futureofthebook.com

Forget the Future; Imagine the Present!

“Integrated Book Repair” has just appeared in the newsletter of Archival Products, 7/3. It describes unification of repair production for both circulating and non-circulating books.

It turns out that a separated practice for book repair is like a two party political system; much taken for granted, but not really there.
Both parties actually try to fabricate the same composite model that will satisfy everyone. This trend is now apparent in book repair.

UICB (center for the book)/UILP (library preservation department) Shared Objectives

A 2.19.00 report on discussion lead by Gary Frost, 2.17.00, Main Library Conference Room

About 50 people showed up with a good mixture from various organizations. The discussion format was bravely sustained by the participants inspite of obscurity and abstraction of the topic. Five shared objectives were mentioned. A strategic objective to “advocate the continuing role of the source original in the context of digital delivery”. This objective provides traction for both organizations things to do, and while doing them, communicate purpose. The other four shared objectives might be of less magnitude. “Managing the consequences of changing reading modes” is an incremental activity for both organizations. Preserving Preservation is an interesting sequitur, but it is fairly self serving for both parties. The important component there is the fate of long term planning. Building “infrastructure for support of book (arts) educators” is a kind of get rich quick agenda but it is also a real void that needs to be compensated. Utilizing “the codex as a reference” model is a kind of scholarly vortex for both organizations. The “model” objective or study of risks, attributes, efficacy and esthetics of collecting concepts in physical objects is ultimately the shared discipline of these discipline neutral organizations.

Everyone was given an opportunity to escape after one hour, but some did return for an additional half hour and there is some hope that a core group can now go further filling in real projects and agendas and fund raising schemes.

Further developments and/or comments can be posted here at futureofthebook “Discussion” under the thread of “UICB/UILP Shared Objectives”.

Off-Line Discussion

Thursday, February 17, Gary Frost will lead a discussion on “Shared Objectives of the UI Center for the Book and the UI Preservation Department”. A number of wildly hybrid themes will be discussed including the utilization of the process of the invention of the book, concern for the continuing role of the source original in the context of digital delivery, the consequences of changing reading modes, the preservation of preservation and the infrastructure for support of book arts educators. Main Library,University of Iowa, 2nd floor Conference Room, 3:30-5 PM.

Escaped Emus in Iowa

The Book Arts Club of Iowa City sponsored a February 5 and 6 workshop on sewn board bookbinding. This is the first time this structure has been widely seen in Iowa. Like the feral, raptor-like emu from Texas, this wily structure, long considered extinct since before the invention of movable type, is now returning, in time for the post-print book making scene.

Twelve participants along with workshop leaders Anna Embree and Gary
Frost, completed two projects from the sewn board family of bookbindings. The books; a desktop transfer tape binding and a sewn small edition binding, exhibit the sewn board characteristics: (1) equitable, even acting leaf attachment, (2) boards attached as if they were outermost leaves, and (3) cover and text trimmed to the same size.

The workshop also introduced contemporary reconsideration of a
fundamental feature of the invention of the codex book. Specifically, this was the use of papyrus to produce both the loose leaves and the pasted cartonnage of the early north African codex. This option of adhered and unadhered sheets introduces both a minimal and a compounding design system. A strange diagram is supposed to explain this.