Retired cataloger bequeaths 2,000 rare books to USM library

A longtime employee of the University of Southern Maine library has bequeathed nearly 2,000 books, some of them five centuries years old, to the library's special collections department. Albert A. Howard, who worked as a cataloger at the school's library for 35 years but is now retired, donated his rare book collection earlier this year, knowing it was the best way to preserve the collection he had begun working on in 1958. The oldest book in the group was printed in 1490. From Blethen Maine Newspapers