[Scriptoris] Road Trip Recommendations?

[Diane Rudin]

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Crystal Lamb <crystal.lamb at sabinevalley.org> wrote:

>The Dallas Public library also has nifty books...*however*....to me it
>feels like an Act of Congress to get to them (although I always thought
>Mistress Serena had, like, the Willy Wonka Golden ticket to get in or
>something)....

My Secret is Out!  (Hmmm, where's that ticket?  I could sell it....)  But seriously, except for a couple of brief and disappointing excursions to the main branch downtown, I haven't been to any of the Dallas Public Libraries.  I did do a little research in the main branch downtown in the Houston Public Library, but that was over twelve years ago.  Public libraries, excepting a few notable items or special collections that you really DO need the Willy Wonka Golden Ticket to enter, are a bust for research when compared to any halfway-decent University library.

Most public university libraries have fairly decent hours and they let in anybody as long as the building is open.  Private university libraries can be much more restrictive in hours and access, as I discovered to my chagrin in December.  I was trying to finish up a term paper, and needed to look at a book at the SMU Underwood Law Library.  I couldn't get in because only SMU students, faculty, and card-carrying ABA (American Bar Association) members were allowed in during finals week.  I finished the paper okay, but it would have been a better paper if I'd known their policy.

So before you decide to bundle yourself and your three closest scribal friends into a car for a road trip, research where you're going *first*, *far in advance*.  I can tell you that the really cool books at SMU are in the Special Collections at Bridwell Library.  The Bridwell Special Collections Reading Room is only open 8:30a-5:00p M-F.  No weekends.  No evening hours.  Ever.  The people at the downstairs desk for the main Bridwell stacks have to call up to the Special Collections people with your (one or two) book requests.  They pull the book upstairs, then come downstairs to escort you to view the book.  You are allowed pencil and paper.  I don't know if they allow laptops or not.  I wasn't asked to wear white gloves.  If the Special Collections guy is out to lunch, tough luck, come back later.

The Bridwell Open Stacks (the main collections downstairs, not the special collections upstairs) have a wealth of information for the serious student.  I have been reconstructing complete texts of books of hours for different centuries and "uses" (liturgical regions) almost exclusively based on material dug out of the stacks.  Having twelve books out at a time, scattered all over a table, all of them printed almost a century ago, is fun.  This collection contains primary source reprints as well as quality secondary research sources.

The Hamon Arts Library has a very good collection of secondary sources for those who are looking for primary source reprints of mostly pictures.  (If anyone wants to initiate the inevitable discussion of the definition of primary and secondary sources, start a new thread.  I'll be happy to obfuscate.)  I spend most of my time at the Underwood Law Library, but that's all technical stuff.

Evening access to any SMU library is restricted, in theory at least, to SMU students.  You have to put your SMU ID card into a cardreader to enter the building.  This can be circumvented by anyone with a large bladder.  Don't drink a super-size Coke right before entering a building.

The UTA libraries are less impressive in scope, quality, and content, but at least they're more accessible, and are still better than most public civic libraries.  Most of the picture books are in the Fine Arts Library located on the west side of campus.  Paleography books are in the main library, located in the mid-campus.  Anyone can enter as long as the building is open.  You don't have to be a student to use the library computers to do research on the internet, and there are some *really cool* websites that you can only access from libraries.  I've never tried to access those sites from a public civic library, so I don't know if non-university libraries subscribe to those sites or not.

All that being said, between Lasair's collection of big picture books and my collection of technical paleography and diplomatica books, we have a better library than any civic or university library I've seen and almost any I've heard of, barring, say, the Library of Congress, Harvard, Yale, U.Virginia, Stanford, etc.  In the state of Texas, we're second only to UT in Austin.  With this caveat:  neither she nor I have complete, original, period manuscripts for you to look at.  We do have a few single pages, but complete books are WAY out of our price range, unless we win the lotto.  I also don't have the technical sources on books of hours (except for *Time Sanctified*, which was for a popular as well as technical audience) that SMU's Bridwell has.  (Notice that I haven't mentioned museums.  That's another post entirely, and this is WAY too long as it is.)

So unless your research needs are very technical, Lasair & Serena's Combined Reference Library for Scribes is the place to visit here in Dallas.  Better hours, better company, knowledgeable reference "librarians", and we make chocolate fudge!

--Serena



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