Around the Web: Food Libraries

Not too long ago, if you had mentioned "food in libraries" to a librarian, you would have gotten an earful about restrictive building policies and how people eating in the library is a preservation issue for many library collections.  Recently, though, food in libraries has become a much bigger deal--on the collection end!

Food libraries, or library collections focusing on various aspects of food, have begun to emerge in response to the growing popularity of food-related scholarship.  The articles and posts below demonstrate this growing popularity, and the growing interest in library collections built around cookbooks, food history, pamphlets, and similar resources:

Image from VT ImageBase

• With Latest Donation, NYU Food Library Joins Big Leagues (New York Times)
• Fales Library a Haven for Students Craving International Culinary History (NYU)
• Culinary Archive Donated to University (Ann Arbor Chronicle)
• Culinary History at the New York Public Library (NYPL)
• Culinary Exhibits Online:  Food in the Library (University of Pennsylvania)
• Cornell:  300 Books Enrich Library's Collection (Cornell Chronicle)
• New Scholarship Anticipated in American Culinary History (University of Michigan)
• Cookery in Academia:  Culinary Collections in Libraries Grow Up, and Out (ACRL)

Of course, we here at Virginia Tech also have a special Culinary History Collection....  This has become a hot topic, and I am guessing that we'll see many more stories about these sorts of collections growing in libraries.