With the new year nearly upon us, this seems like the time to do a roundup of 2011 at the PPL Special Collections. So here are a few quick notes on some of what's happened this year (since March, at least):

New Additions

Here's a partial list of the new books, manuscripts, etc. that came in to Special Collections in 2011:

• Donations of monographs on the history of the book (like this, or this, or this) and a volume printed by Sidney Rider, 19th-century printer-publisher-Renaissance man.
• A group of books on paper-making and paper history, including a sample book of marbled paper from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in India:
  
• A Cuala Press imprint and a pretty scarce "popish and financial romance" for the Potter & Williams Irish Collection.
• A donated manuscript collection relating to a RI author (more info coming soon).
• A small collection of whaling manuscripts and a fine new whaling log (more info coming soon) for the Nicholson Whaling Collection.

Newly Cataloged

As NBC used to say, "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you." Here are some things we've had for a while but you can now find more easily:

• Thanks to a grant-funded / volunteer-continued project, we've cataloged over 800 items from the Edith Wetmore Collection of Children's Books, many of which are featured in our current exhibition. Hundreds of additional items from other collections have been cataloged as well
• We've added eight collection guides for our manuscript and ephemera collections:
  • Arnold Family Papers, 1861-1904
  • Edwin W. Arnold Correspondence, 1862-1894
  • William Eaton Foster Papers
  • Harris Collection on the Civil War and Slavery Manuscripts
  • Harris Collection on the Civil War and Slavery Ephemera
  • Nicholson Whaling Collection Manuscripts
  • Potter & Williams Memorial Collection Manuscripts
  • Updike Ephemera Collection
• In addition to the collection guides, we've added a number of lists and guides to other materials, like our whaling photographs and printing periodicals. Many of these collections were organized and listed by volunteers. The full list is available on our website.

Online Resources

In addition to pointing out what we have and where it is, we've made some of it available online:

• Thirteen new whaling logs available for the first time (here they are mapped by their primary whaling ground)
• An online exhibition of materials from our current exhibition (make your own historical toys and games)
• An online exhibition highlighting our foreign-language editions of Uncle Tom's Cabin
• An online exhibitionof newly-process Civil War ephemera
• A Seminole War diary and an important early manual for printers among other items from our collections put online via Flickr

Add in visits from classes and researchers, the ongoing 3rd volume issues ofOccasional Nuggets, exhibitions and more, and it's been a fairly busy year. Here's to an even busier 2012.