Post on 15-Jan-2016
why we still need the physical book and what digital research adds to its history
Anne Welsh
Lecturer in Library & Information Studies
Paper in the brave new digital world:
A painless introduction to ...
painless introductions
MA LIS / MA ARM / MA Digital Humanities
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/teaching/modules/instg012/
painless introductions
“Bibliography is the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception.”
~ D.F. McKenzie
painless introductions
Types of Bibliography
• Enumerative bibliography– Listing books by topic, date, type or author
• Historical bibliography– Primarily the physical processes of book production
• Analytical bibliography– Identifying differences and the “ideal copy”
• Descriptive bibliography– Describing all the evidence about the book
• Textual bibliography– The text in relation to its transmission processes
painless introductions
The life of books
painless introductions
The bibliographer’s province
painless introductions
Communications Circuit
Economic & social conjuncture
Author Publisher
Printers:CompositorsPressmenWarehousemen
Suppliers:PaperInk TypeLabour
Shippers:AgentsSmugglersEntrepot KeeperWaggoner, etc.
Booksellers:WholesellersRetailersPeddlersBinders, etc.
Readers:PurchasersBorrowersClubsLibraries
Political & legal
sanctions
Intellectual influences & publicity
After Darnton
painless introductions
Books at the forefront of technology
painless introductions
Recording watermarks
From: http://watermark.kb.nl/
painless introductions
Electron radiography of watermarks
From: http://watermark.kb.nl/
painless introductions
Online searchable watermark databases
Also: http://www.wm-portal.net/niki/index.php
From: http://watermark.kb.nl/
painless introductions
Other innovations
• Digitised collections• from jpeg to pdf to fully-browsable
• Online catalogues• from card / paper to online (MARC)• from surrogate to full-text• from format-specific to institution-wide• from institutional to national to international
painless introductions
Technology in the Brave New World
painless introductions
Homogenisation?
‘There is nothing wrong in the whole wide world’ by Chris Cobb, 2005
painless introductions
As it’s Burns Night ...
http://itunes.apple.com/
painless introductions
Versioning in the digital collection
http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw/burns/
painless introductions
painless introductions
“Extreme Versioning”
Barker & Lucas, “Wicked Bible” 1631
Borel’s singes dactylographes more likely to produce millions of errors than text of the quality of Shakespeare ...
But is it the quantity or the quality of error that really matters?
painless introductions
More typical versioning
painless introductions
painless introductions
Store them? Preserve them? How?
painless introductions
Digital versus print?
painless introductions
Readers
painless introductions
painless introductions
painless introductions
Readers
http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/recorddetails2.php?id=159
painless introductions
painless introductions
Picture creditsSome of the pictures in these slides are copyright commons, some rights reserved:
vince42, http://www.flickr.com/photos/84609865@N00/3714671728/
posixeleni, http://www.flickr.com/photos/posixeleni/3563513903/
Kaotiqua, http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaotiqua/131701845/
Diorama Sky, http://www.flickr.com/photos/diorama_sky/2975796332/
Librarian in Black, http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarianinblack/1392970571/
Elizabeth Beers, http://www.flickr.com/photos/brixton/150605829/
Topsy Qur’et, http://www.flickr.com/photos/topsy/204929063/
goXuno Reviews, http://www.flickr.com/photos/43602175@N06/4070018828/