{"id":878,"date":"2012-07-20T21:01:48","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T21:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/?p=878"},"modified":"2019-01-14T21:36:32","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T21:36:32","slug":"book-tasting-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/2012\/07\/20\/book-tasting-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Tasting Event Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend at the Iowa City Book Festival, Special Collections & University Archives hosted a Book Tasting event in the Old Capitol.\u00a0 As a closed stack library usually researchers and readers already have an item in mind when they come to see us.\u00a0 “Search”\u00a0will turn up very different results from “browse” as a strategy and so to make it possible to find an unknown favorite, we created a Book Tasting event.\u00a0\u00a0 Inspired by wine tasting parties,\u00a0a “Book Tasting” features a selection of books that\u00a0the “tasters”\u00a0have not seen before to browse, add ratings, and perhaps find an unexpected favorite.\u00a0 Then when the ratings are tallied, a crowd favorite will emerge.<\/p>\n

The collection of books we put together for the event was inspired by the exhibition across the hall in the Old Capitol Museum<\/a>, “Insects: A Collection in Multiple Dimensions.”\u00a0 We selected 20 scientific books from the 18th and 19th centuries that have illustrations\u00a0of collections of things.\u00a0 These collections\u00a0include everything from\u00a0an entire four volumes\u00a0dedicated to\u00a0every\u00a0species of\u00a0antelope to books on butterflies, mollusks, quadrupeds, or flowers.\u00a0Due to the nature of scientific study at the time these are books that are illustrated in great detail and in the 100+ years represented in the sample, book illustration itself\u00a0changes dramatically.\u00a0\u00a0The books also make it clear how these types of books were used in the 19th century as the University of Iowa got its start.\u00a0 Many bear traces such as singed edges and library bindings that tell the story of their survivial\u00a0from the\u00a01897\u00a0North Hall fire<\/a> while many others bear the stamps of their former owners, eventual donors to the collections such as Dr. Mark Ranney<\/a>\u00a0and D.H. Talbot<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though\u00a0our end\u00a0goal was to find a crowd favorite what emerged from the data collected was a picture of how diverse people’s interests are.\u00a0 15 of the 20 books were listed as someone’s favorite.\u00a0 Three books tied to be the crowd favorite, #9 Popular Greenhouse Botany,<\/em> #17 The Birds of Great Britain<\/em>, and #20 History of Quadrupeds<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n