Hi everyone, and so it comes to an end, the final blog posts of the term are in! We were all really fortunate to be able to visit the Rare Books and Special Collections department at the IBLC last Thursday. The reflections on our visit through the blogposts provided many different takes on the information that was presented to us and they were certainly a pleasure to read!

Some of you touched on the interesting order in which the fonds were organized, which in contrast to the supposed ease and access to information of most modern day information was an interest look into academic organization! The reflection of something like that brings a certain view to the table, one that takes away perspective not only directly form the sources presented, but also just their general circumstance, which, arguably, is crucial to understanding the thoughts and processes of any fond.

The many paragraphs that touched on fan mail, be it from adults, high ranking people in politics or the writing community, or even children, were absolutely wonderful to read, as not only the genuine context of the actual sources, but also the presentation and reflection on the matter by our bloggers this week were absolutely delightful to read. As I touched on earlier, looking into the creative possesses of Kogawa was wonderful, as Lauren’s blog talked about wonderfully, however; it is also quite interesting to see, through the fan mail especially of the children and adults that were not just praising her work as a form of courtesy, how her work inspired people and in turn created new creative possesses or sparked conversation far beyond the workings of her own writing.

As Joey touched on in his blog it was also really fun to be skimming though material much older than ourselves, I myself found it absolutely wonderful to try and decipher the flamboyant hand writing of people as they wrote page after page in beautiful cursive, something I strongly feel should be reintroduced into our modern society as it simply is a form of art through the medium of communication.

Thanks for reading!

Ramon Melser