And now for some news about me:

(What, you didn’t know that the Old Book Appreciator was some actual dude named Abe who cobbles together the bios and the pictures and retweets all the fun stuff? That’s me—hello!)

Well folks, I’ve just been accepted into the Master’s of Library and Information Science program at Indiana University Bloomington!

I will be pursuing an MLS with a specialization in Rare Books and Manuscripts, and IU was one of the only programs I could find that offered such a specialization. IU is also home to the Lilly Rare Books Library, one of the largest rare books libraries in the western hemisphere, housing “about 400,000 books, more than 100,000 pieces of sheet music, and more than 7.5 million manuscripts.”

My kinda place!

I fully intend to use my time in one of the world’s premier rare book libraries to offer you more content about the history of publishing, illustration, and bookcraft, as well as the author profiles, reviews, and Random Illustrations you come to expect. I am hoping that my coursework and some of the relationships I make at IU can teach me how to improve this website and make it more user-friendly, searchable, and useful and comprehensive in its offerings.

Thank you again for following my site and I look forward to learning a lot and sharing some my journey with you during my time at IU.