Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
Of course, I only thought of Mr. Potter moments after I sent. His
debut, The Philosopher's Stone, Bloomsbury, 1997, was only 500 copies,
with 300 going to school libraries.
EW
-----Original Message-----
From: Rare book and manuscripts [mailto:EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU]
On Behalf Of Greenberg, Stephen (NIH/NLM) [E]
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 6:27 AM
To: EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU
Subject: Re: [EXLIBRIS-L] Printed in the millions?
The initial US print run for _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_ was
12 million copies.
Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD
Coordinator of Public Services
History of Medicine Division
National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health
Department of Health and Human Services
301-435-4995
greenbes@mail.nih.gov
-----Original Message-----
From: Ellen Middlebrook Herron [mailto:ellen@CHICAGOBYNIGHT.ORG]
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:56 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."
>>
>