As part of a themed print issue of Notes and Records dedicated to a research project surrounding the eighteenth-century Taylor White collection of animal paintings, this article provides context by describing the initial acquisition of the collection, and by situating it within the larger Blacker Wood Natural History Collection held at McGill University Library. Highlights of the Blacker Wood Collection are discussed, along with the collection's founder, Dr Casey Wood. The second part of the article provides a brief examination of the movement, in some academic administrative circles, towards the ‘de-professionalization’ of librarian work within academic libraries, and offers an outline of the specialized skills that librarians bring to the description, analysis and preservation of special collections. The Taylor White Project is then offered as an example of research collaborations between scholars and librarians; a description of the advantages of embedding a scholar within specific library collections to work with, rather than replace, a librarian is provided. The author suggests this strategy as one potential answer to the question of ‘de-professionalization’, to move away from divisive discussions towards a more symbiotic relationship between scholars and librarians.

作为Notes and Records主题印刷版的一部分本文致力于围绕 18 世纪 Taylor White 动物绘画收藏的研究项目，通过描述该收藏的最初获取，并将其置于麦吉尔大学图书馆收藏的更大的 Blacker Wood 自然历史收藏中，提供了背景信息。与该系列的创始人 Casey Wood 博士一起讨论了 Blacker Wood 系列的亮点。文章的第二部分简要回顾了一些学术行政界的图书馆员工作“去专业化”的运动，并概述了图书馆员用于描述、分析的专业技能。和特殊收藏品的保存。泰勒怀特项目随后被作为学者和图书馆员之间研究合作的一个例子；提供了将学者嵌入特定图书馆馆藏以与图书馆员合作而不是取代图书馆员的优势的描述。作者建议将这一策略作为对“去专业化”问题的一个潜在答案，从分裂的讨论转向学者和图书馆员之间更加共生的关系。