As I walked down the aisles, enclosed with shelves of meticulously placed books, each enveloped and assigned a long code of letters and numbers, I would scan through them, looking for the right one, the numbers would hint at where to look. “Bingo!” Take it, scan it, register in the system, display on the shelves, scan it again, put it back. This is how my shifts started as a Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center student worker. It did not take long to learn how wrong I was to reduce our collection’s items to their mere numbers.
I am Olga, motion design sophomore at Ringling College of Art and Design from Moldova. In fall 2024, I started working as a Special Collection student assistant, undertaking a wide range of skills and responsibilities, from organizing and registering books, to creating merchandise and even writing a blog! By my side, I always have Muling Tzai, another student worker from Taiwan, and Cheri Marks, Special Collections Librarian and Archivist (my boss). Our Special Collections Center specializes in rare artists’ books, publication projects, art prints, zines and many more items. We are driven to introduce the general public to both niche and recognized artistic creations via hands-on object based experience. I myself was amazed by the variety of items in our collection: broadsides, campus materials, democratic multiples, documentation of time-based and performance projects, engravings, exhibition publications, experimental writing, fine press books, flip books, handmade editions, historic facsimiles, parlor toys, photographs, pop-up books, prints, rare books, zines, and more.
My favorite part of Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center is the unique tactile experience we give access to. Anyone coming to our center can literally touch art and connect with the artist on the other side of the page. I believe that utilizing primary sources is a game changer in any scholarly research. Engaging with original physical materials rewards with more insights into a particular subject, compared to internet/digital research. Touching or closely observing an artifact allows researchers to feel a deeper connection to the material. For example, examining an ancient manuscript provides a sense of its age, authenticity, and craftsmanship.
Images by Olga Nerciu, spreads from Giving Fear a Proper Name, Detroit (c. 1984) by Susan Kae Grant, 2025.
My favorite artwork to interact physically with Giving Fear a Proper Name, Detroit by Susan Kae Grant. It follows the artist’s journey as she moved to Detroit, supported by images from her dreams, nightmares and daily experiences, interpreted in a symbolic manner. I was stunned to find strands of the artist’s hair, human teeth, accompanied by pictures of body parts, nails and particles of dirt and sand. The overwhelming experience of the book could never have been felt through digital research. Seeing the book and touching it, even smelling it, submerged me into the artist's world, where I was guided by mysterious pieces of her writing to undergo the same experiences and storylines.
Hence, experiences are made to be shared. Artworks such as Giving Fear a Proper Name, Detroit inspire us to hold exhibitions, led by conceptual themes that unite various art pieces and artists, bringing a holistic experience of an era or movement to our audience. Our visitors are welcome to interact with the items and witness the line blur between a book and a work of art. Our Special Collections Center is open to collaborations and exhibition ideas proposed by faculty and students! I am always curious to observe my colleague Muling creating branding identity for our exhibitions, setting the mood for it. Thanks to her, our visitors always leave with a cute sticker, postcard or brochure to remember the event.
I find myself again, walking down the aisles on my weekly shift, looking straight through envelopes, through long codes of letters and numbers, seeing each book now as a story, a person, an entire universe for me to dive into. This is how my shifts are, as a Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center student worker.
Olga Nerciu is a Motion Design student at Ringling College of Art + Design and is a Special Collections Assistant at the Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center in the Alfred R. Goldstein Library at Ringling College. She is from Moldova, and works under the supervision of Cheri Marks, CBAA member and Special Collections Librarian and Archivist.
