Seminar: Beyond Commerce: Encounters and Exchanges Between Academic Institutions and the Rare Book Trade

Abstract

This seminar explores relationships between the academic world and the rare book trade from the perspectives of booksellers and university faculty, including librarians. The starting point for this seminar is Miranda Nesler’s recent experience changing fields from university professor to rare bookseller. How have her priorities changed? What remains the same? How does she use her position as a rare bookseller to recognize and preserve materials relevant to marginalized communities and individuals? The next portion of our seminar will explore tensions between academic libraries and the rare book trade and how those tensions affect the trade. Rob Rulon-Miller, director of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminars and a former president of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), will share his experiences working with university libraries. This portion of the seminar will also highlight how booksellers can work effectively with librarians and archivists to preserve rare materials that might otherwise be destroyed or lost in private collections. Elizabeth Ott, the Frank Borden Hanes Curator of Rare Books at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will speak on working with rare booksellers from an academic librarian’s perspective. We will then break into groups to discuss ethical and practical questions librarians and booksellers face in their day-to-day work, such as breaking up collections, asking about the provenance of books and manuscripts, and other issues. We will reconvene after a short period of discussion and invite each group to share their responses.