A Class Visit to Special Collections
On Thursday February 16th on the sixth floor of Wake’s Zachary Smith Reynolds Library, my Library Science class visited Wake Forest’s Special Collections and Archives.
As a senior History major at Wake Forest I was well acquainted with the existence of Special Collections and have visited before with former History classes and to conduct research for my senior thesis.
In one class we were required to use a Special Collections resource for our final research paper and I visited Special Collections looking at Early modern texts from Great Britain.
Despite knowing a part about Special Collections and its value, I was definitely reminded of the uniqueness of such a resource in our library and our university.
To begin with, Special Collections is the archives and resource provided by Wake Forest that consists of many primary sources and original texts that are historically preserved. Being a medieval enthusiast I take particularly interest in the original hand written manuscripts available that were present for us during our visit.
During our visit, we were presented various resources available in Special Collections such as old Baptist newspapers, manuscripts, travel journals, bibles, etc.
The Special Collections librarian Megan Mulder, who teaches a class on the history of the book, took her time to teach us the treasures that Special Collections had on hand. We were in for a treat, we discussed all of the available archives made by Special Collections but she also shared us a quick glimpse about the the history behind the book from manuscripts, to grandiose show off, and to modern day household items. Printing was such an innovative idea that Professor Mulder referenced that print making that began in Germany was akin to the modern day Silicon Valley back then.
As a history major this visit had a distinct significance to me. Libraries have been the foundation in which the human story has been maintained, chronicled, recorded, and restored. Libraries have been integral in maintaining academic interests, quenching curiosity, and where curious individuals go to learn and adopt their passions. Now, ideally all that is written and recorded becomes history. What is important and fascinating as a historian is learning about the many perspectives during a time. Often people claim that history is written by the winners, and while policy decisions are certainly made by winners, I believe libraries under the proper structure and with free reign do justice to ensure that history is not entirely recorded by winners. Because of libraries, historians and curious individuals could learn about the victors, the famous people, but also the losers and the not so famous people such as the midwife during Revolutionary America to the German soldier during World War 1.
The limited space and value of Special Collections adds great value in my opinion to Wake Forest. I particularly enjoyed that most of the works in Special Collections have been donated and that the ZSR is not part of the whole sale for value of their special collections. It’s nice to know that it is not treated solely as a money-making or business process but a sincere preservation for the work.
Located on the sixth floor I encourage that visits to Special Collections continue in library science classes as it’s a hands on look to an amazing part of library. It’s amazing that today in the modern day many of these rare special collections are made available through digital sources but to have the physical component is very enriching.
From rare books to the NC Baptist records to old Wake Forest yearbooks, the sixth floor room of the Zachary Smith Reynolds captures a special piece of the soul of the Wake experience.
