The 1979 catalog and supplement are out of date and limit access. Part of the impasse has been caused by the recent 100 odd items donated by retiring binder Stella Patri. As always, the Guild continues to work through its volunteers and a cataloging project such as this can take a long time. Now that the story of the collection has been detailed, one could well ask what is in the collection besides the very first book the History of Bookbinding. It is true the collection does focus on bookbinding including manuals, the history of binding, and bookbinders.
Exhibition catalogs are another strong feature of the Guild collection.
There are also volumes pertaining to calligraphy, printing, papermaking and decorated papers, and conservation. Through trading of newsletters and journals produced by the Guild, we receive current binding periodicals from similar organizations in England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Australia. These are perhaps the most frequently borrowed items as they demonstrate techniques that no book can describe verbally. This collection has proved to be an invaluable aid to the book conservation apprenticeship program at Iowa. Mainly built up in the middle of the century, before Iowa collected many books on binding, the collection complements the University's collections which currently acquires many items in this category.