Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews the elements critical to success in the printed music format. It discusses some of the guiding principles behind the development of the James Ford Bell Library’s collections. The book explores many of the traditional principles of acquiring materials, such as careful attention to condition and completeness and the requisite that each item acquired must play a role in the unity of the whole. It also discusses importance of the teaching mission. The book explains problems and pleasures accompanying out-of-print gift books in a science library. Out-of-print becomes special collections material becomes rare books along a continuum. The book focuses on the acquisition of materials at several points on that scale in many practical and theoretical ways.