(Linotype/Reliance) press release
UICB and Printing Services collaborate on Printing Studio
It looked like the end of the line for the Linotype. But the UICB and the
Printing Services are collaborating to bring this wonderful technology back
to relevance, both academic and practical. The Linotype and other working
examples of printing technologies are now available to book studies
students at the 510 sq.ft. Printing Studio at the Mossman building. In a
joint program, students will be able to experience the historical
technologies of print production.
The Printing Studio has already hosted two Linotype tutorials. Student
interest has been high with a total of nineteen students attending the two
sessions. Larry Raid, Director of the
Working Linotype University at
Denmark, Iowa has served as the expert Instructor for these sessions. Other
Faculty interest also indicates the importance of this new teaching facility with three UICB instructors scheduling class units at the Studio.
The Printing Studio is not a museum, but a laboratory for experiencing the
technologies of print production. The primary technology at work here is
the Linotype of the Merganthaler Company. For almost a century this
ingenious line setting and line casting machine enabled the production of
newspapers. The machine in motion is fascinating to watch, while a single
experience at the keyboard of a working Linotype machine reveals how the
daily newspaper got printed on time. Such hands-on study invites the
researcher into a different perspective in which the news is understood as
a commodity produced with
skills, risks and daily physical feats.
Along side the model 31 Linotype students can try out a Reliance iron
press. This is a classic hand press, the production machine of the long
period of hand set type. The type composing banks of the Reliance press contrast the intensive hand work and skills of dexterity that were needed
in the centuries prior to mechanical type setting. The Printing Studio
provides both the ambience and accessories of the shop and factory
environment that stood behind the familiar newspapers, books and serials of
past centuries.
The Printing Studio provides a new teaching resource for the University and
for specialists in book studies. The innovative collaboration of the UICB
and the Printing Services that created this resource promises further
results, especially in the demonstration of newer technologies along side
the legacy technologies of print production. As a result the timeless
efficiencies of the reader and the page will be better appreciated in an
environment of digital technologies.