Want to learn the core techniques of bibliographic research? Getting into book collecting and keen to know exactly which impression of which edition of a book you’ve just purchased? Moving from modern cataloguing to working with early materials and need to get on top of format and collational formulae?
We’ve got a course for you. Beginning Bibliography has just opened for booking. 20-25 hours of learning at your own pace, with presentations, readings and activities including creating quasi-facsimiles (title page transcriptions), collation (working out the format of the book and how its pages were ordered and bound), and some paper-folding excises.
The introductory presentation is free to watch in order to help you make up your mind. Here’s the curriculum:
1. Introduction to Bibliography (Unit available from Monday 3 August 2020)
1.1 Introduction (Watch for free)
1.2 Bibliography in the Digital Age
1.3 Classic Bibliographies and Bibliographic Resources
1.4 Innovative Uses of Bibliography in the 21st Century
1.5 Bibliography and Book History
1.6 The Book in Bibliography
2. Styles of Bibliographic Description (Unit available from Monday 10 August 2020)
2.1 Esdaile’s Levels of Description
2.2 Gaskell’s New Bibliography
2.3 Bowers’s Principles
2.4 The English Short Title Catalogue
2.5 Bibliography and the Library Catalogue
2.6 Bibliography and the Book Trade
3. Representing the Title Page (Unit available from Monday 17 August 2020)
3.1 The History of the Title Page
3.2 Imaging and the Title Page
3.3 Quasi-facsimile Basics
3.4 Quasi-facsimile Practice 1
3.5 Borders, Compartments and Ornaments
3.6 Quasi-facsimile Practice 2
4. Representing Binding and Pagination (Unit available from Monday 24 August 2020)
4.1 Chainlines and Wirelines
4.2 Folding Exercises
4.3 Signatures and Catchwords
4.4 Collation – Worked Examples
4.5 Collation Practice
4.6 Binding Descriptions
5. Beginning Bibliography and Beyond (Unit available from Monday 31 August 2020)
5.1 Complex Dates
5.2 Complicated Places and Imprints
5.3 Fancy Rules
5.4 Recognising Print Techniques
5.5 After the Handpress Era
5.6 Beginning Cataloguing Rare Books
5.7 Beginning Book History
