Call for Papers
American Periodicals, Special Issue

In 2009 American Periodicals will be publishing a special issue on "Immigrant Periodicals." We are calling for essays addressing any area of the broad and relatively understudied field of periodical publications for and by immigrant communities to the United States, focusing on the period between 1740-1920. We are especially interested in research addressing non-English periodicals. For consideration for the Special Issue on Immigrant Periodicals, please submit your essay by January 31, 2008.

Manuscripts should conform to the 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style, double- spaced (including quotations and notes), and be roughly limited to 7,000 words. Submissions are accepted electronically as email attachments at amper@osu.edu . If hard copy submission is preferred, please send two hard copies of the manuscript, along with a self- addressed return envelope. Electronic submissions will receive electronic reports.

Please direct all contributions and inquiries to:

amper@osu.edu

or

American Periodicals
Department of English
The Ohio State University
164 W. 17th Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43210

Oberlin College Library to Auction Off Evans Microfilm Collection
Early American Imprints, 1639-1800; complete collection
ca. 22,000 microfiche
See publisher's description here

Terms:

Bids close at 5 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2007. Oberlin College will invoice high bidder, no credit cards accepted. Buyer responsible for all shipping costs. The set occupies 1.5 8-drawer microfiche cabinets; one black microfiche cabinet, in excellent condition, available free to high bidder if shipping is paid for. Oberlin College assumes no responsibility for replacing lost or damaged fiche after the sale has been transacted. Bidders can view the current high bid here and submit additional bids until the deadline.

To bid and for further information:

Contact Alan Boyd, Associate Director, Oberlin College Library, 148 West College Street, Oberlin, OH 44074, USA
alan.boyd@oberlin.edu
(440) 775-5015

All bids must be received by 5 pm on Tuesday, July 17, 2007.

A Quick Stab at the Eighteenth Century
An Online Exhibition Hosted by the University of Otago (link)

This Online Exhibition provides a brief overview of a rich century. The exhibition focuses on key aspects such as philosophy, religion, music, literature and science, and features notable works such as John Locke's Two Treatises on Government (1694), David Hume's Essays, Moral and Political (1748), a scarce printing of Thomas Paine's Age of Reason (1794), Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist classic A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1796), Sarah Fielding's David Simple (1744), periodicals such as The Tatler (1709) and The Gentleman's Magazine (1731), Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), and a rare limited edition copy of Thomas Gray's Poems illustrated by William Blake (1972). A vast majority of the book and manuscripts are from Dr Esmond de Beer's Collection.

The exhibition coincides with the David Nichols Smith Seminar theme of 'Rewriting the Long Eighteenth Century' at the University of Otago on 10 to 14 April, and two other eighteenth century events: 'Evoking the 18th Century: Works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Collection', 17 March -28 September 2007; and 'Scottish Leaves: Books and Manuscripts from Scottish Writers 1711-1822', Dunedin Public Library Special Collections 10 April-15 July 2007.

The ULRLS Archival Database
A Major New Resource for Researchers

The University of London Research Library Services (ULRLS) launched its new electronic catalogue for archives and manuscripts on 31 May 2007 . This new resource, developed over the past 18 months thanks to a grant from the Vice-Chancellor's Development Fund, is designed to complement the records of books, periodicals and theses available on the main library catalogue. It brings together descriptions of archival and manuscript collections at Senate House Library and the other libraries within ULRLS, making descriptions of more than 2,000 unique collections searchable online in one place for the first time.

The range of archive material held across ULRLS is extraordinarily diverse, covering many different aspects of British and world history over more than 1,000 years. Prominent among the collections held at Senate House Library is the University of London archive, the historic documents of which provide a unique insight into the growth and development of the University since 1836. Other strengths include: medieval manuscripts, literary manuscripts, papers of scholars associated with the University, and material relating to changes in politics, industry and society between the mid 18th and mid 20^th centuries.

Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Muenchen
Digital Database of MSS and MS Fragments,
Medieval and Early Modern, Western and Oriental

Available here

Patricia Klingenstein Research Fellowships 2007 – 2008
The New-York Historical Society is currently accepting applications for short-term visiting fellowships

The New-York Historical Society, located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, is an independent research library and museum, with extensive collections documenting the American experience in general and the history of New York City in particular, from cultural, social, political, military and mercantile perspectives. The collections cover four centuries, and are especially strong in late-18th- through late-19th-century holdings, which helps support our mission to promote serious scholarship about the history of the United States, and the history of New York.

The library’s collections may be searched through the online consortium catalog Bobcat (www.bobcat.nyu.edu). Links to finding aids and collection databases, as well as descriptions of collections, services and policies, may be found on the library portion of the N-YHS website.

The purpose of these fellowships is to encourage scholars whose research would benefit greatly from the use of the New-York Historical Society’s unique collections. The applicant’s field of research must demonstrably and specifically relate to The New-York Historical Society’s collections. United States citizens and foreign nationals may apply. Preference will be given to applicants who hold an undergraduate degree and are engaged in serious historical projects.

The stipend for the fellowship will be $500 per week, for no less than three weeks and no more than four weeks, depending on the time required for the completion of the project. Fellowships must be undertaken for consecutive weeks between September 15, 2007 and June 30, 2008. Fellows will be able to conduct research in the library during the society’s regular research hours, following the regular rules for use of the collections. The library has closed stacks and non-circulating collections. Fellows may also undertake research by appointment in the library’s Department of Prints, Photographs and Architectural Collections, and in the Museum collections, which are housed in the Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture on the society’s fourth floor.

There is no application form. Applicants must submit:

1) A cover sheet with name, telephone, permanent address and e-mail, current employer/affiliation, title of project, proposed dates of residency, and signature of applicant to warrant accuracy of information.

2) A letter of two single-spaced pages maximum describing the project and its relation to specifically cited collections at the society and to previous work on the same theme, and describing the projected outcome of the work. If residents of the New York City metropolitan area are applying, they must explain their financial need for the stipend.

3) A resume.

4) Three confidential letters of reference. Graduate students must include their thesis advisor.

Please mail applications to:

Fellowships, Library Office
The New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024.

Applications must be received by 5:00 p.m., August 1, 2007.

U Iowa's "Center for the Book" Receives Major Grant

The University of Iowa Center for the Book is happy to announce a major grant won by Timothy Barrett: Tim has merited a $184,000 award from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The UICB’s research scientist and paper specialist, Barrett is the principal investigator for a grant to study paper composition from the 15th to 19th centuries, in order to better understand preservation and care decisions for collections. You can read more about the award here.

CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group Conference, 2007
Imagining The Text: The Role of Images In Printed Books
Wellcome Library, London
12-14 September 2007

The conference will examine the role of illustrations in printed books from the 16th century to the present day, from woodcuts to photographs. It offers an opportunity to examine illustrations, learn about exciting current projects and visit some of the remarkable collections of images and illustrated books to be found in London. Visits and workshops will be held at the British Library, National Art Library, British Architectural Library and the Wellcome Library and the conference reception and dinner will be held at the Royal Society. The event is suitable for librarians, curators, archivists, bibliographers, booksellers, and anyone who has a personal or professional interest in the subject.

A programme of the events for the full three days, details of accommodation in London, and a booking form are available from the Group's website

Call for Papers
Analogous Spaces: Architecture and the space of information, intellect and action.

The International Conference on Analogous Spaces interrogates the analogy between spaces in which knowledge is preserved, organized, transferred or activated. Although these spaces may differ in material, virtual, or operational ways, there are resemblances if one examines their 'structure,' 'form' and 'architecture'. How do these spaces co-exist and interrelate? The conference seeks papers on the following types of spaces:

* architecture and elements of the built environment (museums, libraries and archives, warehouses, ministries, administrative towns, world capitals, physical infrastructure, functionalist urbanism, etc.);
* information storage and data processing (databases, information retrieval, data mining, conceptual maps, scholarly communication, search engines, etc.);
* the architecture of "the book" (contents and layout of atlases, scientific and scholarly treatises, encyclopedias, guides, manuals, children's books etc.);
* organizational schemes and diagrams (organigrams, functional diagrams, visual language, interfaces, artificial intelligence, taxonomies, classification systems, itineraries, etc.).

Conference papers should examine analogical relationships between these types of spaces by investigating how they produce, accumulate, order, conserve, distribute, classify, and use knowledge.

Calendar
* 31 July 2007 Deadline submission of abstracts
* 31 October 2007 Selection of papers
* 31 March 2008 Submission of final papers and other contributions
* 15-17 May 2008 Conference Analogous Spaces
Practical Information
* Conference language: English
* Conference venue: Ghent (Belgium)
* Publication: A selection of conference papers will be published

Background information and the full CFP can be found here

Barren Regions: Early Dutch Books on the Exploration of Australia
At the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands)

On the occasion of the celebration of "Netherlands - Australia 1606 - 2006" the Koninklijke Bibliotheek presents the complete digital facsimiles of five early Dutch books on the exploration of Australia.

Without ever having seen the Terra Australis Incognita, or the Unknown Southland, everyone in seventeenth-century Europe was convinced that it existed. Sixteenth-century cartographers were heavily influenced by Ptolemy’s world map of the 2nd century, on which a vast southern land mass is shown to counterbalance the weight of the northern continent. This Southland was rumoured to have enormous riches, such as silver and gold. In the end none of the phantasies proved to be correct, as was shown by the subsequent discoveries of Australia and New Zealand, discoveries mainly made by the Dutch.

Access exhibition here