Where Do Truly Rare Books Belong?
The BBC has a report here regarding the future of a collection of rare books, owned by the Cardiff Council. The Council were looking to sell the books to raise funds - A sensible idea - what would councils be doing with rare books anyway? Cardiff University, The Welsh Assmebly and the Higher Education Funding Council sent a collection plate round and checked their pockets and managed to raise £1.2m to secure the books for the Univerisity's library. A number of scholars were very much against a public sale (or probably any sale outside of Cardiff institutions) and understandably so, but it raises the question: how do we make rare items, owned privately, available for scholarly research?
Letters, notebooks, journals are all highly prized, but many remain in vaults in the depths of one's manor, inaccessible to the outside world (take Casanova's letters for example). Such items can provide much needed insight into the murky world of our predecessors but if these items are owned privately, then there's often little that can be done to research them. If I had such a rarity that would warrant academic research, would I make it available? I doubt it, just for risk of damage. Although I'm sure they wouldn't fold the page corners, I doubt they would treat the item with as much respect as a bibliophile. Insurance against damage or loss might help, but it's still a large risk. To minimise the risk I would suggest that the item be digitised, just once and then never be seen again.
Most scholars would be interested in the actual text I would imagine, so a digital copy should suffice. Or is it more? Is it something to do with the presitge associated with a collection? Would more scholars head to Paris to examine that actual Casanova letters than would if they were just a cheap copy? Perhaps the issue is unaddressed because institutions aren't interested solely in examining the letters, but also in owning them. Let's not assume that's a bad thing, if a prestigious collection garners support and brings strong researchers, then all the better. It's a good plan. So perhaps the middle ground then is that the items are accessible to the institutions, even held there. Is that so different than being held in a bank vault (the answer is yes if you consider all the recent rare book thefts)?
But there is arguably a social responsibility here to make these items available. So let's recap. Private collectors will probably want their rare items where they're safe, Institutions want them on-site, for research and digitisation just might not cut it (in any case, have you ever tried getting a Gutenburg on a photocopier?) The key, as far as I can tell, is to open up communication channels. If you're a collector, create a bibliography and post it online, if you're a researcher, put out a request for information. It's not just highly-valued pieces either, anything that's rare could provide valuable insight. I might be highlighting a problem here that doesn't exist, but I have a feeling that many collectors out there know a whole heap of tidbits about their beloved authors that the academics don't. I'm hoping that Hyraxia can grow to let people meet and exchange information and find out valuable details about those shady characters we call writers.
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