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Guild of Book Workers Library Donated to University of Iowa Library

university of iowa campus in fall

After much careful thought and consideration, the Board of Directors passed a unanimous vote to donate the Guild of Book Workers’ library collection to the University of Iowa Libraries. The gift paperwork has been signed by all parties, and the terms of the gift are now final.

Under this agreement:

  • All items will be fully cataloged. Once that work is complete, they can be found in the Libraries’ online catalog. All items will be made available for use onsite at the University of Iowa, which is open to the general public. To learn more about accessing materials housed in Special Collection, please see https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/visitors-guide/
  • The collection will remain “The Guild of Book Workers Collection”. A GBW bookplate will be inserted into each volume, and a collection note would also be added to the online catalog. - Rare items or those with special provenance will remain in Special Collections.
  • Some non-rare items may be moved to the circulating collection as appropriate.
  • Any items that Iowa does not wish to keep in their collection (i.e. duplicates) will be returned to GBW at the University’s expense. (Plans for these materials are TBA, and will be determined once we know what items are being returned to us).
  • By taking ownership of the collection, Iowa may be able to add certain items to their digitization queue.
  • Iowa will be able to provide conservation or rehousing services for fragile items. To learn more about the history of the GBW Library, visit https://guildofbookworkers.org/library DVDs of past Standards presentations will remain in custody of GBW and will continue to be available to borrow through the mail. The majority of videos have been digitized and are also available via streaming at https://vimeo.com/guildofbookworkers/vod_pages