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LIBR 548F History of the Book – Course Syllabus (3)

Program: Master of Library and Information Studies
Year: 2009-2010, Winter Session, Term 1
Instructor: Ross Harvey
Office phone: (617) 521 2699 (time zone: Eastern Standard Time)
Office hours: Formal ‘Office Hours’ will be advised to enable students to contact the instructor using online chat tools or by telephone.
E-mail address: ross.harvey@simmons.edu

 

 

Course Goal: This course offers an overview of the history of the book as a material object and as an agent of intellectual and social development. It places particular emphasis on the book in Europe, Britain, and North America. This course defines book widely, so its interests include the past, present, and future of the creation, diffusion, and reception of the written word. The course looks at the book in two ways: as a physical object; and as the bearer of intellectual content. It therefore examines the physical properties of the objects that carry written and pictorial texts, as well as the intellectual uses to which books have been put.

Course Objectives:
By the end of this course, students will:

  • Have insight into the development of the book as a material object
  • Possess a basic knowledge of the technologies by which books have been produced over time
  • Learn how the development of printing as an organized trade affected the dissemination of information
  • Appreciate the significance of printing as an agent of social change
  • Understand how book technologies and book trade practices affect scholarly editing
  • Be aware of the current and future implications of electronic and web publication.

Course Topics:

Module 1: What is the History of the Book?

  • Topic 1: Why study the history of the book?
  • Topic 2: The history of ‘History of the Book’
  • Topic 3: Tools of the book historian

Module 2: The Book as a Material Object

  • Topic 1: From clay tablet to electronic book
  • Topic 2: The written word: making and distributing manuscripts
  • Topic 3: The printed word

Module 3: Book Production Technologies

  • Topic 1: The making of books: integrated industries and technologies
  • Topic 2: Pre-industrial book production
  • Topic 3: ‘Cheap books’: Industrialization, late 18th to 19th centuries
  • Topic 4: Papermaking
  • Topic 5: Printing from movable type
  • Topic 6: Typesetting

Module 4: Producers and Authors

  • Topic 1: Manuscripts, scriptoria, and the monastic tradition
  • Topic 2: Changing roles in the eighteenth century: stationers and beyond
  • Topic 3: ‘From Few and Expensive to Many and Cheap’: the popular and global book
  • Topic 4: Authors and editors

Module 5: Printing and Social Change

  • Topic 1: Readers and reading: the impact of print
  • Topic 2: Class, reading, and gender: women in the book trade
  • Topic 3: Scientific knowledge: a case study
  • Topic 4: Control and responses: Censorship, underground printing, samizdat

Module 6: Editors, Collectors, and Libraries

  • Topic 1: Scholarly editing
  • Topic 2: Collectors
  • Topic 3: Books and libraries: a persistent relationship?

Module 7: The Book in a Digital Age

  • Topic 1: A revolution, evolution, or the death of the book? Changes in book production and authorship
  • Topic 2: Changes in reading: the death of the reader?

Prerequisites: LIBR 500, 501 for students in the SLAIS MLIS or Joint MAS/MLIS programs

Format of the course: Online materials, participation in online discussion, use of Web-based materials, use of Web-based tools such as wiki.

Required and Recommended Reading:

As far as possible, readings will be available to students electronically. This could either on the web as freely available readings, or through the electronic resources of the UBC Library or other libraries to which students have access. Details of required readings will be provided in the final version of the course syllabus, and on the course web site. Some resources recommended for this course are noted in the following list. Further resources will be listed in the final version of the course syllabus, and on the course web site. Some indicative readings are listed below.

Books that will be useful for you to read during the course:

  • Steinberg, S.H. Five Hundred Years of Printing. New ed., rev. by John Trevitt. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1996.
  • Twyman, Michael. The British Library Guide to Printing History and Techniques. London: British Library, 1998.

Journals

  • Book History
  • Epilogue
  • Libraries & Culture
  • Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America
  • Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada
  • Printing History
  • Publishing History
  • Studies in Bibliography

Web sites
A considerable amount of useful and high-quality material for this subject is now available on the Web. You should definitely get into the habit of regularly checking the Internet for relevant material. An excellent starting point is the SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing Printing) web page: www.sharpweb.org/. Be sure to apply the same high standards in evaluating web material (e.g. currency, quality, accuracy) as you apply to print-based material.

Electronic discussion list

  • SHARP-L: details on how to subscribe are at SHARPWEB: www.sharpweb.org/

Indicative readings:
Module 1: What is the History of the Book?

  • Belanger, Terry. ‘Descriptive Bibliography’ in Jean Peters (ed) Book Collecting: A Modern Guide (New York: Bowker, 1977), 97-101 http://www.bibsocamer.org/bibdef.htm
  • Intrator, Miriam. ‘“People were Literally Starving for any Kind of Reading”: The Theresienstadt Ghetto Central Library, 1942-1945’, Library Trends v.55 no.3 (2007): 513-522 (electronic version available from UBC Library)
  • Wade, Mike ‘Scott Poses – With the Writing on the Wall’, The Times (26 December 2007) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3095424.ece

Module 2: The Book as a Material Object

Module 3: Book Production Technologies

Module 4: Producers and Authors

Module 5: Printing and Social Change

  • Bell, Bill. ‘Print Culture in Exile: the Scottish Emigrant Reader in the Nineteenth Century’, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada. v.36 no.2 (1998): 87-106:  http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/bsc/search/issue.php?issue=BSC_1998_36_02&sitelanguage=eng
  • McGinley, John and Katanna Conley.  ‘Literary Retailing and the (Re)making of Popular Reading’, Journal of  Popular Culture, Fall 2001, v.35 no2, pp.207-221. Available online through UBC Library.
  • Pawley, Christine. ‘Seeking “Significance”: Actual Readers, Specific Reading Communities’, Book History v5 (2002): 143-160. Available online through UBC Library.
  • The Word on the Street: How Ordinary Scots in Bygone Days Found Out What Was Happening. Broadsides in the collection of the National Library of Scotland http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/index.html

Module 7: The Book in a Digital Age

 

Course Assignments, Due dates and Weight in relation to final course mark:

Assignment

Due Date

Weight

Participation in online discussion

 

15%

Contribution of an encyclopedia entry to a course wiki

 

20%

Major assessment task Part I: write a biography of a book (defined broadly: see Course Goal section, above)
Outline of your choice of book, plus annotated bibliography

 

15%

Major assessment task Part II: a website or research essay (4,000-5,000 words) providing a biography of a book

 

 

40%

Major assessment task Part III: Peer review: critical comments on two biographies of a book

 

 

10%

 

Attendance: The calendar states: “Regular attendance is expected of students in all their classes (including lectures, laboratories, tutorials, seminars, etc.). Students who neglect their academic work and assignments may be excluded from the final examination. Students who are unavoidably absent because of illness or disability should report to their instructors on return to classes.” 
Because this offering of LIBR 548F is a web-based version, most of this policy therefore does not apply. However, students “who neglect their academic work and assignments” in other ways than by non-attendance will be penalized. For instance, late submissions for assignments or other activities may not be accepted or may be given a failing grade unless there are exceptional circumstances and other arrangements have been made and agreed to in advance. As well, failure to keep up with the online content can also result in a penalty or a failing mark in the course irrespective of the marks achieved on the assignments.

Evaluation: Assignments will not be accepted late unless prior arrangements are made with the instructor. If an extension is granted, a late penalty (of 2% per day) may be imposed, except in cases of legitimate illness or emergencies. All assignments will be awarded letter grades using the evaluative criteria given on the SLAIS web site.

Written & Spoken English Requirement: Written and spoken work may receive a lower mark if it is, in the opinion of the instructor, deficient in English.

Academic Dishonesty: Please review the UBC Calendar Academic regulations for the University policy on cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty: http://www.students.ubc.ca/calendar/index.cfm?tree=3,54,111,959. Also visit and review the contents of these two resources: Plagiarism Resource Centre: For Students: http://www.library.ubc.ca/home/plagiarism/welcome.html and Plagiarism Avoided: Taking Responsibility For Your Work: http://www.arts.ubc.ca/Plagiarism_Avoided.373.0.html for useful information on avoiding plagiarism and on correct documentation practice. Students are held responsible for knowing and following all University regulations regarding academic dishonesty. If a student does not know how to properly cite a source or what constitutes proper use of a source it is the student's personal responsibility to obtain the needed information and to apply it within University guidelines and policies. If evidence of academic dishonesty is found in a course assignment, previously submitted work in this course may be reviewed for possible academic dishonesty and grades modified as appropriate. University policy requires that all incidents of academic dishonesty must be forwarded to the Dean’s office for review and possible action.