53rd chat, Monday March 7 2016: you don’t have to wear white gloves: critical approaches to rare books

Moderated by @ForgetTheMaine
Storify (pdf, html) by @violetbfox

Suggested readings:

• The “Women in Print” project through the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois Press, a project that “explores the impact of the imprint in its original form and offers fresh insights into the reception history of books written by women”: http://womeninprint.press.illinois.edu/
• “The Archival Object: A Memoir of Disintegration” by Lisa Darms, Archivaria, 2009: http://journals.sfu.ca/archivar/index.php/archivaria/article/download/13212/14492_1 (pdf)

Discussion questions:

• Q1. Tell everyone about your experience with rare books, if any. Were you allowed/encouraged to handle the materials? #critlib
• Q2. What can rare book librarians do to break down barriers between repositories and the communities they serve? #critlib
• Q3. What do we need to collect to ensure that rare books is more than old white texts? #critlib
• Q4. Can rare books be critical or radical? Can they be separated from capitalistic value? #critlib