Call for papers
Llibrary of Birmingham, england
15-17 november 2013
To celebrate the re-opening of the largest public library in Europe and its outstanding special collections The Library of Birmingham, Newman University College Typographic Hub at Birmingham City University and The Library of Lost Books have united to host a three-day conference on the theme of Resurrecting the book.
The conference will run in conjunction with the Library of lost book project a major exhibition of 50 de-accessioned books which have been given new life as objects redesigned into works of art and which will form part of the opening festival for the new Library of Birmingham in 2013.
The conference will include an opportunity to visit the Library of lost books exhibition and attend artist talks on re-working the books
With e-book downloads outstripping the purchase of hard copies, with libraries closing and discarding books and with the value of the book as physical object being increasingly questioned, this interdisciplinary conference will bring together academics, librarians, artists, creators, designers, and users of books to explore a wide variety of issues pertaining to the creation, design, construction, use, reuse, preservation, loss, and recovery of the material book, electronic and digitized books, and of collections and libraries.
Abstracts on the conference themes and their intersection and covering any historical period are invited.
Conference themes :
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
- Books as material objects : the materiality of book creation, construction, production, use, reuse and destruction; manuscripts and printed books; book-design, illustration, paratextuality and its manifestations; book covers, bindings, clasps, vellum parchment, paper, manuscript and printing and production processes.
- Collections and libraries : book collectors, collections and their locations; missing, lost and found books; the creation, recreation, dispersal, sale and destruction of books and libraries; the movement of books and libraries; lost libraries; the impact of libraries on books; lost and revised editions.
- The artist’s book : altered books; book preservation and conserved books; books and material culture; books as art; books in art; illustration and illumination; woodcuts; engravings; marbled pages; book decoration, printmaking.
- E-books : the creation use and abuse of ebooks; neglected and lost ebooks; ebook readers; electronic libraries; books and collections and the impact of digital technologies.
- Publishing : publishers & publishing; the future of publishing; back-catalogues; print-runs; editions; archives; digitization & multimedia books.
Application process :
Abstracts of no more than 400 words accompanied by a 50-word biographical profile should be sent to both Dr Matthew Day (m.day@newman.ac.uk | 0121 476 1181) and Dr Caroline Archer (caroline.archer@bcu.ac.uk | 0121 331 5871).
Deadline : Friday 1 february 2013
Further details are available at http://www.resurrectingthebook.org
L'Agenda des Médiévistes 