The Special Collections Section

Today's editing class was quite possibly the best class I've ever attended. Normally, I struggle to stay awake for what seems like the longest hour of my day, and I long ago decided that editing wasn't the career path for me. However, today was different. Today was AMAZING.

We met in the Special Collections section of the library, instead of our usual dreary classroom. When our professor first announced this change of location last class period, I was a little bit skeptical. "Special Collections" sounds like the sophisticated name for a traveling freak show, or perhaps a zoo full of those creatures that live in the depths of the ocean. You never know what you'll discover on BYU campus.

Well, the Special Collections turns out to be the section of the library where they house the books that are just too awesome to be handled by hundreds of thousands of students. Not like most of the books in the library ever get touched more than once a decade. But still. These books are way too cool to be on anything as normal as a library bookshelf. What, you may ask, was so cool about them? Let's start with the first book we saw: the actual, original, hand-written manuscript of a novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. THE author of Sherlock Holmes. THE manuscript with HIS own handwriting (which is extremely neat, in case you were curious). And that was only the beginning. Throughout the course of the hour, we saw various copies of Bibles had-designed by monks in the 14th century, a pamphlet written and published by Martin Luther, a parchment that contained the works of Aristotle, and one of the first copies of the Book of Mormon. I was practically in heaven.

I actually enjoyed myself so much in the Special Collections that it almost inspired me to be a librarian. Since I am in the market for a career path and all. Who know what will actually happen, but for today, I'm grateful for the Special Collections. If nothing else, it made my editing class infinitely better.