Book HistoryOn a Budget:

27 Tips & Tricks

Robert Cagna, Charleston Library DirectorWest Virginia University

www.slideshare.net/cagnawww.twitter.com/rcagna

1

Main thing: form partnerships; be collaborative with:

-- Librarians (esp. rare book)

-- Booksellers

-- Printers

-- Artists (typographers, papermakers, designers)

-- Archivists

-- Historians

2

Local academic librarians may be able to bring their most interesting books to you and your students; or, students could visit them.

3

…The same for rare book sellers; or, if librarians and booksellers can’t visit you on site they might be able to set up a Webinar for you.

4

Librarians can help with “…the classic questions of information literacy (reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, bias, context of creation, etc.)”

(DePaul Library News for Faculty, March 3, 2015)

5

Don’t forget your college’s archivist, who will hopefully have a treasure trove of books, documents, pictures, and ephemera related to the history of the college.

Younger students may not be familiar with handwritten script, scrapbooks, black paper photo books, non-standard books, and so on.

(DePaul Library News for Faculty, March 3, 2015)

6

Access YouTube videos on various print / binding / papermaking / typography techniques and on various books:

www.youtube.com

Possible search terms within YouTube:

history of the book; book history; history of printing; printing history; history of publishing; history of papermaking

7

Rare Book School sessions for teachers and students (VA, CA, London, and New Zealand); try to get a scholarship as they offer a number of them (different types). The Rare Book School at the University of Virginia has offered one week courses in Virginia, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Bloomington, IN.

http://www.rarebookschool.org Virginia school

8

DVDs and bibliographical facsimile paper from the Rare Book School

http://www.rarebookschool.org/publications

9

Feel free to use 3rd, 4th, or even 5th editions for comparative purposes, especially editions printed after the author passes away; also, special and illustrated editions.

Ask your library for a title it has collected over the years, possessing various editions; have students examine them individually or in small groups and compare them to modern paperback editions and e-versions.

10

Throwaway editions: ask booksellers to search for them, and buy them on your behalf when they purchase an estate.

Try to get them cheaply or for free. You could keep them or you could ask your library to keep them.

11

Free online version of ABC for Book Collectors

(8th ed., 2004, latest edition)

PDF available at:

https://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/30-john_carters_abc_for_book_collectors.html

12

Twitter! www.twitter.com

• #bookhistory

• #historyofthebook

• @SHARPorg

• @sharp2015_ca

• @RBMSinfo

• @bookhistory

• @bookhistorynetw

• @rarebookschool

13

Reproduction (facsimile) editions

(controversial; but, it can be helpful to have “copies” of certain books always present)

Some vendors’ sites:

www.facsimile-editions.com

www.addisonpublications.com

http://www.faksimile.de/

14

Use at least one assigned book with lots of images like the Smithsonian Book of Books (DK’s Book is good, too, but for younger readers)

15

Use local zines (pronounced zeens) and broadsides and pamphlets and tracts.

16

Check if your local artisans group, history museum, or printing company has a letterpress printer machine, a person who does binding, a typographer, a papermaker, i.e., someone who could give a talk and demonstrate equipment, technique, and usage .

17

Use movies (DVDs) about books like 84 Charing Cross Road to fire up a passion for old books via a human interest story.

18

Follow listservs like SHARP and EXLIBRIS for free.

19

Take apart an inexpensive old book with students to show how they were made.

20

National Library of MedicineTurning the Pages Online

http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/vesalius/vesalius.html

21

Washington University online exhibit

http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/vesalius/index.html

22

Publisher’s site: www.vesaliusfabrica.com

23

Encourage students to enter the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest:

http://www.abaa.org/ncbcc/the-national-collegiate-book-collecting-contest

Enter by the end of May!

24

Textbook A History of Reading and Writing: In the Western World (2009) by Martyn Lyons.

Students have told special collections curator Ruth Rogers of Wellesley they have found it “…informative and thorough, with the perfect narrative format that makes it enjoyable to read.”

Also, Books: A Living History (same author)

25

Focus on old books that have a great story, great provenance, marginalia, wondrous binding, a tobacco/whiskey smell, or fantastic type – rather than high monetary value.

26

Have the students spend time with an old book, slow down, and take notes using all their senses to describe it.

27

Twenty Questions to Ask an Object

http://www.artbabble.org/video/chipstone/twenty-years-twenty-questions-ask-object

Questions?

Rob Cagna, Library Director

West Virginia University

Charleston Health Sciences Library

304-347-1287

rcagna@hsc.wvu.edu

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