SUSAN M. ALLEN, GETTY RESEARCH LIBRARIAN

“When I first began collecting fine-press books, I would not allow myself to purchase anything more than $50,” says Susan M. Allen, chief librarian at the Getty Research Institute. “I have gone above that, to say the least.”

Contemporary fine-press titles, defined as books in which the printer sets the text by hand, caught Allen’s eye when she was studying printing in the 1980s. The books are “tactile, like a sculpture,” she says.

Allen’s collection--organized by printer, not Dewey Decimal System--numbers more than 200 titles, from an early acquisition, “The Weasel,” an essay by Annie Dillard (Rara Avis Press, 190 printed), to her recent score, “The Circus of Dr. Lao,” a novel by Charles G. Finney (Janus Press, edition 35 of 150). “I wouldn’t call it a page turner,” she says of Finney’s book.

In addition to purchasing from antiquarian booksellers and book fairs, Allen subscribes to two printers, Janus Press in Vermont and Peter Koch of Berkeley. Despite her professional librarian status, Allen has yet to loan out any of her fine-press brood. “Depending on who it was and what it was for, I certainly would,” she offers. “But it’s not like loaning a paperback.”