Theoretically, every student at Luther has done some research in Preus Library. After all, how could anyone forget the infamous Paideia research paper? When thinking back to that dark time, you may remember all the hours spent doing keyword searches, trying to find a usable primary source. Many of us may have come across a promising title, but when we saw it was located in the Rare Book Room, it was immediately ruled out.

The Rare Book Room, situated on the second floor of Preus Library, is a little-known resource here at Luther. With the doors shut and curtains drawn, the Rare Book Room is a bit mysterious. However, this room can be a priceless asset.

“There are some very unique things up there,” said Professor Jane Kemp. “There are about 1,400 titles, and we have a number of treasures.”

One little known fact about the Rare Book Room is that it actually holds two separate collections, rare books and special collections. These two collections hold everything from hand-colored books on botanicals to Veggie Tales videos.

“The rare books are typically older books,” said Kemp. “They’re special to Luther College, either because they record something special about college history or they have a special association to our Norwegian or Lutheran heritage. The special collections are books that were written by faculty, staff, alumni or were published by the Luther College Press.”

One of the most interesting things the Rare Book Room has pertains to Luther’s long-standing association with the Lutheran Church.

“We have a copy of the pamphlet from the funeral service preached at Martin Luther’s funeral,” said Kemp. “That was in 1546. It’s such a different feeling to hold something 500 years old.”

The Rare Book Room is quite lucky to have many of its older and rarer items. When Old Main burned down, the entire collection was housed there. It might have gone down in flames, but the book collection survived because the fire did not spread to the library.

Luther is also fortunate because many of the contents of the Rare Book Room come from outside contributors.

“They’re almost all gifts and donations,” said Kemp. “In the early days when the library was first put together, there were some very generous gifts and then some early professors gave their libraries to the college, and that is the nucleus of the Rare Book Room.”

Very few items in the Rare Book Room have been purchased. A notable exception is an exact copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

“[Gutenberg Bibles] were first done in the late 1400s,” said Kemp. “They were the first printing with a printing press, and in the 1960s, a facsimile came on the market, so we did buy one of them. It’s not rare obviously. It shows students what it would have looked like.”

The Gutenberg Bible is one book [Associate Professor of Communication Studies] Mark Johns shows his students.

“The Rare Book Room has lots of things that are interesting, but one of the things I like students to see is the facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible,” said Johns. “Old media is always more credible than new media. New technology tries to mimic technology which precedes it.”

One thing that makes the Rare Book Room particularly useful is its hands-on environment.

“The neat thing here us that you can take a group of students in the room,” said Johns. “There are very few things we are asked not to touch.”

Along with the pamphlet from Martin Luther’s funeral and the copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the Rare Book Room also houses a comic book collection, several miniature books and many intricately designed and valuable books.

“We have something called a dos/a/dos book, two books that are bound together, so they share a common back,” said Kemp. “If you flip it open one way, you have one book, and [if done] the other way, you have the other book.”

Another quality that makes this room unique for Luther is the care which goes into preserving its artifacts.

“You can’t have any food or drink, just because of the value of the books,” said Kemp. “We have to be very careful about light control, so the shades are always drawn because light is very damaging to paper. Because it is closed off, it is quite dry in there, and we try to keep it that way. Humidity is awful for books.”

However, its not just books that are kept well-preserved in the Rare Book Room.

“The Rare Book Room also contains special objects to Luther, like furniture from the first president, Laur Larsen, and a silk Oriental rug,” said Kemp. “It has some of the college’s treasures.”

The Rare Book Room can be used by students by appointment, and it is a resource Preus Library is happy to provide.

“Every time I hold [some of these books], I think who else has held this,” said Kemp. “If you go into a museum and want to hold something 500 years old, they are not going to let you. Here, they are. We want people to know about [and use] the Rare Book Room.”