Author Archives: bahdea

Hints of Gold in the Backlog: Part 2 of 4

This is Part 2 of a research exploration by Cataloger Vance Woods and History of Science and Rare Books Librarian Anne Bahde. Find Part 1 here.

From here, we could branch our research into different directions to expand our knowledge of the work. We now had pending questions about the title’s content, production, context, and story, as well the physical item’s origin and provenance. First, Vance reached out to the other holding library in Germany. They responded to Vance’s message, but did not have any more information than we did about the piece. (However, after our own discoveries, Vance reached out to them again to share what we had learned; they are in the process of updating their own records accordingly.)

We began filling in our gaps in knowledge about the historical context of the item. A typed bibliography of history of science holdings at OSU produced in 1988 identifies the piece as an “introduction to Libavius’ response to Thomas Erastus’ attack on Paracelsus and the Ioatrochemists. Erastus had attacked Paracelsus in his Disputation Concerning Potable Gold, Basel, 1578.”

This note gave us some excellent starting points to dig deeper. We confirmed that description and built our contextual understanding by quickly finding a few other secondary sources. Our crash course in early modern alchemy yielded a deeper understanding of the significance of this item.

Andreas Libavius was a most eminent figure in early chemistry, an alchemist who attracted his share of controversy during his career. As an alchemist, he was interested in the transmutation of metals into gold. As a physician, he was also interested in the practical value of medical chemistry and the particular medicinal qualities of gold.

His emphasis on pharmaceutical applications put him in opposition to Paracelsus, another physician and alchemist who emphasized the more mystical elements of alchemy. Thomas Erastus, a Swiss physician and defender of medieval Galenic medical practice, was also an outspoken opponent of Paracelsus, and attacked the Paracelsian belief in the transmutation of metals. But Libavius did believe transmutation was possible, and passionately so. He refuted Erastus’ position in a series of publications around the time our pamphlet was published. Our pamphlet seemed to be related to this exchange.

While we began to understand more about the historical context of the item, we also continued to look for the title or fragments of it in Google, HathiTrust, and other digital repositories.

This title presented a common challenge when seeking information about books published in Latin during this time. In the Roman alphabet, there was no distinction between the letterforms V and U. By the time this book was printed, printers were beginning to distinguish between the consonant V and the vowel U, and the rules for using these letters in printing varied over time.

Later catalogers of these items may or may not have transcribed these letters into their modern usage. These variations in spelling, printing, and cataloging practices over time, along with modern variability in optical character recognition of digitized texts, means that when U’s and V’s (or I’s or J’s) are involved, using a variety of spellings in keyword searches will yield the best results.

However, despite many different variations of the title searched across multiple platforms, we found only one result for a title fragment via Google Books (a further indication of the item’s potential rarity). This book, printed in 1600, lists our title among others in an index format.

Vance determined that this book was a compilation of publications between 1593 and 1600, and that the marginal numbers were dates of printing. To test this, he looked for other titles listed in this book in Worldcat and found that they corresponded to the dates listed here. This title therefore suggests that our title was published in 1596.

*Volume 1 of Elenchus seu index generalis in quo continentur libri omnes, qui … usque ad annum 1600 … prodierunt. Allgemeine Verzeichniße der newen Bücher*, Henningus Gross

As we researched the historical context of the item, one name kept coming up in our secondary sources: Dr. Bruce Moran, a scholar of Libavius and early modern chemistry at the University of Nevada, Reno. Moran’s definitive scholarship on Libavius has included a number of Libavius’ known works and editions. Vance reached out to him with a scan of the title page to see if he could help us identify the piece. He graciously replied with some intriguing answers.

Moran’s translation of the final line of the title page indicated that a copy of the Erastus text in question was meant to be attached to this counter-text by Libavius for the purposes of comparison and censure. However, Moran also indicated that he had never heard of this title before, and that the item was stumping him as much as us. While we now had some understanding of this piece, previous questions still lingered just as new ones had been raised. Part 3 follows next week.

Hints of Gold in the Backlog: Part 1 of 4

Leave a reply

Throughout the pandemic, catalogers at OSULP have been working hard to complete projects and make progress on others. One ongoing project for the Special Collections and Archives Research Center is the creation of new catalog records for our old books.

Most libraries have an imbalance between the materials needing to be cataloged and the professional resources devoted to that work. OSULP is no different, though we are proud in SCARC that our ‘backlog’ is fairly minimal after years of progress by dedicated catalogers.

To prevent materials languishing between acquisition and cataloging, we proactively move acquisitions through descriptive processes at a steady rate. However, the backlog is still a place where mysteries can turn up, and one such mystery appeared there recently.

A short, six-page pamphlet in an unassuming binding immediately presented more questions than answers when Cataloger Vance Woods set out to create its record. Vance and History of Science Librarian Anne Bahde teamed up to find some answers about what this intriguing item was and just how it ended up in our backlog. We will explore our research over four parts presented weekly in August.

From the title page, there were a few clues to glean about what this item could be. Though neither of us read much Latin, the title of the book presented familiar Latin word roots that could at least give us indications of the time period and subject matter. For example, ‘mineral-,’ ‘corpor,’ and ‘chymia’ suggested that we were dealing with something having to do with minerals, the body, and chemistry.

A quick pass of the title through Google Translate allowed us to guess further at content and meaning in the title through a rough translation. We looked closely at the large printed mark near the bottom of the page. This spot is typically where a printer’s device would go, but in place of that identifying image, there is a decorative ornament instead. At the very bottom of the title page we typically find the publisher’s imprint, which often lists details such as the place of publication, publisher, printer, or date of publication.

We found none of those details in this section, and instead spotted Latin roots such as “sincer’ (sound, genuine, true) and ‘censur’ (judgment, opinion) here. The contemporary handwriting at the very bottom of the title page “Libavius [–ind] Paracel—” associated these apparent names to the title, along with the name Erastus which appears on the page twice. All these details began to suggest an unusual item related to the history of chemistry.

Several physical material clues intrigued us as well. The typeface and printing style suggested a printing date of the late 16th century, but confirmation of that suspicion was not found in any other elements of the item. The paper used was of a rougher nature, and the pages are now age-toned. But, no obvious clue to publication place or date could be found among the few pages.

Bindings can sometimes give hints about where or when an item was published, but in this case the binding was a simple set of brown marbled boards, probably dating to the late 19th or early 20th century given the style and condition of the binding materials. Sometimes, this type of slim, nondescript binding can suggest separation from a sammelband or nonce volume, both types of collections of pamphlets.

Though the piece lacked stab holes or other markers of prior gathering, a thin strip of discoloration does run down the length of the inner margin, suggesting that it was removed from some other binding environment at some point in the past.

The first place we both turn to when searching for items is Worldcat. Considered to be the most comprehensive catalog of materials in libraries around the world, Worldcat offers special insight when trying to track down a difficult title. A catalog record in Worldcat can tell us not only further bibliographical details about an item, but also which libraries around the world currently hold this item, thus giving a basic indiciation of distribution and rarity.

Despite search experiments with different spellings and other searching efforts, we found only one record with one holding library, the Thüringer Universitäts- und Landsbibliothek in Jena, Germany.

Deepening this line of inquiry, we followed the Libavius author entry in Worldcat, then examined each item in that list of 382 records. This is a laborious but useful Worldcat trick and can sometimes turn up some potential matches or clues for difficult-to-find items. But this effort still did not yield any further hints about this title. It slowly became clearer that we could be dealing with quite a scarce item.

The item presented one further curious detail – the striking bookplate depicting two entwined poppy heads pasted inside the front cover. As physical signs of ownership, bookplates offer important evidence about the provenance of an item, and help later researchers track an item’s movements during its life. By searching for the name printed on the plate and looking at Google Image results, Vance discovered it was the bookplate of Emil Starkenstein, a Czech Jewish pharmacologist who was killed in the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1942. It was clear to us now that this was no ordinary book, and we began to pursue answers to the many questions the book had now invited. Part 2: Rare Books and Research follows next week.

The R. Buckminster Fuller Collection of Joe Moore and Trevor Blake

Leave a reply

The Special Collections and Archives Research Center is delighted to announce the acquisition of the R. Buckminster Fuller Collection of Joe Moore and Trevor Blake. The hundreds of manuscripts, books, ephemera, and artifacts in this collection tell the story of Fuller’s visionary contributions to the worlds of architecture, the human built environment, design science, and sustainability.

This collection intersects with existing collections in fascinating ways. Fuller’s radical vision of collective progress, peace, and equity is echoed within the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers many times over; together, the documents in these collections help us understand how the hopes of their era might yet be realized in ours. ‘Bucky,’ as he liked to be called, embodied a bold, independent, and unapologetic approach to the pursuit of humanity’s benefit, which can be paralleled with Pauling’s similar approach.The contents of these two rich collections will be in constant interaction and conversation with each other, on topics as diverse as shelter, renewable energy, marriage, molecular biology, world government, and technological change. Indeed, the vibrant Fuller collection will complement and expand subject concentrations found in many other collections in SCARC, ranging from environmental activism to energy production to information history.

Humanity still may have lessons to learn from Bucky. Students in OSU Humanitarian Engineering, Materials Science, and Design and Human Environments programs will find a wealth of historical sources in their fields, as will those in Environmental Arts and Humanities. It is our hope that this collection will attract students and researchers from a number of different disciplinary routes, and that the Special Collections and Archives Research Center can use it to further interdisciplinary conversation around Fuller’s visions and their modern evolutions and parallels.

Bioshphère d’Environnement Canada, by abdallah, CC BY 2.0
R. Buckminster Fuller developed and popularized the geodesic dome in North American architecture.

Though the restrictions in place due to COVID will impair our progress for some time, we hope to make the collection available to researchers as soon as possible. We are delighted to be the steward of this fine collection, and look forward to many years of making it accessible to researchers at OSU and in the global community of scholars.

Additional Resources

Wikipedia: R. Buckminster Fuller
Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers

Newly Processed Collection: USDA Northwest Cannery Survey Collection, 1914-1915

Leave a reply

Post contributed by Rachel Lilley, SCARC Public Services Assistant

In 1911, the 26^th legislative assembly created the office of the Oregon State Immigration Agent, appropriating $20,000 for immigration advertising work, and an additional $5,000 for statistical research and collection work to be done by the Oregon Statistical Bureau (OSB). John Andrew Bexell, Dean of Oregon Agricultural College’s Department of Commerce, was chosen to direct the work of the OSB, and little surprise. In 1913, as part of an effort by the National Department of Agriculture (NDA) to develop a program of “moveable agricultural schools” to “further the scientific education of adults with very little scholastic learning,” the Office of Experiment Stations had tapped Bexell to develop a course on bookkeeping (The Barometer, May 30, 1913). Bexell’s course would include: a series of fifteen to twenty-five lectures, with accompanying readings and questions; a set of practicums or exercises; a complete list of equipment, materials, and published reference works needed to “properly present the subject;” and a list of pedagogical methods that would serve as suggestions for the teacher of the course.

Under Bexell’s direction, the initial mandate of the Oregon Statistical Bureau was the completion of a general survey of statewide agricultural operations in order to “determine the opportunities in each locality for new settlers and, if possible, to find some of the difficulties in agricultural development.” Though the OSB was not funded to continue its work after completing the survey, the resulting publication, The Oregon Farmer: What He has Accomplished in Every Part of the State, not only set a precedent for subsequent agricultural surveys, but provided the groundwork for the standardization of cannery operations in the state.

Each survey in the USDA Northwest Cannery Survey Collection (MSS Cannery) is comprised of between one and fourteen “outlines,” or reports, and each outline presents the same information for each cannery. Some of the more significant are Outline 1, and Outlines 9 and 10, which deal with cannery and association history, and each cannery’s labor force, respectively. Outline 1 typically includes information about the establishment of the growers’ association and a list of its founders; a cannery plant floorplan, and inventory of machinery; and lists of the types of product canned per season, how much product was canned, and the cost per can. Of special significance, however, are Outlines 9 and 10. These two outlines, often presented together as one report, not only document the use of female labor in canneries, but illustrate just how heavily canneries relied on female workers, and the types of work women did.

A typical cannery season lasted a little over four months. On average, the surveyed canneries employed between thirteen and forty-eight women, with most hiring more women during the peak of the season. The Eugene cannery, for example, hired on as many as a hundred additional female workers during the height of the season. Female cannery workers filled positions preparing fruit (e.g. washing, hulling, or stemming), canning fruit, or labelling cans (a task often reserved for a small cadre of hired “girls”). Almost every plant that took part in the survey also lists among its staff a “Forewoman” or “Forelady,” who was tasked with managing the day-to-day work of female employees. Most Forewomen were paid a daily rate between $1.25 and $2.00. Notably, the “Forelady” at the Corvallis plant was paid $75 a month for her seasonal work (June 1 to November 1), the same as the Warehouseman and Receiving Clerk, and five dollars more than the Fireman.

Most women, however, could expect to be paid, on average, between ten and fifteen cents per hour. Three canneries – Eugene, Forest Grove, and Woodburn – specifically mention paying by the piece, in addition to hourly rates.

At the Forest Grove plant, hulling strawberries paid fifteen to twenty-five cents for each twenty-five-pound crate; canning strawberries paid one and a half cents per nineteen-can tray. Stemming cherries paid twelve to twelve and a half cents for each finished forty-five-pound box; canning cherries, however, only paid one cent per twelve-can tray. With the addition of piece rates, the Forest Grove cannery was the one surveyed location at which women could, theoretically, earn as much as men per hour (men were not offered per piece rates at the Forest Grove plant).

In contrast, the surveyed canneries hired, on average, between nine and fifteen men during the season, not including those hired for managerial or administrative positions. Men filled the managerial and administrative posts in cannery plants, working as plant Managers, Bookkeepers, Receiving Clerks, and “Processors.” These posts were typically salaried, and paid on a weekly or monthly basis; the full time Eugene plant manager was paid $166 per month for a year-round (the average was closer to $65 per month, or $2.50 per day). Men were also hired on as Engineers, Machinists, Firemen, and Warehousemen, and worked the can-capping machine, the conveyor belts, and the boilers. Men who worked these blue collar positions were paid hourly rates between twenty and twenty-five cents per hour; younger “boys,” who were sometimes hired as runners or helpers, were hired at an average rate of twelve cents an hour.

Historically speaking, the division of labor likely made quite a bit of sense to contemporary plant managers. Women would have been the primary canners in most family units and therefore would have been the logical choice for preparing and canning produce. The fact that women could be hired at half the rate of pay as men would have further contributed to their desirability as employees. Yet, both the men hired as Engineers and Machinists, and the women hired as Preparers and Canners, were completing skilled tasks. The work would have been physically rigorous, and though none of the canneries reported the number of hours worked per day, the days would have likely been long, as a federally-mandated eight-hour work day was still several decades from being standard (the Fair Labor Standards Act wasn’t signed into law until 1937). Though not reflected in their pay, the intricate, skilled, and often physical work of women in canneries was as valuable as that of men.

Occasionally, surveys are accompanied by correspondence containing suggestions on operational efficiency and modernization from Certified Public Accountant, and survey Man-in-the-Field, J. W. Boies. For example, to the Benton County Growers’ Association in Corvallis, Boies suggested implementation of “simple, labor saving methods under a practical, but concise, cost system,” including the purchase of a “modern Cash Book, columnized Sales Book, [and] a modern Labor Saving method of distributing payroll.” All such prescriptive correspondence was also copied to the survey’s Auditing Committee, of which J. A. Bexell was also a member. It could be argued that these efforts toward the “modernization” and standardization of cannery operations would later allow the relief canneries operated during the Great Depression to operate more efficiently, thus better serving economically suffering families. Relief canneries distilled full-scale cannery operations down to their essence – boiler, capper, processers – and both the division of labor and ratio of labor that had worked best at the cannery plant is evidenced also at the relief canneries.

The USDA Northwest Cannery Survey Collection would support wide a range of research topics, including the marketing of Oregon agricultural products, history of women and labor, and Oregon industry, and would be complimented by a number of additional collections. The Experiment Station Communications Films and Horticulture Department Photographs contain images that document machinery and methods used in canning produce (e.g. strawberry capper-stemmers and field harvesters). Of special note are the images of soldiers acting as additional labor in canneries in both the Extension Bulletin Illustrations Photograph Collection and the Extension and Experiment Station Communications Photograph Collection. The Extension and Experiment Station Communications Photograph Collections also documents the use of Mexican migrant farm labor. The Food Science and Technology Department Photographs additionally document relief cannery work done during the Great Depression.

Announcing the 4th Annual OSU Book Collecting Contest!

Leave a reply

The OSU Valley Library is proud to announce the fourth year of our sponsored Book Collecting Contest!

Generously sponsored by the Himes & Duniway Society, a group of book collecting enthusiasts in Oregon, this contest is intended:

to encourage students in the collection and enjoyment of their own personal libraries,
to aid students in developing an appreciation for the special qualities of printed or illustrated works, and
to encourage students to read, research, and preserve these works for pleasure and scholarship.

The collection can focus on any subject, and the contest is open to all full-time students.

Prizes:

Three prizes will be awarded to student winners:

1st prize: $1,000
2nd prize: $500
3rd prize: $250

Prizes are generously funded by the Himes & Duniway Society.

APPLICATIONS ARE DUE Friday, March 10, 2017 by 5:00 PM.

How Do I Enter?
The Application Package should include the following:

The application form;
The essay, which should be at least two and no more than four pages in 12-point type with lines double-spaced describing how and why the collection was assembled;
A bibliography of the collection preferably using the MLA Bibliography format with each individual title numbered and annotated. The annotations should reflect the importance of each item to the collection as a whole
An annotated wish list of up to five other book titles that you would like to add in the future to complete or enhance your existing collection; and
digital images of at least 5 representative items in the collection, with 10 or more images being preferable.

You can submit your application in one of two ways:

1. Email your application package to Anne Bahde at anne.bahde@oregonstate.edu

2. Drop off your application package to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center, 5th floor of Valley Library.

What’s a “Collection?”
A collection

Consists of items that a student has come to own following a particular interest, or passion, which may be academic or not
May consist of all books or a combination of books and other formats. For instance, a collection on a geographical topic may include a map, a collection on a playwright may include a poster or playbill, or a collection about an historical event may include ephemera.
Consists of not less than 15 items or more than 30 items of which the majorityshould be books, but related materials such as photographs, illustrations, maps, ephemera, CDs, music scores, posters etc. may be included.
Can be on any topic; subjects can be contemporary or historical and may stress bibliographical features such as bindings, printing processes, type, editions, illustrations, etc. Rare books are not expected. Comic books and graphic novels are acceptable; ephemera alone if of historical interest is acceptable; historical–not current–textbooks may be included.

Examples of Previous Winners (2016)

Marie Bello, Fisheries and Wildlife: “Drawn to Inquiry: Scientific Illustration and Field Sketching as a Method of Exploring the Natural World
2nd prize: Kelsey Cronin, Biology: “Maps, Trails, and Navigation”
3rd prize: Victoria Drexel, MFA Program in Creative Writing: “Under My Skin: Collecting Sinatra”

How Do I Win?
Criteria for selection:

Clearly state the purpose or unified theme of the collection;
Explain the extent to which the collection represents the stated purpose;
Evidence of creativity in building the collection;
Originality, innovation, and uniqueness;
Quality of the collector’s essay describing the collection

A team of judges from campus and The Himes & Duniway Society will determine the contest winners.

The Fine Print:

Students are limited to one entry. The student must be a full time student and the sole owner of the collection. The winners may be eligible for entry into The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest supported by the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS) of which The Himes & Duniway Society is a member, the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division (the Library of Congress) with major support from the Jay I. Kislak Foundation. http://hq.abaa.org/books/antiquarian/abaapages/contest

If you have questions about book collecting or this contest, contact Anne Bahde at anne.bahde@oregonstate.edu or 541-737-2083.

Collections at the Center: A New Series for SCARC!

Leave a reply

Next week we are excited to begin our new series called Collections at the Center. Each quarter we will be inviting a faculty expert on campus to intimately interact with historical items from our collections, including rare books, archival materials, and manuscripts. The faculty member will present a brief lecture to contextualize, question, and reflect on these items for a public audience. Attendees will be invited to get “up close and personal” with the materials, looking closer to find new details and new discoveries. We’ll conclude with a discussion between presenter and audience, and together uncover captivating new ways of thinking about the collections in SCARC.

Our first presenter will be Dr. Rebecca Olson, Associate Professor in the Department of English at OSU. Professor Olson will discuss the manicule, the hand-drawn pointing index finger commonly used by readers throughout the early modern period to signify passages of interest in a text. While this mark would seem to adapt the highly social gesture of pointing for personal and solitary book use, it also draws our attention to the way that early modern readers regarded the book itself as a collective social space.

Please join us at 4:00pm on Wednesday, February 10 for our first exciting event in this series!

#Color Our Collections

Leave a reply

Museums and libraries around the country are promoting their collections by capitalizing on the current craze for coloring books. Using the hashtag #ColorOurCollections, libraries from the Smithsonian to Oregon Health and Science University are releasing fantastic images to color in. We’ve thrown one together from the Oregon State University Libraries’ rare book collections–download Color Our Collections 2016 and enjoy!

Third Annual OSU Book Collecting Contest!

Leave a reply

The OSU Valley Library is proud to announce the third year of our sponsored Book Collecting Contest!

Generously sponsored by the Himes & Duniway Society, a group of book collecting enthusiasts in Oregon, this contest is intended:

to encourage students in the collection and enjoyment of their own personal libraries,
to aid students in developing an appreciation for the special qualities of printed or illustrated works, and
to encourage students to read, research, and preserve these works for pleasure and scholarship.

The collection can focus on any subject, and the contest is open to all full-time students.

Prizes:

Three prizes will be awarded to student winners:

1st prize: $1,000
2nd prize: $500
3rd prize: $250

Prizes are generously funded by the Himes & Duniway Society.

APPLICATIONS ARE DUE Friday, March 11, 2016 by 5:00 PM.

How Do I Enter?
The Application Package should include the following:

The application form;
The essay, which should be at least two and no more than four pages in 12-point type with lines double-spaced describing how and why the collection was assembled;
A bibliography of the collection preferably using the MLA Bibliography format with each individual title numbered and annotated. The annotations should reflect the importance of each item to the collection as a whole
An annotated wish list of up to five other book titles that you would like to add in the future to complete or enhance your existing collection; and
digital images of at least 5 representative items in the collection, with 10 or more images being preferable.

You can submit your application in one of two ways:

1. Email your application package to Anne Bahde at anne.bahde@oregonstate.edu

2. Drop off your application package to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center, 5th floor of Valley Library.

What’s a “Collection?”
A collection

Consists of items that a student has come to own following a particular interest, or passion, which may be academic or not
May consist of all books or a combination of books and other formats. For instance, a collection on a geographical topic may include a map, a collection on a playwright may include a poster or playbill, or a collection about an historical event may include ephemera.
Consists of not less than 15 items or more than 30 items of which the majorityshould be books, but related materials such as photographs, illustrations, maps, ephemera, CDs, music scores, posters etc. may be included.
Can be on any topic; subjects can be contemporary or historical and may stress bibliographical features such as bindings, printing processes, type, editions, illustrations, etc. Rare books are not expected. Comic books and graphic novels are acceptable; ephemera alone if of historical interest is acceptable; historical–not current–textbooks may be included.

Example Topics:

Vampires
Comic books or graphic novels
Jane Austen
The Beat Poets

Previous Sample Entries:

 An Interdisciplinary Survey of 20th Century Propaganda – Andrew Fink

 Words of the Waves: A Nautical Collection – Emily Selinger

 How To Be Alone – Mack Sullivan

How Do I Win?
Criteria for selection:

Clearly state the purpose or unified theme of the collection;
Explain the extent to which the collection represents the stated purpose;
Evidence of creativity in building the collection;
Originality, innovation, and uniqueness;
Quality of the collector’s essay describing the collection

A team of judges from campus and The Himes & Duniway Society will determine the contest winners.

The Fine Print:

If you have questions about book collecting or this contest, contact Anne Bahde at anne.bahde@oregonstate.edu or 541-737-2083.

2nd Annual OSU Book Collecting Contest!

Leave a reply

The OSU Valley Library is proud to announce the second year of our sponsored Book Collecting Contest!

Sponsored in association with the Himes & Duniway Society, a group of book collecting enthusiasts in Oregon, this contest is intended:

to encourage students in the collection and enjoyment of their own personal libraries,
to aid students in developing an appreciation for the special qualities of printed or illustrated works, and
to encourage students to read, research, and preserve these works for pleasure and scholarship.

The collection can focus on any subject, and the contest is open to all full-time students.

Prizes:

Three prizes will be awarded to student winners:

1st prize: $1,000
2nd prize: $500
3rd prize: $250

Prizes are generously funded by the Himes & Duniway Society.

APPLICATIONS ARE DUE Friday, March 13, 2015 by 5:00 PM.

How Do I Enter?
The Application Package should include the following:

The application form;
The essay, which should be at least two and no more than four pages in 12-point type with lines double-spaced describing how and why the collection was assembled;
A bibliography of the collection preferably using the MLA Bibliography format with each individual title numbered and annotated. The annotations should reflect the importance of each item to the collection as a whole
An annotated wish list of up to five other book titles that you would like to add in the future to complete or enhance your existing collection; and
digital images of at least 5 representative items in the collection, with 10 or more images being preferable.

You can submit your application in one of two ways:

1. Email your application package to Anne Bahde at anne.bahde@oregonstate.edu

2. Drop off your application package to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center, 5th floor of Valley Library.

What’s a “Collection?”
A collection

Consists of items that a student has come to own following a particular interest, or passion, which may be academic or not
May consist of all books or a combination of books and other formats. For instance, a collection on a geographical topic may include a map, a collection on a playwright may include a poster or playbill, or a collection about an historical event may include ephemera.
Consists of not less than 15 items or more than 30 items of which the majorityshould be books, but related materials such as photographs, illustrations, maps, ephemera, CDs, music scores, posters etc. may be included.
Can be on any topic; subjects can be contemporary or historical and may stress bibliographical features such as bindings, printing processes, type, editions, illustrations, etc. Rare books are not expected. Comic books and graphic novels are acceptable; ephemera alone if of historical interest is acceptable; historical–not current–textbooks may be included.

Example Topics:

Vampires
Comic books or graphic novels
Jane Austen
The Beat Poets

Previous Sample Entries:

 An Interdisciplinary Survey of 20th Century Propaganda – Andrew Fink

 Words of the Waves: A Nautical Collection – Emily Selinger

 How To Be Alone – Mack Sullivan

How Do I Win?
Criteria for selection:

Clearly state the purpose or unified theme of the collection;
Explain the extent to which the collection represents the stated purpose;
Evidence of creativity in building the collection;
Originality, innovation, and uniqueness;
Quality of the collector’s essay describing the collection

A team of judges from campus and The Himes & Duniway Society will determine the contest winners.

The Fine Print:

If you have questions about book collecting or this contest, contact Anne Bahde at anne.bahde@oregonstate.edu or 541-737-2083.

Friday Feature: Winter Book Collecting Contest!

Leave a reply

The OSU Valley Library is sponsoring a Book Collecting Contest!

Sponsored in association with the Himes & Duniway Society, a group of book collecting enthusiasts in Oregon, this contest is meant

to encourage students in the collection and enjoyment of their own personal libraries,
to develop an appreciation for the special qualities of printed or illustrated works, and
to read, research, and preserve these works for pleasure and scholarship.

The collection can focus on any subject, and the contest is open to all full-time students.

Prizes:

Three prizes will be awarded to student winners:

1st prize: $1,000
2nd prize: $500
3rd prize: $250

Prizes are generously funded by the Himes & Duniway Society.

APPLICATIONS ARE DUE Friday, March 14, 2014 by 5:00 PM.

How Do I Enter?
The Application Package should include the following:

The application form;
The essay which should be at least two and no more than four pages in 12-point type with lines double-spaced describing how and why the collection was assembled;
A bibliography of the collection preferably using the MLA Bibliography format with each individual title numbered and annotated. The annotations should reflect the importance of each item to the collection as a whole
An annotated wish list of up to five other book titles that you would like to add in the future to complete or enhance your existing collection; and
digital images of items in the collection including at least five with ten or more representative books being preferable.

You can submit your application in one of two ways:

1. Email your application package to Anne Bahde at anne.bahde@oregonstate.edu

2. Drop off your application package to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center, 5^th floor of Valley Library.

What’s a “Collection?”
A collection

Consists of items that a student has come to own following a particular interest, or passion, which may be academic or not
May consist of all books or a combination of books and other formats. For instance, a collection on a geographical topic may include a map, a collection on a playwright may include a poster or playbill, or a collection about an historical event may include ephemera.
Consists of not less than 15 items or more than 30 items of which the majority should be books, but related materials such as photographs, illustrations, maps, ephemera, CDs, music scores, posters etc. may be included.
Can be on any topic; subjects can be contemporary or historical and may stress bibliographical features such as bindings, printing processes, type, editions, illustrations, etc. Rare books are not expected. Comic books and graphic novels are acceptable; ephemera alone if of historical interest is acceptable; historical–not current–textbooks may be included.

Example Topics:

Vampires
Comic books or graphic novels
Jane Austen
The Beat Poets

Previous Sample Entries:

 An Interdisciplinary Survey of 20th Century Propaganda – Andrew Fink

 Words of the Waves: A Nautical Collection – Emily Selinger

 How To Be Alone – Mack Sullivan

How Do I Win?
Criteria for selection:

Clearly state the purpose or unified theme of the collection;
Explain the extent to which the collection represents the stated purpose;
Evidence of creativity in building the collection;
Originality, innovation, and uniqueness;
Quality of the collector’s essay describing the collection

A team of judges from campus and The Himes & Duniway Society will determine the contest winners.

The Fine Print:

If you have questions about book collecting or this contest, contact Anne Bahde at anne.bahde@oregonstate.edu or 541-737-2083.