Serendipity in the Stacks, Fortuity in the Archives

Abstract

Professor Hoeflich explores the notion of serendipity and its components as they relate to historians, particularly legal historians, and to those institutions - libraries and archives - that present the opportunities for serendipity to work its magic. He also discusses the ways in which libraries and archives can help to encourage serendipitous discoveries, and the dangers he sees in over-efficient and economically rational disposal policies, including reproduction instead of preservation of originals.

Keywords: serendipity, serendipitous, legal history, historians, libraries, archives, preservation, browsing