Van Pelt showcases rare books

The punishment? Waiting for a Van Pelt Library elevator to take you all the way to the sixth floor. The reward? Discovering an entirely new world of old books. The few who venture to the Department of Special Collections will find a rare gem. The entire sixth floor of Van Pelt was designed to showcase both the University's founding library and other books that are unique or require special care. Surrounded by carved panels that once lined a 15th century English house is a wide collection of everything from ninth century manuscripts and illustrated materials from throughout history to a book bound in dog skin. "Dog skin is a terrific binding material because dogs do not sweat through pores. It is much better than human skin," said Dan Traister, a curator of the collection. "But that is not our most interesting artifact -- we have so many materials that people could put to good use." The Department of Special Collections comprises the Rare Book and Manuscript Collection, the Henry Lea Library, the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection in the History of Chemistry, and the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library. Included in the department are more than 250,000 printed books, more than 9,000 linear feet of manuscript collections, and at least 1,400 codex manuscripts, as well as maps, broadsides, playbills and programs, photographs, prints and drawings, and sound recordings. The department is looking to encourage people to use its resources -- both in and out of Van Pelt. Any University student with a justified request can read any material from the collection in the designated reading room. Also, the department has recently developed an on-line page that even includes some parts of the collection in their entirety, varying from Shakespeare to Victorian diaries. "We have tried very hard to make this floor and the department very accessible," said curator Lynne Farrington. "Everyone should enjoy the wonderful resources that we have." During the past three years, the number of class and group visits to the department has greatly increased, according to Farrington. The department is now featuring two exhibits on the sixth floor of Van Pelt, "Household Words" and "From Written to Printed Text: The Transmission of Jewish Tradition." "It is fun to pick up the first edition of an Austen novel or to look for evidence yourself," Traister said. "It's fun for me to work with this kind of stuff."