PROVO — Wondering what to do with Grandpa's book collection? Want to start collecting rare or antique books yourself?

Rank amateurs and leading experts gathered Thursday and today at Brigham Young University for the annual A. Dean Larsen Book Collecting Conference. There was something for everyone, from beginners to rare book collectors and archivists.

"This is the only place in Utah where book collectors, curators and dealers all come together each year," said Brad Westwood, chairman of BYU's L. Tom Perry Special Collections department.

Former bookseller Roger Layton said he spent three or four years rummaging through second-hand bookstores to gain a lot of the information that was available at the BYU conference.

"This is a place you can come to and get a huge head start if you're interested in book collecting," said Layton, who with his wife, Margy, owned the independent Read Leaf Bookstore in Springville before they closed it and he took a job at BYU's Harold B. Lee Library last year.

Conferencegoers will be shown Special Collection materials worth about $500,000.

On Thursday conference attendees created their own 16th century Italian paper binding Today, BYU Special Collections will offer six seminars:

• "A Proclamation from the Lord: Broadsides, Posters and Handbills in the Print Culture of Mormonism," by BYU's Larry Draper

• "Fake-Similes or Fact-Similes: A Selection from BYU's Collection of Facsimiles of World Famous Medieval Manuscripts," by Derek Jensen of BYU-Idaho

• "Been There, Done That: A Look at 15th and 20th Century Maps, Engravings and Travel Accounts," by BYU's Russ Taylor

• "Seek Ye ... the Best Books: Collecting 20th Century Mormon Books," by Curt Bench of Benchmark Books in Salt Lake City

• "Songs of the Heart: Collecting Sacred and Popular Mormon Music," by BYU's Janet Bradford

• "The History and Collecting of Science Fiction and History of Science Fiction Publishing," by BYU's Robert Maxwell

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com