Our visit to the Special Collections Research Center at Temple University was exciting. I had no idea SCRC had so much material, nor did I know how new the building was. We were told that SCRC holds around 90,000 feet of material between two locations, and we saw only a third of the material. 90,000 feet sounds like a lot, but I didn’t know how to conceptualize that. When we entered the room filled with boxes with a mechanism that grabbed the books and shelves of boxes I was stunned. I couldn’t believe how much material was there!
Our tour continued and we saw some legacy equipment that could be used for digitizing different types of material. Then we went to the vault and saw some incredible manuscripts, books, and artifacts. The collection itself was amazing, and as I was going through I was scanning for books I may want to come back and read. I saw a book called, The Chalk Circle, which I’m interested in coming back to SCRC to read. I saw another book I may go back to look at as well, Wall Paintings in the Kondo Horyuji Monastery. With all the amazing things I saw at SCRC I left thinking to myself, wow, I’d love to work with materials like this. These kinds of moments make me excited about my future, and my hopes of pursuing a potential career in archives, libraries, or museums. I’m looking forward to my next visit to SCRC when I have some more time!