Elizabeth Ott

Work Title and Work Place

• Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Director of the Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University

Courses Being Taught Presently and/or in the Past

Instructor, Bibliography in the Industrial Age, UIUC Special Collections, Summer 2024 (three day intensive workshop)

Adjunct Instructor, School of Library and Information Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• • INLS 550: History of the Book in the West, Fall 2021 and 2022

  • INLS 857: Seminar in Rare Book Collections, Spring 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2024

  • INLS 690: Rare Book Collection Fundamentals, Spring 2017

Academic Statement

I have more than fifteen years of experience in Special Collections as a curator and administrator. I received my doctorate from the University of Virginia, where I specialized in bibliography and the history of the book, and worked and studied at the Virginia Rare Book School. During my tenure as the Hanes Curator of Rare Books at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I taught courses on rare book librarianship and the history of the book. 

Bibliography is a methodological approach to studying and communicating about books as physical artifacts. It is an essential foundational tool for working with books as a rare book librarian, and it is also a scholarly framework in conversation with critical fields in multiple academic disciplines. My teaching approach foregrounds the uses of bibliography and the development of a bibliographic mindset, empowering students to bring their observational and analytical skills to bear on the interpretation of evidence in physical books.