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During the past three decades, the holdings of rare books and special collections departments have come to be known as “distinctive collections.” Running parallel to this development has been the adoption of the term “hidden collections” to designate backlogs of unprocessed rare books and special collections materials, and an increased awareness of providing access to these materials. This paper examines the literature to explore the development of the trend for rare books and special collections to be called “distinctive collections” and for backlogs to be referred to as “hidden collections.” It also discusses factors that can contribute to the development of rare book backlogs including the need for trained staff and fuller levels of cataloging required to adequately describe the artifactual values of rare books in bibliographic records.
