations or individual projects

About 90% of Wesleyan's rare books are represented by online catalog records, to which we are beginning to add notes and access points describing the features that warrant their preservation in original form (as opposed to reprints, modern editions, microfilm or electronic reproductions). Among these features, some of which were previously recorded in card files, are thousands of terms grouped broadly as textual genres, graphic genres and physical characteristics, printing and publishing evidence, type, paper, bindings, and provenance.

Last updated 09/01/2006