Ancient meets modern

A rare book rarely sees the light of day and for good reasons. Fragility, security and by their very nature, rarity. ALC’s collection is therefore locked away and not often viewed by the public. This is not a matter of officious guardianship but primarily of conservation.

Conservation has been high on the agenda in recent years with successful applications for community heritage grants by our Rare Book Custodian, Trevor Schaefer, for the books’ assessment and ongoing preservation.

As part of the grant process, Trevor produced documents which feature photographs, history, and provenance of a number of our treasures. With the assistance of our Cataloguer, Lavinia Gent (pictured above), these documents are now available via hyperlinks through the library's online catalogue.

Try one! Click here to view documentation.                       

Our hidden treasures may not see the light of day but thanks to technology, they have been somewhat illuminated.