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10. About Special Collections
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The Special Collections room, located on the fourth floor of the Gladys Marcus Library in the ‘E’ Building of The Fashion Institute of Technology, opened its doors in 1982 and, for the first time, rare and fragile library materials were catalogued and made available under supervision to faculty, students, and researchers. Pioneering work by Janette Rozene and Marjorie Miller helped to set the foundation and direction of the collection, while Arno Kastner continues the original cataloguing that the collection requires. The holdings of Special Collections include 2,259 books, 475 serials, over 300 original fashion illustrations, 125 oral history transcripts, 197 sketch collections, and 50 scrapbook collections. Yet not all sketch and scrapbook collections have been processed. The overall collection development policy focuses on continuing to be a specialized research facility for all aspects of costume and textiles and maintaining a Research Level 4 collection development for the METRO and RLIN conspectus. Special Collections’ mission is to provide an archival resource for FIT students and faculty as well as for scholars, designers, motion picture and television researchers, and authors needing authentic costume period information. The number of visiting researchers has been growing. For the year 2003, records show that almost half of users were outside researchers and of the over 2,700 items requested, the majority were by these researchers. In an effort to protect and preserve fragile material and to make it more accessible, a digitizing program is underway. Initial grants from VTEA (Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act) provided a template to make CD-Roms of several archives. Documentary Heritage Program grants from the New York State Archives and Records Administration have also provided support for the processing of several important archives. As a result, finding aids have been produced to enable researchers to determine what specific parts of a collection they want to consult, thus reducing unnecessary handling of the material. Having been described and arranged, the collections are searchable in FIT’s online public access catalogue and are also available to researchers worldwide through RLIN, an international bibliographic database. With the help of outside funding, primarily from the Conservation/Preservation Program of New York State Library, Special Collections has been able to formulate plans for improved preservation and conservation. Joshua Waller, head of Special Collections, applies for grants to continue the endless task of preserving these treasures. Treatments include housing materials in acid-free boxes, mylar sleeve encapsulation, and microfilming. Special treatments require a professional conservator and involve de-acidification, repair, and archival binding. This work ensures that the collection is preserved for future generations of fashion scholarship. HOW YOU CAN HELP THE LIBRARY Donations are important to the vitality of Special Collections and its mission to support teaching and research. Gifts that will enhance existing collections and contribute to original scholarship are accepted. Special Collections reserves the right to accept donations without restrictions. For more information, please write to fitlibsparc@fitnyc.edu or call (212) 217-4385.
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