Last Weeks speaker - Donald Kerr

Don Kerr gave a very enthusiastic and informative presentation on the Rare Book Collection which is held in the Otago University Library. Don had worked in the Rare book collection for 18years and prior to that 15years in the Saint George Collection in Auckland .He is now retired but still holds  a very high interest in the subject and possesses  a wealth of information, even writing several books himself on the subject of specific authors and collections. The Rare Book collection is on the first floor and although not attended by staff it is freely available to the public by phoning for an appointment. In fact its available to readers worldwide via websites as many of the collections are catalogued and can be viewed on line. The library also ran 4 exhibitions a year to help promote the various collections and make the public aware just what is available to view. These can be found on line under “Otago Special Exhibitions”. There are a total of over 28000 books in the library accumulated over the years from many donations from many prominent benefactors. The main benefactor is Ezmond de Beer which, in his collection alone there is over 7000 books covering such subjects  as travel, architecture, garden guides  and history. Many other collections were noted from collectors and authors not well known to the audience, many of which hold first editions. The collections  cover a wide  range of subjects including archeology, Australian Pulp Fiction and even Erotica. As Don pointed out that this marvelous collection is a wonderful resource but no one knows about it. The mind boggles as what it might be worth in dollar value.