Social Media as Entrée into Special Collections Reference Works

Librarians in our segment of the profession have an obligation to prepare not only the next generation of librarians, but also the next generation of collectors and scholars who engage with rare books and archival material. This preparation, in which librarians join with a community of scholars and teachers, can take many forms; employ myriad strategies; and impart diverse skills. Among the skills we share are the physical evaluation of the book itself as an object, placing the object into the historical and social context in which it was created, and intellectual interrogation of the source itself. None of these skills can be employed to their fullest potential without the use of rare book and archival reference sources.