Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Distilling A Collection: Creating A Distilling, Fermenting, And Brewing Special Collection At The James E. Walker Library, Alan Boehm, Susan J. Martin, Rachel Kirk

The Southeastern Librarian

This essay recounts the steps we took to launch the new Distilling, Fermenting, and Brewing Collection in our Special Collections department. It began with the routine task of weeding our general collection but quickly led to other activities which included a broader collection analysis; consideration of campus, local and state resources; consultation with development and fundraising staff; and research in the anti-quarian trade. Knowing what we had and what we could acquire in the book market, surmising the po-tential for private and industry support, and understanding the multiple scholarly possibilities embed-ded in our collection, we embarked on building a resource …