Abstract

This directory is a handy on-volume discovery tool that will allow readers to locate rare book and special collections in the British Isles. Fully updated since the second edition was published in 1997. this comprehensive and up-to-date guide encompasses collections held in libraries, archives, museums and private hands. The Directory: • Provides a national overview of rare book and special collections for those interested in seeing quickly and easily what a library holds • Directs researchers to the libraries most relevant for their research • Assists libraries considering acquiring new special collections to assess the value of such collections beyond the institution,showing how they fit into a ‘unique and distinctive’ model. Each entry in the Directory provides background information on the library and its purpose, full contact details, the quantity of early printed books, information about particular subject and language strengths, information about unique works and important acquisitions, descriptions of named special collections and deposited collections. Readership: Researchers, academic liaison librarians and library managers.
The endless work of the ‘harmless drudge,’ the editor, and that of her team cannot be underestimated;producing a reference work of this nature is a labour of love and inevitably the resulting information will vary depending on information supplied and available. Researchers will be glad of this work and it will indeed help those needing to know where to find their research material.

Julia Sheppard
British Records Association
Archives and Records
The new Directory lists 873 libraries, summarising their holdings of pre-1900 imprints with references to key sources of further information. Historical researchers of all kinds can quarry this to find out where large and small libraries are located and how relevant they may be; where collections with particular strengths in folklore, or Napoleon, or playbills, or anything else, can be found (the index of subjects runs to fourteen pages); and what is, and is not, discoverable online.
David Pearson
Library & Information History
...reveals the treasures to be found in the rare books and special collections in the UK and the Republic of Ireland...Attar’s organizational achievement is phenomenal...Internet links are ephemeral and dependent on those who host them; this printed book gives us some guarantee of permanence.
William Baker
Times Literary Supplement
Together, institutions in the UK and Ireland hold unrivalled special collections.  From our great National Libraries, through university collections to the smaller collections of specialist societies, cathedrals, historic homes, and museums we have a centuries-old tradition of collecting, preserving and giving access.  Scholars from around the world and across disciplinary differences rely on the treasures held by libraries listed in the Directory to pursue their research and help us make sense of the world in which we live.
David Prosser
Executive Director, RLUK
Karen Attar is Rare Books Librarian at Senate House Library, University of London.
This directory is a handy on-volume discovery tool that will allow readers to locate rare book and special collections in the British Isles. 
Fully updated since the second edition was published in 1997. this comprehensive and up-to-date guide encompasses collections held in libraries, archives, museums and private hands. 
The Directory:

• Provides a national overview of rare book and special collections for those interested in seeing quickly and easily what a library holds
• Directs researchers to the libraries most relevant for their research
• Assists libraries considering acquiring new special collections to assess the value of such collections beyond the institution,showing how they fit into a ‘unique and distinctive’ model.  

Each entry in the Directory provides background information on the library and its purpose, full contact details, the quantity of early printed books, information about particular subject and language strengths, information about unique works and important acquisitions, descriptions of named special collections and deposited collections.
Readership: Researchers, academic liaison librarians and library managers.
Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers; professional bibliophiles.
N. J. Quinlan
Nova Southeastern University
CHOICE
In an increasingly electronic age, the rare, the special and the unique in our libraries becomes all the more important and distinctive. The Directory has become established as a one-stop compendium of information on such material and a comprehensive update of Barry Bloomfield's much respected 1997 edition is very welcome.
David Pearson
Director of Culture, Heritage and Libraries at the City of London
To dedicated bibliographers, the present edition will make excellent bedtime reading;there are plenty of out-of-the-way collections to discover ... congratulations are in order to the Group, the publisher, and, above all, to the editor for a well accomplished job.

KA Manley
Alexandria
The new edition of the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections is a long-awaited reference work which will help researchers identify the UK and Republic of Ireland’s great collections of research materials. It provides detailed and authoritative information and is a must for all serious researchers.
Richard Ovenden
Bodley’s Librarian, Oxford
Consulting the invaluable Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland is often a critical first stage in developing a worthwhile research project in the humanities. Its thoroughness and comprehensiveness serve both the scholar and librarian well.
Simon Eliot
Professor of the History of the Book, University of London