GBW Library Catalogue

The Guild of Book Workers Library is housed in the Special Collections Department of the University of Iowa's Main Library and holds over 700 volumes which focus on the arts of the book, particularly hand bookbinding techniques, but also contains volumes on the history of bookbinding and bookbinders, papermaking, paper decoration techniques, calligraphy, printing, and book conservation. By trading newsletters and journals produced by the Guild, the Library also receives current periodicals on binding from similar organizations in England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Australia.  An author-title list of the print publications is on another page.  This file is about 300kb and may load slowly on less robust internet connections.

Videotapes and DVDs which document the annual Guild Standards Seminars are another important component of the collection. These technical programs are part of an effort to raise the standards of bookbinding craftsmanship in the U.S. The tapes and DVDs are now the most frequently borrowed items because they demonstrate techniques that cannot be adequately described in print sources. Videotapes and DVDs produced by the Guild or acquired for the Library are described on a separate page.

For a history of the Library see "The Guild of Book Workers Collection at Iowa" by Pam Spitzmueller which appeared in the February, 1996 issue of the Friends Newsletter, published by the Friends of the University of Iowa Libraries (http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/news/archives/newsletter/24-2.pdf).

For a finding aid to the archival records of the Guild of Book Workers, go to Records of the Guild of Book Workers.  These materials include chapter newsletters and records, publications, financial records, membership records, and papers from the annual Standards Seminars.

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