Meet the University of Washington Libraries’ Keeper of Rare Books and Artifacts

From The Seattle Times:

Since 1968, Sandra Kroupa has worked in the University of Washington’s Special Collections. Now, as book arts and rare-book curator, she provides access to a vast collection of books, ranging from historical artifacts to contemporary artist books. Each is gasp-worthy, to someone.
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“My job,” she says, “is to find something in this collection that when I put it in your hands, you are moved to tears.
In an increasingly digital age, Kroupa believes that the physical book has meaning, that holding a historic or unique book is different from viewing it on a screen. She’s concerned that our culture is moving from things to pictures of things. It’s like art, she says; you can spend years studying and looking at reproductions of paintings, and then you visit a museum and see the real thing. “You realized that what you’ve been seeing is just the skeleton, some kind of amorphous thing. It’s not the art — you have to have the art there. And I think books are exactly the same way.”

Direct to Complete Article (approx 2300 words)
See Also: University of Washington Special Collections

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