Initial Impressions of Tarlton Law Library's Rare Books

Laura and I have now completed what amounts to two site visits to the Rare Books room at Tarlton Law Library. Some of my initial impressions/observations are as follows:

• One wall of the room is on the western side of the building and is, in fact, an 'outer' wall. In other words, during a good portion of the day this wall section is taking direct heat from the sun. There are objects - photo portraits and paintings to name two - that are shelved virtually against this wall.

• On the reading table set up inside the room where the majority of the collection is shelved, one can find a coffee cup with a plethora of writing utensils - pencils, pens, highlighters, and even a hammer oddly enough - located inside of it.

• There appears to be no instantaneously accessible system of arrangement to where the books are placed on the shelves. Miniatures are all located on one range. Oversized materials are shelved separately from the rest of the collection in what was originally designed to be a conference room and now serves as the office space of the Rare Books room. It should also be noted that this office space in which the oversized materials are stored has piping running through the walls against which these oversized materials rest. 'Regular' sized materials are then, apparently, organized by geography and then by call number if I have understood correctly. This may not prove to be too difficult of a hurdle. It is, however, a bit quirky.

• Browsing the books on the shelves provides one with some interesting and, perhaps, troubling observations: scotch tape on spines; purchase receipts folded and slotted in between the cover board and the beginning of the text block; call slips stuffed randomly inside books; shelves packed so tightly with books of different sizes that smaller books are beginning to warp from the stresses of larger books surrounding and pressing them on each side; other shelves with too few books and no supports with the result that some books slant diagonally or lay on their sides instead of standing up straight.

• There are some instances where books had housings. These books, however, appeared to arrive with a housing rather than having one made for them after their acquisition. In other cases, there are books with crumbling spines or detaching boards or text block issues that have perhaps demanded and still do perhaps demand some kind of housing or support if a full conservation treatment is too much to be hoped for. These books, however, do remain un-housed.

• There is also the phenomenon of white and pink 'bloom' that has appeared on the spines of a number of books.

The above are a series of what could be called 'surface-esque' observations. As of yet, Laura and I have not truly begun our survey and, thus, neither have we truly begun an in-depth inspection of the portion of the collection which we will survey. This process will begin the coming Wednesday and with it a better understanding of this collection on an item level as opposed to this more surface level.