College library rankings

joelangford
Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:38:17 +0000

KyleDavid – I think it’s not to examine the ink and paper that scholars are interested in. In these collections of writers’ papers, scholars are able to study the evolution of particular works and of the writer’s craft – revisions (some works have many), word changes, sections that are marked out, notes in the margins, letters written to others about the work and the writer’s life --all the unpublished stuff that sheds light on how the author thought and wrote. And, you’re right, there are probably many legal proscriptions on digitalizing these personal papers that were never even published.

Breadth and depth are great, but seriously, how many books do you really think you will want to read that aren’t in the basic collection of 5 million volumes or so that major university libraries have? If you do, it won’t be hard to get them through Interlibrary Loan.

Any way you slice it, Texas apparently has a fantastic collection of unique material. Why the need to knock it? I’m sure HYPS also have some great special collections.