World's Greatest Librariana Collectors Meet

Recently, the world's two greatest collectors of librariana met at the Bibliotheekmuseum (Library Museum) in Amsterdam. Hans Krol, founder of the Bibliotheekmuseum which is located in the new Amsterdam Public Library, played host at the meeting. The visitor to the museum was Norman D. Stevens, Director of Libraries Emeritus of the University of Connecticut - Storrs and Director of the Molesworth Insitute. In addition to other kinds of librariana, Stevens collected over 25,000 library picture postcards, the largest collection of library postcards ever assembled. Stevens donated his collection of postcards and most of the rest of his librariana collection to the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. Steven's book, A Guide to Collecting Librariana, is the "bible" of collecting library artifacts and memorabilia. Hans Krol has been and ardent collector of librariana since 1967 when he got out of library school. He is the retired director of the Heemstede Public Library in the Netherlands. Hans and I share an interest in bibliophilately which is a very specialized area of librariana collecting. The Bibliotheekmuseum is one of only a few museums in the world that preserve artifacts related to libraries. A picture of Krol (on the left) and Stevens in the Biblotheekmuseum is shown above.