CURL in European Collaboration to Support the Rich Collections of the UK Cathedral Libraries

The Consortium of Research Libraries (CURL), the Consortium of European Research Libraries (CERL) and the Cathedral Libraries and Archives Association (CLAA) today announce the conclusion of a major three-way arrangement that will increase the visibility of a number of historic collections to researchers worldwide.

The three organisations have agreed to add the Hand Press Book database records of the Cathedral Libraries Catalogue to Copac, the freely available Web-based catalogue managed by MIMAS on behalf of CURL and the JISC. The Cathedral Libraries Catalogue (published by the Bibliographical Society between 1984 and 1998) contains records of books printed before 1701 held in the libraries of 37 Anglican Cathedrals of England and Wales, and includes books printed in the British Isles and British America and English books printed elsewhere, as well as books printed on the Continent of Europe.

Read full press release here

Acquisitions Night at the Folger Shakespeare Library
March 14, 2007
7-9 p.m.
Old Reading Room
Tickets: $100

Viewers can see all of the new additions to the book, manuscript, and art collections from the past year and make an adoption in support of the Folger in this annual benefit.

RBMS 2007 Preconference Scholarships

The Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries is offering scholarships to RBMS members to subsidize first-time preconference attendance at its 48th annual preconference, "From Here to Ephemerality: Fugitive Sources in Libraries, Archives and Museums," which will be held in Baltimore, Maryland, from Tuesday, 19 June to Friday, 22 June 2007.

A minimum of 15 full and partial scholarships will be awarded. Full scholarships of $750 include a waiver of the preconference registration fee (up to $235 for professional ACRL members and $95 for full-time student members) and reimbursement of housing and travel expenses ($515 for professionals and $655 for full-time students). Partial scholarships of $235 consist of a waiver of the registration fee only (full-time student registrants awarded partial scholarships will also receive $140 towards housing and travel expenses).

Eligibility:
All candidates must be currently enrolled in a library or information science, archival studies or museum studies program, or must have completed such a program. Candidates must also be members of ACRL who have not previously attended a preconference and who do not have sufficient institutional support to attend.

Applications must be received on or before Friday, April 13, 2007. Successful candidates will be notified on or before Friday, April 27, 2007. For more information click here.

The Scottish Book Trade Archive Inventory (SBTAI)

The Centre for the History of the Book at the University of Edinburgh announces the launch of The Scottish Book Trade Archive Inventory (SBTAI). The SBTAI provides a fully searchable index of manuscript papers held in Scotland relating to printers, publishers, and papermakers. To date, the SBTAI covers the nineteenth century and funding is presently being sought to extend these records and to add material for the seventeenth, eighteenth, and twentieth centuries. The first phase of the project pilot was completed in 2006 with support from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

You can navigate to the SBTAI from the Centre for the History of the Book website by following the links from the news item on the right hand side of the page.

Position Opening at the American Antiquarian Society

The American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA, seeks Director of Academic Programs to advocate for use of AAS collections; promote scholarly endeavors, including research and publications; provide leadership for academic fellowship program; develop and administer professional conferences and other scholarly programs; contribute to the advancement of publication and digitization programs. Requires doctoral degree in a field of study relevant to the Society's collections; experience in administration of projects, programs, and professional activities, awareness of trends in current scholarship. Full-time. Deadline 3/15/07. Salary negotiable based on experience; minimum $45,000. Applications by e-mail only eharris@mwa.org. For details see www.americanantiquarian.org

Gospel Papyrus Donated to Vatican

Click here for a translation of an article published last week in the semi-official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, entitled "18 Centuries of History: The Bodmer Papyrus 14-15 (P75) Arrives in the Vatican Apostolic Library."

The Twelfth Annual D.F. McKenzie Lecture
Friday 23 February at 5.00 p.m.
Lecture Theatre 2, St Cross Building, Oxford

Professor Robert Darnton (Princeton University)
“Bohemians Before Bohemianism: Grub Street Libertines in Paris and London 1770-1789”

Sponsored by The McKenzie Trust in association with the Centre for the Study of the Book, Bodleian Library

Seminar in American Bookbinding History

Friday, March 9, 2007
9:00 am 4:30 pm
Music Room, Goodhart Hall
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

The Bryn Mawr College Library is sponsoring a one-day seminar to stimulate research in the history of bookbinding in America by reporting on current studies, identifying gaps in our knowledge of the field, and proposing promising areas of research

The seminar will be moderated by Jim Green, Librarian of The Library Company of Philadelphia, and will feature presentations by 10 scholars on aspects of the nineteenth-century American and Canadian bookbinding trades. Presentations will be followed by discussion and sharing of ideas among all attendees.

The Presenters:

Steve Beare, "Discovery of the Remarkable 19th-Century Pattern Book of Samuel Dodd, New Jersey Engraver of Binding Stamps"

Gary Frost, Conservator of the Libraries, University of Iowa, "The Advent of Production Case Binding in the United States"

Vincent Golden, Curator of Newspapers and Periodicals, American Antiquarian Society, "The Golden Gift: What 50 Copies Reveals about Batch Binding"

Greta Golick, Doctoral Candidate, Collaborative Program in Book History and Print Culture,
University of Toronto, "The Daily Bind: Transactions of the Guelph [Canada West] Bookbindery, 1864-65"

Mary-Parke Johnson, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, "The Rise of Independent Bookbinderies in Philadelphia, 1830-1860"

Thomas E. Kinsella, Associate Professor of British Literature, Stockton College, "What 300+ Signed American Bindings Do Not Tell Us"

Andrea Krupp, Conservator, The Library Company of Philadelphia "Nineteenth-Century Bookcloth"

Robert J. Milevski, Preservation Librarian, Princeton University Library, "Bookbinding Brass Dies, in particular those of The Riverside Press"

Todd Pattison, Associate Book Conservator, Northeast Document Conservation Center, "Benjamin Bradley, Boston Bookbinder"

Jennifer Woods-Rosner, Chief of Conservation, The Library Company of Philadelphia, "Philadelphia Bookbinders and Bookbinding Suppliers

The seminar will be Friday, March 9, 2007, from 9:30 to 4:30, at Bryn Mawr College, located in the suburbs of Philadelphia. It is being held in connection with the Library's exhibition, "Bound and Determined: Identifying American Bookbindings," on display from January 30 to June 3, 2007. The curators of the exhibition are Willman Spawn, Honorary Curator of Bookbinding at Bryn Mawr College, and Thomas Kinsella, Associate Professor of British Literature at Richard Stockton College.

Registration fee: $40; Student registration: $10. Registration fees include lunch.

Deadline for registration: March 5, 2007.

More info here

Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award

The Library History Round Table of the American Library Association(ALA) sponsors the biennial Phyllis Dain Library History Dissertation Award. The award is offered only in odd numbered years. Applications must be received by March 1, 2007. Receipt will be confirmed with 2 business days.

The award, named in honor of a library historian widely known as a supportive advisor and mentor as well as a rigorous scholar and thinker, recognizes outstanding dissertations in the general area of library history. $500 and a certificate are given for a work that embodies original research on a significant topic relating to the history of books, libraries, librarianship or information science.

The biennial award is given in the odd numbered years. Dissertations completed and accepted during the preceding two academic years are eligible, e.g., dissertations from 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 competed for the 2001 award

Entries are judged on: clear definition of the research questions and/or hypotheses; use of appropriate source materials; depth of research; superior quality of writing; ability to place the subject within its broader historical context; and significance of the conclusions. The award winner will be selected by the Phyllis Dain Dissertation Award Committee, appointed every other year by the LHRT Chair-elect.

Four copies of the dissertation and a letter of support from the doctoral advisor or from another faculty member at the degree-granting institution are required.

Submit manuscripts to:

Letitia Earvin
Office for Research & Statistics
American Library Association/LHRT
50 East Huron St.
Chicago, IL 60611

The University of London Annual Paleography Lecture

Richard Gameson (University of Durham)
'Codices Circumientes: the Circulation of Books between England and the Continent, c. 871-c.1100'

8 March 2007; 5.30pm, at the Institute of English Studies, University of London

Richard Gameson specialises in the history of the book from Antiquity to the Renaissance, and in medieval art. He has published some seventy studies on medieval manuscripts, book collections, art and cultural history, including The Old Library (1988), The Early Medieval Bible (1994), The Role of Art in the late Anglo-Saxon Church (1995), The Study of the Bayeux Tapestry (1997) The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (1999), Augustine of Canterbury and the Conversion of England (1999), The Scribe Speaks: colophons in early English Manuscripts (2002), and Codex Aureus: an eighth-century gospel book (2001-2). He has recently completed a catalogue and study of the earliest books of Canterbury Cathedral.

If you would like to attend please contact:

Christine Lees
Institute of English Studies
University of London
School of Advanced Study
Room NG18, Senate House
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU
Tel: +44 (0)20 7862 8675
Email: ies@sas.ac.uk

Final Call for Papers
London in Text and History, 1400-1700
13-15 September, Jesus College, Oxford

Organisers: Ian Archer (Oxford), Matthew Davies (Centre for Metropolitan History, London), Ian Gadd (Bath Spa), Tracey Hill (Bath Spa), Paulina Kewes (Oxford)

Plenary speakers: Caroline Barron, Paul Griffiths, Rob Hume, Mark Jenner, Mark Knights, Peter Lake and Peter Stallybrass

This conference will focus on the variety of metropolitan identities, and how these were constructed, represented, and contested by contemporaries through a variety of media, including text (broadly defined), visual culture, maps, architecture and performance.

Between 1400 and 1700, London expanded hugely in population; it was affected by religious and political upheaval; it emerged from the shadow of its near-neighbour European competitors to become a world metropolis; and its physical face was transformed by the dissolution and the Great Fire. Our concern, however, is not so much with what these political, economic, or religious changes were but rather how they were figured in a range of forms and genres: ballads, drama, civic shows, sermons, pamphlets, poems, urban chronicles, topographical guides, paintings, engravings, and maps.

Lively literatures exist for medieval and early modern London but they rarely engage with each other nor do studies of post-Restoration London connect with the pre-civil war period. Consequently, plenary speakers will range widely to set up the major areas of debate, while the panels will be designed to encompass broad time-spans and to facilitate exchange among scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, including history, literature, art history, architecture and cartography. The conference will also reflect on the impact of some 10-15 yearsworth of unprecedented scholarly attention to London.

Proposals for papers (300 words max) should be sent by email to ian.archer@history.ox.ac.uk or t.hill@bathspa.ac.uk by 1st March 2007.

Call for Papers
Transformations: The Persistence of Aldus Manutius
The 2007 American Printing History Association conference

Aldus Manutius (1452-1515), the renowned Renaissance printer, publisher and scholar, transformed the presentation of ancient Latin and Greek texts. Aldus' typography and publishing program were admired and imitated in his time and continue to provide inspiration today. This conference in his honor encourages discussion about all kinds of printing innovation and its transformative nature in the history of printing worldwide. Papers are encouraged that will address innovation and its transformative nature in the history of printing worldwide.

“Transformations” will be held at UCLA on October 11-13, 2007; the main proceedings will take place on Friday, October 12. Full conference details will be available at the American Printing History Association website.

"The Books of Venice" Conference
Registrstion now open online

Venice's books, like the buildings described by Ruskin, have long been considered one of her greatest glories. Venice and the Veneto were hosts to some of the earliest book printers in Italy; the workplace of master publishers from Aldus Manutius in the sixteenth century to the Remondini in the eighteenth; the home of remarkable libraries such as those of Cardinal Bessarion and Girolamo Ascanio Molin; and the subject of countless works of fact and fiction. The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP) announces a conference to bring together in Venice scholars of Venice to consider its remarkable roles in book history

The conference will take place 9-10 March at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice. Keynote speakers are Lilian Armstrong (Wellesley College), Neil Harris (University of Udine) and Marino Zorzi (Biblioteca Marciana). A tavola rotonda will be organized by Mario Infelise (Università Ca Foscari Venezia). A printing workshop led by Peter Koch (Editions Koch and the University of California) and Susan Filter will take place at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica di Venezia. The conference will conclude with the presentation of Koch's new edition of Joseph Brodsky's Watermark, at the Ateneo Veneto.

The complete program will be available imminently on the Istituto Veneto website.

Call for Papers
Seminar on Textual Bibliography for Modern Foreign Languages
Monday, 11 June, in the Conference Center at the British Library

We are seeking four or five papers of approx. 30 minutes each, one at 11.00 a.m. and the others after lunch, with ample time for discussion after each paper. Papers dealing with any aspect of printing and book production in Continental Eastern and Western Europe are warmly invited, as are papers dealing with other aspects of historical bibliography, editing, and the history of the book and reading. Papers giving an account of work in progress or offers to introduce discussion of bibliographical interest are a long-standing feature of the seminar.

Please let us know by the end of April if you are willing to give a paper.

We should be grateful if you would send us the names and addresses of potential new participants in the seminar, especially postgraduate students.

Barry Taylor (barry.taylor@bl.uk; tel 020 7412 7576
Susan Reed (susan.reed@bl.uk; tel 020 7412 7311)

Early Printed Collections
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
Fax 020 7412 7577

"Textual Culture" Symposium
Now Open for Registration

Textual Culture investigates the production, circulation, regulation and use of material texts in multiple contexts. It brings together several strands of existing research interests, principally book history, discourse analysis, publishing studies, textual scholarship, and reader/audience study. This symposium aims to promote research in this fast-developing field, combining interdisciplinary discussion with student training.

The first keynote paper, to be given by Professor Ron Scollon, will problematise the geographical context of discourse and the discursive creation of geographical context, while the second, to be given by Dr Peter D. McDonald, will explore the relationship between literature and the state. The remaining sessions, all of which are cross-period, discuss theories and methodologies for the investigation of textual cultures, focusing variously on text, context, and readership.

A workshop, limited to twenty participants (with priority given to UK-registered research students), will be run by Dr McDonald in parallel with the third panel session. This will focus on the necessity to look at texts in terms of their materiality as documents, and on the practical consequences of taking this step. Examples will be drawn from world literatures in English, but participants are invited to bring any primary texts that they are currently working on (or reproductions thereof, if this is impractical) for group discussion and analysis.

The AHRC National Research Training Scheme in English Language and Literature, Palaeography, and the History of the Book will fund a significantly reduced regsitration fee for up to 20 UK-registered research postgraduate students. These subsidised places are offered on a first-come-first-served basis.

Additionally, the University of Stirling is offering bursaries of up to £100 to cover the travel costs of 14 students (undergraduate or postgraduate), in addition to those to whom bursaries have already been granted. These will be assigned on the basis of a short (max. 250 word) statement from each applicant explaining his or her area of interest within the field of Textual Culture. Fees include lunch, wine, and refreshments.

More information here

The University of Pennsylvania Library
Rosenbach Lectures 2007 by David Hall

David Hall is Bartlett Professor of New England Church History at Harvard Divinity School. He will present three lectures with the overall title "Pen and Press: Practices of Writing and Publishing in Colonial America."

Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 5:30PM
"Not in Print, yet Published: The Significance of Scribal Publication"

Thursday, February 22, 2007 at 5:30PM
"Social Authorship: Collaborations and the Making of Printed Books"

Monday, February 26, 2007 at 5:30PM
"Authorizing Dissent: Can the Private be Made Public?"

All talks are free and open to the public. Receptions will follow each lecture, which will be presented in the Lessing J. Rosenwald Gallery, 6th floor, Van-Dietrich Library, University of Pennsylvania, 3420 Walnut Street (enter from Locust Walk), Philadelphia, PA.

David Hall has written extensively on religion and society in colonial New England as well as on the history of the book. He is the author of Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book (1996) and co-editor of A History of the Book in America (2000- ).

For more information, call 800 390 1829 or email an inquiry to friends@pobox.upenn.edu