Workshop in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Bibliography

This course is a three-day introductory workshop of approaches to studying, analyzing, and describing books printed in the industrial era, roughly 1830 to present. Beginning in the nineteenth century, technological changes to book making transformed the manufacture of books and other printed objects, resulting in the evolution of truly commercial, mass market publishing. At the same time, new printing, copying, and duplicating technologies allowed for the spread of printing outside of professional printing trades, creating new genres of amateur, counter-culture, and clandestine print. The sheer number of new technologies involved in everything from papermaking to type composition, printing to binding, have made this a bewildering subject for the novice bibliographer or book historian.

This course offers a simplified approach to understanding the book as a physical object during this period, focused on methods of analysis and direct observation. Workshop is taught by Dr. Elizabeth Ott. Dr. Ott is the interim Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Director of Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an adjunct professor at the UNC School Information and Library Sciences, where she teaches courses on the history of the book and rare book librarianship. Her research interests include bibliographic theory, printing technologies of the nineteenth century, and library history.

The Workshop will be held at UIUC’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, as well as Skeuomorph Press & Book Lab. If admitted there is no fee for workshop enrollment but travel and accommodation arrangements are the responsibility of attendees. 

Admission to the course is by application and limited to 12 individuals; admission closed March 15.