I am posting this for a colleague:
I would strongly recommend G. Thomas Tanselle's 2005 Robert L. Nikirk
Lecture "The Pleasures of Being a Scholar-Collector." It provides an
informative and amusing account of Tanselle's collecting career, and the
way in which his collecting originated in, and subsequently supported and
extended scholarly inquiry. It is particularly good on the value and
importance of imprint collecting, and the ways in which the activity and
strategies of collecting are, in themselves, forms of scholarship.
Tanselle's lecture was published earlier this year by the Grolier Club, and
is available from The Veatchs Arts of the Book - http://www.veatchs.com/
Declan Kiely
+------------------
Nina Schneider
Librarian
Berg Collection of English & American Literature, Room 320
The New York Public Library
Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
New York, NY 10018-2788
Tel.: (212) 642-0111
Fax.: (212) 930-0079
nschneider@nypl.org