Instruction Services

We instruct students in proper handling methods and guide them in directly handling and examining rare books.

History and Materiality of the Book

• Students handle and explore rare books to learn how to interpret evidence within the pages and binding of books to understand how books were printed, bound, collected, and used.
• Examining collections materials, students learn about the main periods of book production in the West: the transition from manuscript culture to hand-press printing and later mechanized printing.

Subject-specific rare books sessions

• Students will engage with rare books and collections materials chosen by the archivist and/or course instructor that enhance learning around a particular subject.

• College of Design students learning intaglio printing class take photographs of plates in illustrated books to inspire their own print designs.
• Astronomy students view key works by Galileo, Kepler, Isaac Newton, and others illuminating the Renaissance history of astronomy.
• Horticulture students examine early printed herbals.
• English students examine hand-press era books to understand bibliography.

Main collection strengths:

• Agriculture
• Science
• Technology

Secondary collecting areas:

• Artist’s books
• Costume dress, and fashion
• Domestic science, home economics, and household management
• Incunabula, or books printed before 1501
• Iowa Cookbook Collection
• Iowa and local history
• Literature: includes the Margaret Young Science Fiction Collection, several Charles Dickens novels in original parts and first bound editions, works by Lafcadio Hearn, and G.A. Henty novels.