There is more to the A.C. Clark Library than what meets the eye
By Matt Ellinghuysen, 2/18/11
There are many places on Bemidji State University’s campus which many people will never visit or even know exist in their academic career; One of these places is located down on the second floor of the A.C. Clark Library. It is the library’s special collections and Bemidji State University’s archive. The special collections and archive is not a place for historic books and documents to decompose, but a place where students and others should visit to appreciate as well as learn about novels and university history.
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| A view from the inside of special colletions photo by Matt Ellinghuysen |
At first walking into the special collections and archive a sawdust–like smell embraces you from the materials encased inside, and there lines before your eyes shelves of novels waiting to tell their story. The room is made up of a table and scattered chairs which take up the center of the room and an old wooden rocking chair sits off in the corner, and almost begs for some to sit in it and tell a story as if a grandparent would to a young child.
The man in charge of this place is associate professor of library instruction Bill Shaman, who has been working there for a countless number of years. The special collections houses rare first or second copies of books. These books are sometimes signed by the author and very expensive to replace, therefore their use is not encouraged.
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| A look into the King James Bible photo by Matt Ellinghuysen |
The most remarkable piece in the special collections has to be a first edition of the King James Bible dating back to 1611, which had to be taken out of a locked bookcase containing other books. The covers and bindings of every book in it could tell a million stories of where they had been. Shaman said it took him ten years to write an essay on this particular King James Bible, this is after he looked at many other versions of the Bible. What many people do not know is all Bibles are not alike; many contain spelling errors and different twists to stories.
The Bemidji State’s University archive is used even less than the special collections. This is where one can find all university sound and photography, student and professors’ thesis, and every copy of the Northern Student, Bemidji State University campus paper, since the date or publication in 1926.
According to Shaman, “It’s a lonely job working with the special collections and the archive,” this is because very few if almost no one has interest in them.
Many would ask themselves, “What are we saving this stuff for,” said Shaman. The reason is they are history; it would be a shame if they were discarded and never seen again. We can learn many things about books and authors through this collection, such as how things were written, published, eventually bound, and put on the market for sale. Most of the special collections consist of antiquarian books, which are books that date back at-least 200 years.
Many things in the archive according to Shaman “will never see the light of publication.” The archive once held parts of the regional historical society, but in the tough economy, funding was lost and the items which the archive held were sent out the Beltrami County History Center and other places.
The special collections and archive maybe a place where “they (books) will last when all of us are dust,” said Shaman. For more information on special collections and the archive located on the second floor of the A.C. Clark Library its hours are Tuesday 1-3 p.m., Wednesday 8-11 p.m., Thursday 8-10 a.m., or by appointment at the A.C. Clark Library service desk.
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