How is it determined that a book should be in Special Collections?
There are several reasons why a book would be in Special Collections. It may have come directly from a donor; it may fit within a genre or a field of study that is of scholarly interest to the department or the university; it may be an early, rare or unique edition of the text; or the item may be too fragile to exist in the library’s circulating collection. There are over 95,000 books in Special Collections catalogued in KentLINK; often a bibliographic record of a book in the catalog will provide background information, such as the edition or origin (i.e., “provenance”). Unlike most books within KSU Libraries and Media Services (LMS), those in Special Collections do not circulate (the status field on the record will read “LIB USE ONLY”) and may be viewed only in the Reading Room on the 12th floor of the main library. If you are interested in checking out a particular text, please search KentLINK to see if there is a circulating copy in LMS (the status field will read “AVAILABLE”). Circ
