On Wednesday, February 25, 2015, official opening of Special Collections on Parade offered a glimpse at some selections from all aspects of the collections held at Hill Memorial Library.

The opening featured a speaker, Dr. André Derval, from another archives, L’Institut Mémoires de l’Édition contemporaine (IMEC) in France, which holds the records of several large publishing houses in France. Dr. André Derval will talk about the operations and endeavors of this important repository documenting the contemporary book trade. The IMEC was established in 1988 by a group of publishers and academic researchers.  In collaboration with the French Ministry of Culture and the Regional Council of Basse-Normandie, its mission is to preserve modern literary archives, create a modern literary heritage, and mediate between scholars, authors, and publishing houses.  The collection encompasses a wide variety of literary and artistic production. Notable holdings include the papers of the foremost publishers in France, Hachette, Le Seuil, Albin Michel  and Flammarion, and renowned French and Francophone authors such as Marguerite Duras, Jacques Derrida, and Kateb Yacine, as well as material relating to the playwrights literary agents, graphic designers, printers, etc.

This was a unique opportunity to learn more about what archivists and special collections librarians do, and the importance and significance of archival repositories all through the lens of a very different repository from Hill Memorial Library.

Visitors toured the galleries to view the exhibition. Special Collections on Parade offered a showcase of things rare, natural, decidedly unnatural, historical, technological, literary, political, comical and otherwise of note among the eclectic and curious collections within Hill Memorial Library. Selected rare books, photographs, historical documents, sheet music, art, and oral histories were on display from all major collections, spanning seven centuries. Faculty and staff members at Hill Memorial Library curated the exhibition. The exhibition was on display through May 30, 2015.

Dr. Derval’s visit coincided with the 20th -21st century French and Francophone Studies conference, held in Baton Rouge February 26-March 1, 2015.