 Subjects -> MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES (Total: 54 journals)
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- Editor's Note
Authors: Richard Saunders
First page: 59
Abstract: In my college years I took a folklore class from Barre Toelken, one of the modern giants of folk studies. Along the way I gained a personal appreciation for aphorisms and idioms—short sayings commenting on a situation by comparing it to something else, usually unfavorably. Dictionaries boil down an aphorism to “a pithy observation that contains a general truth.” An idiom is an aphorism with cleverness thrown in for good measure. Anyone who has sworn “when hell freezes over” has used an idiom. The seafaring people of northern Europe occasionally invoke a folkish comment describing a futile effort. “That Jan,” someone might say, “he’s sweeping back the tide with a broom.”
PubDate: 2020-11-19
DOI: 10.5860/rbm.21.2.59
Issue No: Vol. 21, No. 2 (2020)
- The Past, Present, and Future of Special Collections Library Literature
Authors: Melanie Griffin
First page: 63
Abstract: The field of bibliometrics provides a lens through which to explore how a journal’s environment is shaped by the professionals that contribute to its creation and maintenance. Despite a rich legacy of bibliometric studies in Library and Information Science scholarship more generally, to date no studies have explored bibliometrics related specifically to special collections library literature. This study considers the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) journals, RBML and RBM, to explore what it is possible to learn about late twentieth and early twenty-first century American special collections librarianship as a profession through an aggregate consideration of the professional literature. This study uses existing tools from author affiliation studies to explore the professional literature and available data about the perspectives that shaped the RBMS journals, RBML and RBM, to gain a better understanding of the particular ecosystem that informs research and publication in the field of American special collections librarianship.
PubDate: 2020-11-19
DOI: 10.5860/rbm.21.2.63
Issue No: Vol. 21, No. 2 (2020)
- No Mere Culinary Curiosities: Using Historical Cookbooks in the Library
Classroom
Authors: Kathryn G. Matheny
First page: 79
Abstract: Cookbooks are neglected as information sources and teaching tools in academic libraries, especially for undergraduate learners. Approachable but complex primary sources, they can be examined as a records of people’s food habits, as a window on the authors or their societies and cultures, or as texts with rhetorical aims involving more than just cooking and eating. This study surveys the literature on the use of cookbooks in scholarship and pedagogy, especially in the context of interdisciplinary food studies. It also explains their relevance for the library or archives classroom, both as potential research sources and as tools for teaching primary source literacy skills, and the common barriers to their collection and discovery. Finally, it outlines uses for and approaches to teaching with cookbooks and offers examples of the author’s experience doing so in a special collections setting.
PubDate: 2020-11-19
DOI: 10.5860/rbm.21.2.79
Issue No: Vol. 21, No. 2 (2020)
- Picking Up the Pieces: Library Processes and the Theft of Rare Materials
Authors: Greg Seppi, Dainan Skeem
First page: 98
Abstract: In October 2018, Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library experienced thefts from its general circulating collection and L. Tom Perry Special Collections. This article explores the literature on theft in special collections and libraries in general, reviews the events that occurred as a case study in dealing with theft, and concludes with some thoughts on how institutions can avoid purchasing stolen materials. We also include our analysis of one of the stolen books to explain how we knew it belonged to the university and a sample theft reporting checklist.
PubDate: 2020-11-19
DOI: 10.5860/rbm.21.2.98
Issue No: Vol. 21, No. 2 (2020)
- Bernard Meehan. The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the
Manuscript in Trinity College Dublin, fully revised and updated edition.
Authors: Diana La Femina
First page: 119
Abstract: This is a beautiful book. It is fantastic for students and novices just learning about manuscripts, those learning codicological description, and anyone who wants an overview of the Book of Kells. The volume contains just a short taste of one of the most famous medieval manuscripts, and any of the sections could easily have been expanded further; indeed, I am rather impressed with how much information each section includes while still remaining concise. The information is also accessible to a wide variety of interests and knowledge levels and, in my honest opinion, is worth the price for the illustrations alone.
PubDate: 2020-11-19
DOI: 10.5860/rbm.21.2.119
Issue No: Vol. 21, No. 2 (2020)
- Kathy Peiss. Information Hunters: When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies
Banded Together in World War II Europe.
Authors: Joshua C. Youngblood
First page: 121
Abstract: Searching for vital intelligence behind enemy lines, inventing essential technology in the nick of time, and saving priceless relics from unknown and treacherous fates: librarians and other pioneers on the leading edge of information science take center stage in a global clash between democratic freedom and authoritarianism in Information Hunters. Eminent historian of American culture Kathy Peiss has provided a scholarly work to foreground the librarians, archivists, and intelligence officers sidelined during the recent popularity of the “Monuments Men,” showcasing the contributions of the men—and women—who helped save humanity’s written legacy and liberate information from its constraints. Beyond the individual stories, however, is the mixed, sometimes murky legacy of American collecting and how prestigious research libraries benefited from the fog of war.
PubDate: 2020-11-19
DOI: 10.5860/rbm.21.2.121
Issue No: Vol. 21, No. 2 (2020)
- Michael Vinson. Bluffing Texas Style: The Arsons, Forgeries, and
High-Stakes Poker Capers of Rare Book Dealer Johnny Jenkins.
Authors: Brian Shetler
First page: 125
Abstract: The story of Johnny Jenkins, rare book dealer, forger, gambler, and misterioso, has haunted me since my days in library school nearly a decade ago. I first encountered Jenkins through his publication Rare Books and Manuscript Thefts: A Security System for Librarians, Booksellers, and Collectors, which was printed in 1982 while Jenkins served as president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA). I was doing research related to the history of book theft in the United States and found Jenkins’s short text (only 27 pages) to be a helpful insight into how the ABAA viewed book theft and security. Pursuing Jenkins a bit further, I quickly came upon Calvin Trillin’s fascinating 1989 New Yorker article that chronicled Jenkins’s demise. The details of Jenkins’s secret life of forgeries, gambling, and arson were fascinating; the details of his death (shot in the back of the head, no weapon found, ruled a suicide') were macabre and confounding. A few years later, while on break at a conference in Austin, TX, I walked into a used bookstore and found a copy of Jenkins’s Audubon and Other Capers (1976), which told the tale of his exploits in helping the FBI track down book thieves in the early 1970s. The completely contradictory life that Jenkins led, coupled with his untimely and odd death, stuck in my brain in the form of unanswered questions, unclear details, and an unresolved murder or suicide. While it was not up to me to put the pieces together and offer a clear picture of Johnny Jenkins’s life, career, and death, it had to be done by someone. That someone, it turns out, was another rare book dealer specializing in Texas and the West, Michael Vinson.
PubDate: 2020-11-19
DOI: 10.5860/rbm.21.2.125
Issue No: Vol. 21, No. 2 (2020)
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