Books in Museums

Most of us are familiar with books composed, written out or typeset, and bound in the West. The codex of folded sheets stitched or glued through the folds that open flat for the reader. 

This moth, the Metropolitan Museum of Art displays and features books from Japan in their collections. http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/metcollects/feature/ These lovely books feature woodcuts and calligraphy on flexible rice paper, stab stitched in traditional Japanese fashion. 

Image the shelves of Japanese libraries holding series of colorful surprises for the reader. 

For the purposes of this course on the history of libraries, what should strike the viewer and reader is the fact that the museum holds books as objects for display. These objects are treated as art objects and are housed separately from the many books in the research libraries of the MMA. 

Books as objects in the Metropolitan Museum of Art are perfect examples of the intersection of library and museum. The library catalogs of the MMA include books in all their locations, even in object storage areas. However, access to books treated as objects is more restrictive than those that are found in the vast library collections. 

Does your local museum have a book collection? Are the books treated as objects or reading and research materials? Would you differentiate between the two types of collections? Would you call this a library or museum? The answer depends upon your perspective and the needs of your researchers and curators.