April 30: How Your Favorite Childhood Stories Came to Life
This session took a behind-the-scenes look at the Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature, one of the leading archives of rare children’s books, original art, manuscripts and papers of children’s book creators. The Kerlan is a rich resource for researchers, educators, families, and all who love children’s literature.
Presented by: Dr. Lisa von Drasek, Mirankanter Family Curatorial Chair of the Kerlin Collection Children’s Literature Research Collections University of Minnesota Libraries.
Part of the OLLI At-the-U Lecture Series.
Key Takeaways
Nature and Accessibility of the Collection
- Open Access for All: The Kerlan Collection is an open-access resource available to everyone, ranging from kindergartners to PhD researchers, and even corporate design teams from companies like Target.
- State-of-the-Art Preservation: The materials are housed 90 feet below ground in a secure, man-made cavern within the Elmer L. Anderson Library. The facility maintains a constant environment (64 degrees and 40% humidity) ideal for preserving rare paper, original manuscripts, and artwork.
- Indigenous Advocacy: The library actively works to make amends to the Dakota people by buying, reading, and promoting the works of Indigenous authors and illustrators.
The "Process Work" of Literature
- Revealing the Messy Reality: The collection prioritizes "process work"—early drafts, "dummies," and sketches that show how a book evolves. For example, the first draft of Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn-Dixie was a single-page, unpunctuated run-on sentence.
- Technological Evolution: The archive contains rare "color separations" and hand-lettered manuscripts from a time before modern digital printing, such as those for Goodnight Moon and Millions of Cats.
- Innovation in Format: Wanda Gág’s Millions of Cats (1928) is considered the first "modern" picture book because it was the first to fully integrate text and illustrations on a single page.
Publishing as a Business
- The Importance of Awards: Prestige awards like the Caldecott and Newbery are vital because they ensure a book stays in print indefinitely; without them, most books have the "shelf life of yogurt" and are quickly remaindered.
- Strategic Pairing: Publishing houses often pair unknown writers with famous illustrators (or vice versa) to ensure a new book's commercial success.
- Editorial Influence: Editors frequently demand changes for commercial reasons; for example, a map of South America was removed from Goodnight Moon because the publisher wanted to sell books, not maps.
Educational and Community Resources
- Curriculum Integration: The collection is used for "embedding" in university courses; for instance, biology students used picture books to learn how to explain complex concepts like photosynthesis through storytelling.
- Free Public Resources: The library provides free digital downloads, including "writing boxes" for educators and the ABC of It, a comprehensive guide to the history of North American children's literature.
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