Week 1: Tours, Exhibtions, and Homemade Hornbooks

It's been a busy first week of classes here at IU. Aside from taking a few classes (because I am a still a student) and guest speaking in twelve different sections of a physiology lab for non-majors, I began an internship at the Lilly Library. The Lilly is the fantastic rare books and manuscripts library at Indiana University. I was lucky enough to take a class there on manuscript librarianship last spring, and so I'm thrilled to be interning there this fall. I am working under the Head of Reference and Public Services, Becky Cape. So far, she has been fantastic. If my first week at the Lilly is any indication, then working with her should be pretty exciting.

For those who aren't familiar with my other blog, You Know You're A History Major When..., here's a little bit about myself. I'm just starting my second year in the School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. Before coming to Bloomington, I recieved my B.A. in history from Washington College, a lovely liberal arts college in rural Maryland. Both of my parents and my sister are scientists, so I'm something of the black sheep of the family. But if there's one thing that my parents instilled in both my sister and me, it's a love of books and reading. So being able to work with the collections at the Lilly is a huge treat for me.

The week began nice and low key, with a tour of the library. I got to walk through both the rare books and manuscripts stacks, and learned all the fun secrets of the stacks, like remembering to turn off lights (because lights are bad for special collections) and where to find pads to soak up water (because water is also bad for special collections). I met a lot of people, but I only remembered a few of their names (which I will work on). Becky also walked through the online and print finding aids to the collections, as well as how to use the card catalogs scattered throughout the library. Not only might I have to help patrons use these resources, but I will definitely need to be able to use them myself when answering reference questions.

On my second day, I got to sit in on a meeting with the head of the Fine Arts Library, who is curating an exhibit of artists' books in January. Since I had to make a small exhibit when I was in the Manuscripts class, I recognized the sheets Becky gave him. We walked around the main exhibit room looking at which cases he wanted to use and where, and where to put a table for books that patrons could handle. Since the Lilly believes that its exhibits are one of the best ways to give their collections exposure and publicity, being able to see that process from the beginning is pretty cool.

Another important part of Lilly outreach is exposing the undergraduates at IU to the collections by giving talks to classes. Becky told me about some classes she's going to be talking to next week about education in early America and it's relationship to morality. Aside from looking at some materials she'd already pulled, she allowed me to look through the hornbook collection and choose which of those she would show. There's a nice list of the hornbooks on the library web page, so I looked through that and choose some that seemed promising. I couldn't get them myself because they were in one of the vaults (where we keep extra valuable items). Once they'd been brought up, though, I got to hold them and look at them. And I can tell you that there's nothing quite like holding a homemade wooden hornbook that some kid once learned to read from back in the 1700s. Becky was pleased with my choices, which was excellent. I hope that the students next week enjoy them as much!

I'll be updating this every week or so (more often if I can find the time). Please keep reading and ask any questions you have!