Describing a collection of 7,000 books related to engineering is a daunting task. Rather than giving an account of the entire collection, in this lecture Mark Andrews will tell us the story of four of these books and how they came to be in the collection. Although they are not necessarily the most important or most interesting books, each has a unique tale to tell.
A book collection is more about the relationships between authors, the foibles of publication, and flukes of serendipity than it is about technical content. The stories of these four books will bring the overall collection into focus by exposing the relationships, the foibles and the happy coincidences.
Mark Andrews has been a book collector since his high school days in the 1970s. He graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1982 with an Applied Science degree in Civil Engineering and has been collecting on the topic of civil engineering ever since. He is a licensed professional engineer in the Province of Ontario. He is the founder and Chief Engineer of Andrews.engineer, a consulting engineering firm based in Toronto which specializes in municipal infrastructure.
Andrews has authored three catalogues of engineering literature based on his collection and has given numerous presentations and lectures on the topic of engineering literature. He is a member of the Grolier Club, the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, and the Friends of the Fisher Steering Committee.
This annual lecture has been generously endowed by Mrs. R. Dorene Seltzer.