Two notices:
1.
The
University of Otago Centre for the Book is pleased to announce our sixth annual
research symposium. In 2017, we are teaming up with Dunedin UNESCO City of
Literature to offer a 3-day extravaganza engagement with books and culture. The
Centre for the Book Symposium will start on Tuesday evening, November 28th,
with our usual public lecture at the Dunedin City Library. The lecture will
feature Warwick Jordan, proprietor of Hard to Find Books, talking about his
wide experience as a bookseller and the variety of book users that he supplies.
The symposium proper will take place on the University campus all day
Wednesday, November 29th, at the College of Education and will feature a slate of
presentations on the theme “Books and Users.”
The two-day UNESCO Creative Cities symposium will follow, with international and local keynote speakers on Thursday November 30th, followed on Friday by facilitated workshops at the Dunedin Athenaeum in the Octagon. Please note: Thanks to generous support from the University of Otago Centre for the Book, the NZ National Commission for UNESCO and the Dunedin City Council, both of these events will be free to attend, with delegates responsible for providing their own lunch. Delegates are welcome to register for specific days or all three days.
The theme for the Centre for the Book 2017
Symposium is “Books and Users.” Before the advent of electronic text storage, a
whole realm of print existed to record and store information. From instruction
manuals to phone books and encyclopedias, these publications were to be
consulted rather than read. Today, increasingly, many of these works are no
longer printed on paper. They are instead disseminated to users in electronic
formats, often only when they are requested. This shift in media has made
readers more conscious of how they use books. It also raises questions about
which sort of books work well in electronic format and which do not. This
symposium seeks to investigate all the ways people use books, not just
consciously or as intended, but for any purpose. Some may be propping up an
item of furniture in the corner; some used for artistic design; some for
elegant wallpaper. Even those books that are actually read are used in many
different ways: for self-exploration; for escape; for gifts to others; for
inspiration. And there are the readers, an equally diverse lot: some fold down
corners; some write in books (some even in ink); some insert all sorts of items
such as bookmarks or for storage; others handle a book so delicately that a
second reader cannot tell the book has ever been opened. Indeed, in medical
contexts, ‘users’ may refer to those in control of their habit or to those
harmfully addicted. Is this also true in the book world? Traditionally,
libraries recorded the frequency with which books were used. Today, especially
because of increased privacy concerns, such information is less publicly
available, but is still being used. Indeed, publishers often place restrictions
on how many times an e-text maybe loaned. Institutions face pressure, often
having to buy another copy after the set number of loans has been reached. The
variety of uses for books and of users of books creates areas both of mutual
benefit and of potential conflict. The codex is a superbly efficient and highly
evolved technology with a well-established set of design conventions that
permit quite distinctive uses. Change is in the wind, and the book beyond the
codex is evolving in new directions, some of which will no doubt succeed and
others of which are bound to fail.
Call For Papers
All of these topics are of potential interest for
the Centre for the Book symposium. Whether you are an adept or an addict,
whether books for you are primarily physical, spiritual or cerebral, and
whether you prefer to look up information online or in print, you undoubtedly
have thoughts on this topic. So please email a 250-300 word abstract of your
ideas to books@otago.ac.nz and set aside
the end of November for a thought-provoking few days of reflection and
engagement with books and users of books. Abstracts must be received by 1
October 2017, with a final programme announced by mid-October. If you have any
questions, please contact Dr. Donald Kerr (donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz) or Dr. Shef
Rogers (shef.rogers@otago.ac.nz)
See https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/cfb/ for
details.
2.
A reminder
that the 2017 University of Otago Printer in Residence programme at the Otakou
Press Room, the University Library, is well under way. Like many of our past
PIR programmes, the project is a collaborative one, featuring writer, editor,
poet David Eggleton; the Dunedin-based artist Nigel Brown; and printer Dr John
Holmes (of Frayed Frisket Press). Please drop by (if
you can) and see the presses in action. There are 16 Eggleton poems, and
about 10 images by Brown, forming the title: SNAP. It is printed on Zerkall
paper in a limited edition of 100 copies only. The cost of a copy is $120.00
(incl gst). If you are interested in securing a copy, please let me know. I am
sure interest will be high.
Dr. Donald Kerr
Special Collections Librarian
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
Phone: (03) 479-8330
Email: donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz
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