Special Collections and Rare Books at SFU Library - News and Events

 Current Display:

Collection of Gregory Freeman (second place winner in last year’s national book collecting contest for Canadians under 30)

Forthcoming events:

Readings (unless otherwise noted - in Special Collections, Room 7100, WAC Bennett Library, 12:30pm to 1:30pm):

Dr. Miriam Nichols (literary scholar) - postponed - date TBA

Talks/Lectures:

A tribute to Jim Rimmer - October 21, 2011: A DVD presentation: Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century. This 45-minutes DVD is produced by Richard Kegler of the Buffalo based digital firm P22. He will introduce and discuss the DVD.

Share the Enthusiasm Series (A series of talks by collectors on their collections)

2009: October 7 - Jim Rainer spoke on his career of collecting --- book collecting (“My Gentle Madness”). The subject range of his book collecting has been varied including press books, the book arts, books on gardening, books on baseball and also mechanical pencils…

2008: November 7 - Priscilla Coit Murphy spoke on the topic "The Not So Silent Spring:What One Book Did." Murphy discussed what difference it made to opponents, publishers, media and the public that "Silents Spring's message came in book form." She discussed the "biography of a book". Dr. Murphy is an independent scholar living in North Carolina.

2008: October 30 - Nicholas Basbanes, author of several very popular books on book-collecting, will speak about his experiences as a writer of books in a presentation entitled “Thirty Years on the Book Beat”.. This will be a co-hosted event with the Alcuin Society.

2008: February 27 - Robert McCamant, Proprietor of Sherwin Beach Press, discussed his strategies for collecting and publishing.

2007: November 14 - Paul Whitney, City Librarian,Vancouver Public Library, spoke on his book collecting of '70s British/Irish authors and more.

2007: March 15 - Ron Cohen, author of the excellent three volume Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill (2006), spoke on both collecting Churchill and authoring the bibliography.

2006: October 11 - David Carlin spoke on collecting imprints of the famous nineteenth century Boston publisher,Ticknor & Fields.

2006: March 22 - Dr. Andrew Feenberg spoke on the topic of "Collecting on the Barricades during the Paris May Events of 1968".

2005: October 19 - Dr. Wally Chung: "Collecting History".

2005: March 23 - Yosef Wosk: "2000 years Before Creation: A Book Collector's Journey from Jerusalem to New York..."

2004: October 20 - Richard Peck: "Law, Language and My Other Collections."

2004: March 31 - John Meier: "Collecting the Governor-General's Awards."

2003: October 15 - John Keenlyside: "BC's Hanging Judge and my BC Colonial Paper Collection."