The ETSU Sherrod Library hosted a Rare Collections event on March 6 and 7. The exhibits included a variety of items such as rare books, historic maps and flags, all meant to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America.
Although the library hosts about 5,000 rare books, only 20 to 25 were displayed at the Rare Collections event. Each of these books is focused on American history or the same time period. A similar thing happened with the maps. The library holds 80,000 maps, but only 15 to 20 were displayed.
Library Information Specialist Paul Nease shared, “Honestly, the hardest thing is narrowing it down because we have so, so much information.”
Additionally, the event showcased the microfilm collection, digitizing selected films to display them on televisions. In the end, the Rare Collections Event took almost an entire year to plan out.
“We want to highlight some of our unique and our archival collections here at the library,” Nease said. “You know, I think the library has a lot to offer, and so this is really our big promotional event to get people in the door so they can really see what we have, and hopefully it gets them interested and so they can come back later and really do a deep dive and explore the rest of our collections.”
In addition to the Rare Collections Event, ETSU’s Sherrod Library hosts a variety of workshops, meetings, game nights, competitions, and many more events every week, online and in-person. There will be a 3D Model to 3D Print Workshop on Thursday, March 12, and the Coffee and Creative Writing monthly meeting also on Thursday, March 12.
