Cataloging and Preserving the Shakespeare Collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library

FAIN: PW-50530-10

Folger Shakespeare Library admin by Trustees of Amherst College (Washington, DC 20003-1004)
Stephen C. Enniss (Project Director: July 2009 to February 2014)
Daniel De Simone (Project Director: February 2014 to August 2016)

The cataloging of 18,000 volumes of the works of William Shakespeare, from the 16th to the 21st century, along with the deacidification of 3,000 of these.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection, proposes a three-year project to create and enhance bibliographic access to its 18,000-volume collection of Shakespeare editions, and to preserve select volumes in danger of deterioration. The Folger's Shakespeare Collection is critical to editors of Shakespeare and scholars of Shakespeare studies, printing history, and other related fields, who have had to find editions using the obsolete on-site card catalog. This project will streamline Shakespeare research by providing worldwide bibliographic access to the full scope of this core collection. The project also plans for mass deacidification of 3,000 volumes and for 2,900 fragile volumes to be rehoused in custom phaseboxes. Increasing the accessibility of this historically important humanities resource will serve the research needs of a worldwide community of students and scholars, while also preserving the collection for future generations.