Sparking Joy in the UNF Rare Books Collection

University of North Florida (UNF) Special Collections does not have clear guidelines for collecting ‘rare’ books and maintaining them in our climate-controlled storage. Overcrowding is also a problem in Special Collections’ storage space. Both issues have led to a reassessment project of the noncirculating ‘rare’ books collected over the past 35 to 40 years. In the summer of 2018 UNF’s Resource Description Librarian surveyed the books under the direction of the Head of Special Collections and University Archives. In late fall 2018 we formed a Rare Books Advisory Group, an ad hoc group that is part of the Collection Development Committee, to review the mostly not-rare books housed in Special Collections. Each month we meet and review different areas of collection, for example local authors or faculty publications. Through our monthly meetings we are slowly creating a collection development policy by establishing criteria for books to be maintained in Special Collections and those to be transferred into the library’s general collection. The poster shows our process to date and includes a flow chart showing the criteria considered when determining the ultimate disposition for the book. This is an evolving project, and we are excited in interact and get feedback from the larger Florida archival community.

Poster presented to the Society of Florida Archivists 2019 Annual Meeting on May 10, 2019.