Thursday, 11 May 2023, 2 p.m. BST, 90 minutes What happens when a book is lost? Missing a rare book or experiencing theft can be a disturbing situation for any librarian, as well as for rare booksellers. This webinar discusses ways to inform the rare book trade in order to stop illicit material from circulating and, whenever possible, to help in the return of missing items. The IFLA Rare Book and Special Collections Section (RBSC) and ILAB, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, are collaborating to emphasise the importance of reporting missing items to the book trade. Bookseller ..read more

The 2023 mid-term meeting of the IFLA Rare Books and Special Collections committee was held 15–17 March in Uppsala, Sweden. The first day was dedicated to committee meetings, which were held in the Uppsala University Library main building, Carolina Rediviva. This included discussions about upcoming webinars, satellite meetings, and conference sessions, among other things. The first day ended with a tour of the library, with a special focus on Book Hall and its historical collections. The second day of RBSC’s midterm meeting was devoted to Libraries in the Time of War, arranged by the IFLA R ..read more

Call for Papers, WLIC 2023 The IFLA Rare Books and Special Collections Section (RBSC) and the Indigenous Matters Section (IM) are seeking proposals for presentations and sessions for their Joint Satellite Session at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2023 in Leiden on the 18th and 19th of August, 2023. This Satellite Conference will be devoted to the role that individuals working in the area of special collections and heritage can have in confronting the ongoing legacies of colonialism, and creating space for Indigenous perspectives. How can librarians, archivists, and curators co ..read more

March 8, 2023. Hosted by Uppsala University Library in Collaboration with IFLA and CERL Men reading in war library service section, Red Cross Building. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.   Libraries are especially impacted during times of national and international conflict. While the theft of cultural artefacts as spoils of war were historically, under the correct circumstances, in accordance with international law in the early modern period, such practices have been strongly condemned in the modern period. Nevertheless, the international community continues to witnes ..read more

IFLA Rare Books and Special Collections Section events at WLIC 2019 The Rare Books and Special Collections Section invites you to join our programme of events during the Congress in Athens, 24-30 August 2019. Full details of each session are posted on the Congress website but this post gives a short summary. Get involved! If you are interested in the Rare Books and Special Collections section, and in the issues involved in working with rare books and special collections of any kind, please come and speak to us at the Congress. You are invited to attend our programme sessions and the sessions w ..read more

The Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) is working to help its member libraries and other organisations that curate cultural heritage collections to answer precisely that question. As a membership organisation, CERL aims to facilitate, enhance, and improve the use and impact of printed and manuscript cultural heritage material. CERL raises the awareness of cultural heritage collections and their content among scholars and interested parties worldwide. CERL is service and partnership oriented by offering its members and the library, archival, and scholarly world at large high quali ..read more

Special collections around the world come in a wide range of formats and sizes. Together they are defined and characterized by their cultural significance, uniqueness, provenance, rarity, financial value, and by the security and storage arrangements that are required to ensure their long-term preservation and accessibility. Last year RBSC organized a ‘provocation’ session as part of WLIC 2021 and invited four ‘provocateurs’ to propose new approaches to the question of how and what we value in special collections, and in doing so challenge the audience to think about their values and what they ..read more

Join RBSC and P&C at WLIC 2022 for Exhibitions: Designed to Inspire and Engage (Session 068) Room: Liffey Hall 2 Tuesday, July 26, 13:15 – 14:30   This joint IFLA program will address the shared institutional challenges and opportunities of exhibitions in twenty-first century, post-pandemic cultural heritage institutions. Libraries are increasingly tasked with finding spaces for public exhibitions, and the line dividing libraries and museums is increasingly blurred. Enviably, the increased demand for exhibitions has also increased the demand for loans of cultural heritage objects, reg ..read more

The Rare Book and Special Collections Section Presents:   Competency Guidelines for Rare Books and Special Collections Professionals: A Discussion   In late 2020, the Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) section published “Competencies for Special Collections Professionals.”  This IFLA standard outlines the competencies that were developed as a guide for all library professionals who work with special collections materials, both analog and digital. These guidelines provide direction and focus for special collections professionals to facilitate their own career development ..read more

This year’s World Library and Information Congress (WLIC), the annual big-tent event put on by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), was delivered virtually over a three-day period. In pre-pandemic times, WLICs take place over a six- or seven-day period, with hundreds of standing committee meetings, paper sessions, governance meetings, poster and vendor exhibitions and cultural events taking place. This years virtual alternative strove to bring together some of the magic of being together in-person, whilst also delivering new kinds of content and sessions, and also acr ..read more