News 2009

2nd LIBER-EBLIDA Workshop on Digitisation of Library Material in Europe
19-20 October 2009
Topics in the programme were: public-private partnerships, new economic models, digitisation needs of research and public libraries, measuring the impact of digitisation projects, aggregation of digital content, interoperability and metadata issues.
Full Programme and Registration

The main goal of the Summer School in the Study of Old Books is to acquaint participants with the most recent developments and newly emerged concepts in the fields of: historical method and epistemology, old book research and bibliography, bibliographic information organization and its relation to the archival context, conservation and preservation; and to provide practical introduction to old books collection management with contemporary approaches to digitization. The Summer School also aims to provide participants with insight into current research of old books and manuscripts, and to raise their awareness of rich and technologically advanced research information sources such as European Hand Press Book Database, and the Portal for cross-searching catalogues of European manuscript materials.

The Summer School in the Study of Old Books targets doctoral students and recent doctoral graduates studying in the fields of: history of book, library and information sciences, archival studies, and cultural heritage studies. It also targets the university faculty, researchers and practitioners working in memory institutions in the fields related to the topics of the School.

The Summer School in the Study of Old Books is planned to cover 16 lectures, 1 presentation, 2 workshops and group work sessions in 5 days. Proceedings of the School will publish delivered lectures and accepted student essays.

Registration fee: doctoral students €100; others €200.

The closing date for application is 14 May 2009.

Should you require any further information please contact Marijana Tomić at mtomic@unizd.hr.

Director of the Summer School: Associate Professor Mirna Willer
University of Zadar
Department of Library and Information Sciences
Franje Tuđmana 24 i 23000
Zadar
Croatia
URL: http://www.unizd.hr
E-mail: mwiller@unizd.hr
t/f: -385 23 311 540

For the seventh edition of its Book History Workshop, organised in collaboration with the Rare Book School (University of Virginia), the Lyon-based Institut d'histoire du livre is offering four advanced courses in the fields of book and printing history.

Courses on offer this year are:

Dominique Varry
Physical (Analytical) Bibliography (new course, in French)

Neil Harris
Papiers and Watermarks as Bibliographical Evidence (new course, in English)

Michael Twyman
Printed Ephemera under the Magnifying Glass (course in English)

Kristian Jensen
Introduction to the Study of Incunabula (course in English)

The Book History Workshop is aimed at book and printing historians and at the many other specialists who encounter questions related to the history of the book, printing and graphic communication in the course of their work: researchers, teachers, archivists, librarians, museum curators, antiquarian booksellers, collectors, graphic designers, etc.

The four-day courses offered by the Institut d'histoire du livre cover various aspects of the history of the book and graphic communication. Subjects are dealt with from both theoretical and practical points of view through illustrated lectures, discussions and close study of original documents. The courses make abundant use of the collections of Lyon City Library and Museum of Printing.

The courses will take place in Lyon from the 1st to the 4th September 2009. Classes will be held at the Ecole normale supérieure - lettres et sciences humaines (Lyon) with sessions at the Lyon City Library, Lyon Printing Museum and the Enssib librarian school.

Tuition fee: €490 (mid-day meals included).

In order to facilitate access to collections of original documents the number of participants is limited to twelve per class.

For further information see: http://ihl.enssib.fr/siteihl.php?page=21&aflng=en

or contact:

Anne-Laure Collomb
Bibliothèque de la Part-Dieu
30 boulevard Vivier-Merle
69003 Lyon
France

alcollomb@bm-lyon.fr
http://ihl.enssib.fr

The prestigious STCN project has been completed after 27 years. The largest and longest-running project in the history of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek is virtually complete. The Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands (STCN), which will be completed at the end of June 2009, gives an overview of all books printed in the Netherlands between 1540 and 1801 and of those published abroad in Dutch. This milestone marks the completion of the National Bibliography from the beginning of the printing age up to the present day. Everyone will be able to gain access to it through the website http://www.stcn.nl/.

The STCN was compiled from the collections of almost 25 libraries and archives in the Netherlands and abroad. Among these were the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) and the university libraries of Amsterdam, Leiden, Utrecht, the Free University, Groningen and Nijmegen, as well as the British Library, the provincial libraries of Friesland and Zeeland, the municipal libraries of Haarlem, Rotterdam and Deventer and the collections of the Netherlands Music Institute and the Meermanno Museum.

In addition to numerous scientific publications, the bibliography comprises many books for 'the man in the street', such as travel stories, political pamphlets and almanacs. Four different bibliographies had already been compiled for the periods before 1540 and after 1800, but the publications from the period 1540-1800 have now been brought together in one database for the first time. More than 200,000 different titles came onto the market during this flourishing period of Dutch books. Around 500,000 copies are listed in the STCN. The five different bibliographies will be accessible via one portal within two years.

The STCN is pre-eminently suitable as a scholarly research instrument. The database provides several more search functions than an ordinary library catalogue. The user can search for author's names and title words as well as year, place of publication, language, printer, publisher, key words, and even illustrations, musical notation and typeface. Moreover, the STCN will be the starting point for large-scale digitisation projects of the KB and other libraries.

Symposium
The completion of the STCN will be celebrated with a festive symposium in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek on 25 June, where the new STCN website will be launched. Also, the book Boekenwijsheid will be presented, with contributions of 30 scholars of repute (including Dr. L. Kooijmans, Prof. V. Icke and Dr. A.H.G. Rinnooy Kan).

Imprint names from Francisco Vindel, Escudas y marcas de impressores y libreros en Espana durante los siglos XV a XIX (1485-1850) with links to digitised printers' devices.

Warsaw University Library, Authority file for personal name headings.

CERL is pleased to announce that Dr Cristina Dondi has been selected as the Secretary Designate of the Consortium with effect from 1 March 2009. On 20 April 2009 at the Directors’ meeting, her appointment will be confirmed. In the intervening period, Dr Dondi will ‘shadow’ the Consortium’s current Secretary, Dr David Shaw, in order to gain experience of the Consortium’s business.

From the middle of April until the CERL Annual General Meeting in November 2009, Dr Shaw and Dr Dondi will be Joint Secretaries. Dr Dondi will assume most of the functions of the Consortium Secretary. Dr Shaw will retain the legal functions of Company Secretary up to the November Annual General Meeting and will assist in preparations for the June committee meetings as well as the November Seminar and Annual General Meeting, at which he will step down.

Read more in the Press Release

CERL invites you take five minutes to answer a very short questionnaire about provenance aspects of your historic collections.

We would like to know

• whether you include provenance information in your catalogue records
• the proportion of your catalogue records for pre-1830 printed books which include provenance information
• do you have online files recording the names of former owners
• do you have other records of names of former owners (on cards, in printed lists, etc.)
• your suggestions about ways in which CERL could help to promote the inclusion of provenance data in catalogue records

a link to the questionnaire can be found on the CERL Provenance pages where we shall publish a summary of the responses.