My final semester as an undergraduate I was sent to complete an internship in the “Western Historical Manuscripts Collection” at the University of Missouri-Columbia.^[1]  My assignment was to create a guide to the best collections that teachers and students could use for the following year’s National History Day (NHD) competition.^[2]  NHD is a program where sixth to twelfth graders complete projects like documentaries, presentations, or performances based on research with eyewitness accounts from history like letters, diaries, and oral history recordings.  Just a few months later I sat in the audience as three junior high girls in prairie dresses and bonnets performed sections from a pioneer woman’s diary they found on my list and I was moved to tears as they brought to life the woman’s account of losing her baby in her travels to Missouri more than 150 years ago.  There are three women in their mid-30’s out there somewhere who have no idea that they made a future special collections librarian that day.  I was hooked.

“Special Collections” have a historic association with rare books and older elite donors, but there is also a reality that no two are alike.^[3]  Every library has items that for one reason or another are treated differently and set apart.  It could be an atlas that is too heavy to carry, a fragile pop-up book, oversized sheet music, or perhaps a famous rare book that requires extra security from theft.^[4]  When a library collects enough of these “unique” or “distinct” items together by size, format, topic, scarcity, cultural importance, or monetary value, they create a special collection.^[5]  Collect enough special collections and the library might need to devote a room, a separate unit, or even an entire building to provide access.  Examples exist in any library setting from public libraries, to school libraries, stand-alone research libraries, corporate libraries, and the academic libraries that might come to mind first.^[6]

Imagining Special Collections would be much simpler if I explain it as rare books and handwritten manuscripts, but that simple definition only leaves room to imagine the organizations, collections, and roles that fit that mold and the patrons who need those specific types of material.  When it becomes possible to imagine “use” as stopping by to read Star Trek fanfiction,^[7] examining a dancer’s leotard,^[8] recreating an early form of hand-stitching, enjoying unfolding intricate artists’ books to see how they work,^[9] finding family photos digitized in the digital library,^[10] or watching tapes from a local public access tv station,^[11] then it becomes possible to imagine the variety of communities who already use special collections and it makes more room for you to imagine being part of that work.

What do people do working in Special Collections?  How will you train for it?^[12]  Answering those two questions is the biggest challenge related to imagining yourself in the field.  As a library-within-a-library, any role can have an equivalent inside Special Collections.  Since most materials can’t be checked out there is usually a reading room where you can use the material on site.  There are roles answering reference questions, retrieving and reshelving materials, assisting with making copies, helping patrons with technology, teaching class sessions and leading tour groups, creating exhibitions, or coordinating events and social media.  There are curator roles developing collections by working with dealers and donors, as well as cataloging and processing roles describing and organizing the collections.  As more and more collections are digitized, or are born-digital there may be roles in digitization, digital preservation, or metadata creation.

Training for general librarian or archivist roles is the core of training for Special Collections.  Unique skills in this area might come from disciplines like history or art history, such as understanding how to analyze, research, interpret, and use historic documents and objects.  English degrees prepare you for roles analyzing and writing about the collections.  Teaching experience, exhibitions experience, or marketing and communications knowledge is often desired.  As the stewards of unique materials there is a greater need for an understanding of copyright than in other areas of librarianship.  Increasingly, some roles need digital skills with databases, XML, or coding experience as we connect our digitized and born-digital collections to access systems and digital libraries.

The opportunity to use any knowledge you have ever learned is an exciting draw.  My years watching mid-20th century TV reruns on Nick-at-Nite turned out to be research for working with television collections as just one example.^[13]  Many special collections professionals build knowledge of a specific subject area through a second advanced degree that matches an area of the collections, like having a background in film studies to work with the history of film.  However, the flipside of that opportunity is a greater capacity for feelings of inadequacy as you may at any time have need of little bit of knowledge about just about anything.  Endless curiosity is the greatest asset that can ensure that each day is an exciting new chance to learn.

Resources for Further Reading, Listening, and Viewing:

Cullingford, Alison. The Special Collections Handbook. 3rd ed. Facet Publishing, 2022. https://doi.org/10.29085/9781783305391.

Colleen Theisen comes to the School of Library and Information Science after a career as a classroom teacher, theater director, special collections librarian, manager, and curator.  She continues an active online presence as a library educator in social media spaces.

In her past roles in Special Collections at the University of Iowa she served as creator and coordinator for a network of social media channels.  She has been an active voice in the field supporting cultural heritage outreach as a speaker at conferences and delivering webinars on social media outreach for Library Journal and the ALA.

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