Book History Research Network Study Day: The Book in the Digital Age

Loughborough University (UK)

24 October 2018

Digital technologies are changing the ways we produce, disseminate, and consume texts. Texts may take traditionally tangible forms, but they may also now take coded forms, physically accessible only through desktop and mobile media. Our perceptions of extant textual artefacts also change in light of increasing digitisation. New digital tools for textual scholarship are regularly released; book historians now enjoy access to vast digital archives of textual material. Indeed, digital technologies allow us to engage with extant textual artefacts in new ways, while at the same time offering new avenues for text production and reception.

This study day, held at Loughborough University, will explore the new prospects afforded to book history scholarship by increasingly digital circumstances. It will do so through two types of presentations: 20-minute paper presentations and 15-minute presentations of digital tools of particular interest to book historians.

Some questions to explore include, but are not limited to:

• How do digital technologies contribute to new ways of considering texts and books?
• How is the format of the printed book changing in response to a demand for digital texts? What is the relationship between print and digital?
• Who does and does not have access to digital tools and databases related to texts and books?
• How are new ideas shared, developed, and engaged with using digital tools?
• How do digital tools facilitate or hinder book history research and textual scholarship?
• What do digital technologies enhance? What do they obsolesce?
• How have perceptions of tangible books changed in light of cultural digitisation?
• Where does the book fit within our digital world?

Papers from postgraduate students and early career scholars are particularly welcome. Please send a 250-word abstract and 50-word biography to l.r.henrickson@lboro.ac.uk or rebecca.emmett@plymouth.ac.uk by 22 August 2018. Please specify whether you wish to give a 20-minute paper presentation or a 15-minute digital tool presentation.