Text by: Kayo
I always feel that every library has books and databases, but it's the special collections that make a library unique. When I started my position as the Head Librarian at SCAD Hong Kong in 2014, I started to develop our special collections. I was inspired by special collections in our other SCAD Libraries locations, such as the special collections at Jen Library in Savannah, and the artist book collection at ACA Library in Atlanta. I wanted to collect and maintain a collection that is uniquely Hong Kong.
As the head librarian, one of my objectives this year is to build a special collections for SCAD Hong Kong. I would like to document this experience and share the Hong Kong library community. During the next academic year, I will blog my reflections as I work on building, developing and maintaining the special collections at SCAD Hong Kong. Some topics I may cover are documentations and guidelines for special collections, visits to other special collections in Hong Kong, training on preservation and other relevant topics, pictures and information about the cool and quirky things I may have found for the special collections, as well as some of the success and challenges on my journey in building this collection.
As the first post about this topic, I will share some pictures of some of the items I've collected.
We have a substantial collection of zines made by local Hong Kong artists.
We also collect miniature books made by local Hong Kong artists. These are published by a group called Eggwich.
In the next post, I will discuss the documents I have developed for our selection criteria guidelines. I welcome any suggestions or feedback. If you have any questions about our special collections, or simply want to get in touch, please feel free to email me: kchang(at)scad.edu