US Income Tax Instruction booklet? The Starr Report? 9/11 Report? none? EW -----Original Message----- From: Rare book and manuscripts on behalf of Ellen Middlebrook Herron Sent: Tue 3/11/2008 10:56 PM To: EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU Subject: Re: [EXLIBRIS-L] Printed in the millions? perhaps the bible - or maybe the latest john grisham book... certainly never any publication i've been involved in! > "Most recently, these rare books and thousands like them were being stored > in > the library stacks alongside modern volumes that are printed by the > millions > instead of by the dozens." > > What books are printed in the millions? > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Everett Wilkie" <ewilkie@IX.NETCOM.COM> > To: <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU> > Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 7:41 PM > Subject: [EXLIBRIS-L] Description of new PA state library rare book wing > > >> This appeared in the Post Gazette. One interesting aspect of the new >> library is that they seemed to have banned traditional writing >> instruments >> entirely from the reading room. --ECW >> >> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08069/863695-85.stm# >> >> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >> >> State library's new wing slows aging of old documents >> Sunday, March 09, 2008 >> By Tracie Mauriello, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau >> >> Brady C. Bower for the Post-Gazette >> >> HARRISBURG -- Paper booties, cotton smocks and blue latex gloves are de >> rigeur in the austere and darkened corridors, where hidden cameras, >> key-card >> readers and fingerprint scanners track every movement. >> >> A filtration system removes harmful gases from the air. Sensors detect >> chemical changes as subtle as new colognes worn by the small cadre of >> personnel authorized to enter the innermost sanctum. >> >> This isn't a scene from "The Matrix." There are no secrets being guarded >> here, rather documents that the curators want you to see. >> >> This is the new $7.2 million Rare Collections wing of the Pennsylvania >> State >> Library. >> >> After two years of design and two years of construction, the wing now is >> being filled with 12,000 of the state's oldest and most valuable >> holdings, >> including Ben Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanacs" and a well-worn copy >> of >> the Magna Carta that the founding fathers referred to during the >> Continental >> Congress as they drafted the U.S. Constitution. >> >> In six months, the wing will be ready for scholars and researchers who >> come >> from all corners of the state and, recently, as far as Japan to view the >> state's collection of historical documents. >> >> The documents will be available to the public, too. >> >> "Our purpose is to make documents available to serious researchers and >> students, but we had a limited capacity to make them available to the >> public. Now, because we can protect them, we can make them known," said >> Caryn Carr, director of the Pennsylvania State Library. "Now we can make >> them available to greater numbers." >> >> There is a 1739 ceremonial Bible that the Pennsylvania General Assembly >> used >> in its earliest days. There is a 1795 map of Harrisburg hand-drawn on >> animal >> skin. There a copy of the 1752 newspaper in which Benjamin Franklin >> first >> described his kite-and-key experiment that resulted in the discovery of >> electricity. >> >> The collection also includes agricultural pamphlets, musical scores, >> ornithology books and religious texts, including the German Saur Bible, >> the >> first non-English-language Bible printed in the colonies. >> >> For the oldest volumes, the relocation to the collections wing will be >> their >> 12th move since in 1777. >> >> Thought to be a target of British soldiers in the Revolutionary War, 425 >> volumes were taken at night from Philadelphia to a hay barn in Easton >> for >> safekeeping, said Mary Clare Zales, the state Department of Education's >> deputy director for libraries. All but two of those volumes survived >> war, >> fire, flood and neglect, she said. >> >> Most recently, these rare books and thousands like them were being >> stored >> in >> the library stacks alongside modern volumes that are printed by the >> millions >> instead of by the dozens. Centuries-old documents were stored on metal >> shelves in a room with peeling paint, dusty curtains and florescent >> lights >> known to cause paper to disintegrate. >> >> "They are in a much better environment now, much better," Ms. Carr said. >> >> Thousands of books, pamphlets, maps and newspapers have been moved to >> the >> new environmentally controlled area already, and library employees are >> transporting the rest one bookcart at a time from the library stacks to >> the >> renovated 18,000-square-foot wing that used to house card catalogs, >> meeting >> rooms and administrative offices. >> >> The area includes an elegant reading room with Venetian plaster walls, >> stained-glass depictions of Franklin and granite floors and tabletops >> that >> reflect and amplify light, which is kept at low levels to better >> preserve >> documents. The room is framed on three sides by Pennsylvania black >> cherry >> wood, which came from trees hand picked by project architect Cornelius >> Rosnov, of the state Department of General Services. The fourth side >> comprises plaster tryptychs depicting figures from Greek mythology. >> >> No pens or pencils are allowed here, lest graphite dust and stray ink >> mar >> its treasures. Instead, patrons can use laptop computers to take notes. >> The >> reading room is the only elaborately decorated part of the wing. It was >> designed with people in mind, while the rest of the vault is aimed not >> at >> creature comforts, but at book preservation. Translation: It is dim and >> cool. >> >> Out of that darkness will come new light shed on the state's past as the >> library provides greater access to the treasures of William Penn's time. >> >> "This is really going to help us elevate the discourse about that time >> period," Ms. Zales said. >> >> The high-tech environment is the only one of its kind in Pennsylvania, >> and >> already is becoming a model for other states. It was designed by a team >> of >> architects, engineers, chemists, physicists, historians, librarians and >> paper-preservation specialists. >> >> "We are showing that we can produce an appropriate environment to >> preserve >> books despite the climate inside," Mr. Rusnov said. "It is a model >> project >> that other libraries could learn from." >> >> Paper and other artifacts cannot be stopped from deteriorating, but Mr. >> Rusnov believes he has created the perfect environment to slow the >> process. >> >> "These things are going to continue to deteriorate naturally. They are >> going >> to rot," he said. "We can't stop the process, but we can extend the life >> of >> these materials until technology catches up and can extend it again." >> >
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