Material found in special collections is vast and varied. It's usually rare, old, and aesthetic. A collection could consist of not only books, but papers, maps, film, photographs, sound recordings, and ephemera.

Since this material has artifactual value, it's uniqueness is what is being preserved, if at all possible.

So many types of media...so many ways to preserve them.

Everything I ever wanted to know about preservation I found out about in Kristen St. John's class.