The Society of American Archivists defines special collections as an institution or an administrative unit of a library responsible for managing materials outside the general library collection, including rare books, archives, manuscripts, maps, oral history interviews, and ephemera. The materials housed in special collections are not in circulation and must be accessed through this institution upon request. These materials are housed, preserved, described, and handled by special collections staff separate of the general collection.
There is not a singular set list of criteria to dictate whether a book qualifies as rare, but there are a few elements one might look at to distinguish a rare book such as:
Researchers seek out rare books for more than just the contents of each page, but rather for what the book itself can tell us. The various elements of books can reveal details of contemporary historical events and illuminate the timeline of text technologies. Studying rare books provides insight into how peoples of the past recorded, disseminated, and received information. This, and more, is what makes it worth while to preserve rare books and why researchers do not only want to view modern copies of the same information but instead find value in their contemporary vessels.
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