Fogler Library Friends - The Olive Tree

Winter, 2001

In this Issue

Volume 8 Number 2

Special Collections Welcomes Hollinger

Richard V. Hollinger has recently joined the ranks of Fogler Library as the new head of Special Collections. He is currently working on a Ph.D. in Archival Science

from the University of Amsterdam, and holds two graduate degrees: one in Middle Eastern History from the University of California in Los Angeles, and one in Public History and Historic Preservation from California State University at Dominguez Hills. It's this interest in history that feeds his love of collecting items for Special Collections.
The new role of Head of Special Collections is keeping him busy. Since his arrival here in August, he has been sorting through the collections, assessing their overall strengths and weaknesses. He lists the collections in women's history, lumbering, and Maine authors as being among the strengths in the department's collections.

During the next year, Hollinger will pay special attention to enhancing access to the collections. While collecting new items is his favorite part of the job, he also realizes the importance of accessibility. "The library has a fabulous historical collection," he points out, "but unless people have access to it, it means little."

   In order to build accessibility to our collections, he will be working to get books, maps, theses, manuscript collections, and other materials cataloged and put on URSUS, the library's online catalog, and will be addressing the need to create a record for every manuscript collection held by the department. He and the library are currently seeking funding to meet more of the cataloging needs.
   He is also hoping that more people will realize the importance of donating historical materials to the library. He cites diaries, letters, photographs, memoirs, and records of family businesses as being among the more common historically-valuable materials found in private hands. "Often," he says, "the owners do not realize that anyone outside their family would have an interest in these materials." But these items can be of immense historic value, and with each donation the heritage of the State is preserved and made accessible, which is just the goal that Hollinger has in mind.
   Hollinger is enjoying the opportunity to delve into a new collection and make additions to it. While he has had extensive experience in libraries here at home and in far parts of the world, he emphasizes that, like many others, he has come to Maine to settle down.

Greenville at High Water
from the Manly Hardy Collection

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