Special Collections News

Agriculture learning through Continuing Education Schools

Kristen Merryman — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:00:04 +0000

Contributed by Holly Withrow. In addition to the Agricultural Chemicals School, now the Crop Protection School, discussed in our blog post last week, many other continuing education programs related to agriculture are held here at NCSU. These include schools such as the “Peach School,” and the “Apple Pest Control School.” Above is an example for a program [...]

Aristotle and Calderon

Jennifer Baker — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:39 +0000

contributed by Beth DeBold. The Special Collections Research Center owns two large sets of books, printed approximately prior to 1700. The first is the complete works of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, a Spanish poet and playwright, and the second is the complete works of Aristotle. Printed between 1698 and 1731, Calderón’s works are spread out [...]

Agricultural Chemicals School

Kristen Merryman — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:43:46 +0000

The 5,300 students who graduated last weekend at PNC Arena are not the only type of student that North Carolina State University serves. Continuing education, particularly for farmers, is something that NCSU has been involved in since the university opened its doors over a century ago. Recognizing that many of those who could most use [...]

My Favorite Rare Book (at NCSU…pre-1700)

Jennifer Baker — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:00:14 +0000

contributed by Beth DeBold. One of my favorite texts in the pre-1700 imprints here at NCSU was De la Demonomanie des Sorciers by Jean Bodin. I enjoyed all of the books with which I worked for different reasons, but beyond aesthetically pleasing covers and woodcuts, I fell in love with several items for their content [...]

Professor Einstein, the animal’s friend

Jennifer Baker — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:00:48 +0000

contributed by Kristina Bender. What was Albert Einstein doing on August 21, 1937? Someone with a popular knowledge of Einstein might recite E = mc2 or mumble a few details about the Manhattan Project. Most people would not imagine Einstein–famous by then and rightfully bracing for another war–scribbling from his desk at the Institute for Advanced Study, [...]

Subject representation in the Rare Books Collection (pre-1700)

Jennifer Baker — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:00:54 +0000

contributed by Beth DeBold. Subject strengths are usually the result of careful collection development, and while NCSU has certainly developed parameters for collecting rare books in the last twenty years, collecting was less directed prior to the formation of the Special Collections Research Center in 1993. The current Rare Books collection at NCSU is a the [...]

Plant Disease Clinic

Kristen Merryman — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:28:17 +0000

Contributed by Holly Withrow. One of the more important aspects of a Plant Pathologists job is diagnosing plant diseases for farmers via inspecting specimens. In North Carolina, where the range of crops grown is so vast, plant pathologists are an especially important aspect of keeping crops healthy. In a recent collection of digitized papers from the Plant [...]

The Oldest Complete Printed Work at NCSU

Jennifer Baker — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:31:29 +0000

contributed by Beth Debold. It is important to remember that rare books, or any rare material, are never valuable solely due to their age. However, many librarians, researchers, and other library users seem to have a special yen for the oldest items. I thought I might share NCSU’s oldest complete printed item with you today. NCSU has [...]

Plant Pathology in Space?

Kristen Merryman — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:00:53 +0000

Contributed by Holly Withrow. While scanning materials for the Cultivating a Revolution digitization project, I discovered in a folder of papers from the Plant Pathology Department of North Carolina State University dated from the 1960s a paper suggesting that NASA should focus a little more on Plant Pathology. The unnamed author suggests that while NASA should rightly [...]

Printer’s Devices

Jennifer Baker — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:55:17 +0000

contributed by Beth DeBold. It’s been awhile since I have written for you all, but now that my master’s paper is complete, I am excited to share some of my findings! Look out for some more posts over the next few months. As a refresher, I’m a current SILS student at UNC-Chapel Hill, and just wrote [...]