Have you ever wanted to explore the rare books at the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies? This guide will tell you everything you need to know to get started.

• Finding Rare Books

• Requesting Rare Books

• Handling Rare Books

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our team at crrs.rarebooks@utoronto.ca.

Finding Rare Books

There are two main resources you can use to find rare books in our collections. Both have their special uses, depending on your needs.

CRRS Rare Book Collection Catalogue

This catalogue focuses exclusively on our rare books collection. In addition to basic bibliographic information (author, title, date, publisher), the catalogue also offers a selection of photos and copy-specific notes, which are updated regularly. You can either search for a specific author or title, or you can explore the collection through the catalogue’s list of themed “tags”.
 
Tips for Using. Each title in the catalogue is reproduced in its original language and exact spelling as it appears on the book’s title-page. (Note, in particular, early modern spelling conventions that might differ from modern practice, such as u/v, i/j, w/vv, etc.) This means that your search term will need to match exactly any specific title that you’re looking for to appear in your search results. Authors, by contrast, are given in modernized form, which makes them easier to discover. One limitation of the CRRS catalogue is that it cannot sort search results by date.

University of Toronto Libraries Catalogue

All CRRS rare books are listed in the University of Toronto’s comprehensive library catalogue. The best way to find them is to enter your search term and then filter your results: click “All Filters” on the lefthand side, scroll down to “Library”, check the “Victoria University CRRS” box and click “Apply Filters”. (You may need to click “Show More” if you don’t spot this in the first few options.) The search hits will include both rare books and books in our modern collection: to find rare books specifically, you can either filter by “Publication Date” or sort by “Date-oldest,” which will return the earliest books to the top of the list.
 
Tips for Using. While the UTL catalogue offers stronger search capabilities, it does not include all of the copy-specific information or the photos that appear in the CRRS Rare Book Collection catalogue.

Requesting Rare Books

Once you’ve found a book that you’d like to inspect in the library, you can complete an online retrieval request form. A few pieces of advice to help you complete the form as accurately as possible:

• Call Number: This is the combination of letters and numbers that indicates the location of each book on the storage shelves (e.g. PA3893 .P5 M25 1550). This is the most important piece of information on the form, so be sure to reproduce the call number exactly as it appears in the catalogue record!
   
• Type of Rare Book: The CRRS’s rare books are organized into four sections: Rare Book, Rare Oversize, Erasmus Rare, Erasmus Rare Large (Oversize). You will find this information in the University of Toronto Libraries catalogue record for each book, where it appears before the call number. It’s important to make sure this is accurately indicated in your request form to ensure timely retrieval of your book.
   
• Date Required: Let us know what day you’re planning to come into the CRRS to look at your book. Be sure to make your retrieval request at least 48 hours before you’d like to inspect the book. (If you are a first-time user, you may want to schedule your visit on a Friday, during which our two rare books graduate assistants will be on site and can help.) 

Once your request has been fulfilled, you will receive an email letting you know that your book is ready to be consulted.

Handling Rare Books

When you arrive at the CRRS, let the front desk staff member know that you have made a rare book retrieval request. As your book is being retrieved:

• Put any coats, backpacks, and other bags in the closet across from the front desk. You can take out a laptop, pencils, and paper to use as you examine the book. No pens, highlighters, post-it notes, or tape may be used at the rare book table. No food (including gum) or drink (including water) is permitted at the rare book table.
   
• Wash your hands. Books should be handled with clean, dry hands. Hands should be free of lotion and hand sanitizer. Gloves are only used in special circumstances.

A CRRS staff member will bring your book to the table in the front and set up foam supports to hold the book while you examine it. On the table, you’ll also find a sign listing some important guidelines for handling rare books:

• Rare books may only be examined at the rare book table by the front desk under the supervision of CRRS staff.
   
• Always keep books supported to avoid damage to their bindings. Foam supports and weighted book snakes are kept in the cupboard across from the front desk. Be mindful of any stiffness you feel when opening a book and do not try to force it open past the point that you start to feel resistance.
   
• Do not rest anything (writing materials, papers, etc.) on top of a book.
   
• Materials must be kept in the order received. Damage to rare materials or uncut pages (where the folds in the quires have not been cut, preventing the turning of single pages) should be brought to the attention of CRRS staff.
   
• Treat fold-outs and coloured illustrations with care. Do not put book weights on top of coloured illustrations.
   
• If you’d like to use a magnifying glass or acid-free page markers, just let a CRRS staff member know and they can retrieve these for you.

You are welcome to take photos without flash. (If you share anything on social media, be sure to tag us @crrs.uoft!) When you leave, let a CRRS staff member know if you plan to return to the library to continue inspecting your book, or if you have finished with it.

If you have any questions at all about using our rare book collections, we encourage you to reach out to crrs.rarebooks@utoronto.ca!