How a Christmas card, a poem, a Time magazine article, and even a few novels inspired some of Hollywood's greatest films

One of the more unlikely odysseys in film history began in the pages of Time magazine: "Across the land last week, for six warm days & nights, a troop train rumbled. It was an old train, with no fancy name. To the engineers and switchmen, it was No. 7452-C. The men on board dubbed it the 'Home Again Special' and wrote the new name in chalk on the sides of the old Pullman cars. In another war there might have...

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The following article first appeared in the December 2005 issue of International Preservation News (the entire issue of which can be found at http://www.ifla.org/VI/4/news/ipnn37.pdf).

As an indignant letter to the editor in an issue of Fine Books & Collections magazine illustrated, there exists a pervasive myth that rare and valuable antiquarian books should, indeed must be handled with white cotton gloves. In fact, handling books with gloves is apt to do more harm than good. Gloves are just as likely to be dirty as fingers, but gloves do not allow nearly as much dexterity as uncovered hands. Unless you...

The speech which follows was given at the SLAM headquarters where a press conference was convened at the end of November 2002, and which was attended by journalists specializing in the Art World, as well as French public officers from the Ministry of Culture, the "Direction du Livre," the Archives and Public Libraries. The theme chosen was "What future for rare books," and the main object was to make the guests aware of the difficulties arising from the complex European regulations concerning cultural property.

As we move forward into the twenty first century with its electronic digital and virtual revolution...