rare books and special collections in virginia

A deviation from the program - this week I've been in Charlottesville Virginia at Rare Book School. I took a course called 'Introduction to Special Collections Librarianship' which was taught by Alice Schreyer, Director of the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Chicago. Most of the students in the class were librarians or administrators of university special collections, which meant that the course naturally emphasised this area of SC librarianship. We discussed the theory and practice of SC librarianship, with a focus on rare book collections, although we did speak extensively about manuscript and archival collections. Among other things, we covered areas such as access, reservation, digitisation, using SCs in teaching and outreach (including exhibitions), the phenomenon of 'hidden collections', and the recently-drafted document outlining core competencies for SC professionals. It was a really interesting week and a great perspective on how the SC community in the US functions (actually, quite an eye-opener in some ways, especially in terms of funding and the positioning of the SC profession within the general library community). I've made copious notes, of course, but can I read them???