In response to popular demand for materials in this collection, DLS has completed the digitization of a set of desk catalogs held by Special Collections. What makes these materials particularly important is that the company, The Rand & Leopold Desk Company (previously Northwestern Furniture Company) was a local office amenities manufacturing firm that operated in Burlington, some 80 miles from the University of Iowa, for over 100 years before closing in 1990.

In addition to local appeal, people from as far away as California have contacted Special Collections hoping to make use the information contained in this unique collection of catalogs and other company materials as they appraise, refinish and restore their Rand & Leopold heirlooms.

DLS is particularly interested in digitizing library collections that will allow users to access this kind of information online so that library staff need not make and send new copies to meet every request, especially for collections with high request rates such as this. Through optical character recognition (OCR), the desk catalogs can be searched by model number, name or description.

–Mark F. Anderson
Digital Initiatives Librarian