'Printing and the Mind: Seventeenth-Century Transformations' Archive Evening

Straight after work on April 24th, I went to the Stationers' Company Annual Archive Evening. This year they held a forum on 'Printing and the Mind: Seventeenth-Century Transformations' in combination with an exhibition in association with Cambridge University Library.

The formal talk of the evening began with Liverymen and President of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, Gordon Johnson. He emphasised the importance of heritage assets been conserved and accessible and the great expansion of the history of the book in business and intellectual terms. He also made key announcements of the Stationers' Company effects in doing this, including a new digital publication of the Stationers' Company Archive with Adam Matthew Digital. 'Literary Print Culture: The Stationers' Company Archive, 1554-1984" is a valuable resource to explore the history of the book trade from 1554 to the 20th century. Also, a there is new Archives and Library facility due to open in November 2017 back in the Stationer's Hall.

Johnson followed up by introducing co-chair, Ian Gadd, book historian and Professor of English Literature at Bath Spa University. He reiterated the need for organisations to celebrate achievements in scholarly publishing before introducing our two speakers. Mr Scott Mandelbrote, Perne Librarian of Peterhouse, Cambridge, outlined the circumstances of learned printing presses predominating in London at the end of the 16th century. For example, problems in the cost of acquiring scholarly books mostly printed in Europe and the time taken for scholars to make language translations to print. 

Dr Freyja Cox Jensen, a lecturer at Exeter University, followed by giving an intriguing speech highlighting the English cultural history of classical learning. Once exclusive to rich predominantly white men, classical learning began to spread after 1711. To compete with European stationers, who at the time were at the forefront of scholarly publication, English stationers increased the quantity of printing with the development of new typefaces and metal engraved illustrations. This caused a reduction in book price as more scholars were able to purchase their own copies. I found it quite fascinating that the introduction of English language translations during the mid-17th century encouraged a rise in literacy as printing moved away for the limited knowledge of Latin. 

It was quite clear that classical learning and the development of printing technology greatly influences present day in terms of culture and thinking. Furthermore, its was quite interesting to know that as a few individuals tried to stop these new contributions to English literature, they had to learn to cope with the revolution of printing technology that has taken us into the digital age. Nonetheless, the history of university printing presses like Oxford and Cambridge through this revolution is important to conserve to understand how far we have come. 

After the talk and a brilliant spread of nibbles and refreshments, I took the opportunity to look around the exhibition. Curated by Liam Sims of Cambridge University, the exhibition displayed various manuscripts including Robert Hooke's Micrographia (1665), Joseph Moxon's Mechanik Exercises (1682) covering all aspects of printing and Thomas Sprat's History of the Royal Society (1667) opened on the beautiful frontispiece of Charles II being crowned surrounded by many scientific instruments. It was also wonderful to see the intricate illustration of the opening page of the Stationers' Company charter issued by Charles II on display. 

The exhibition also highlighted new technologies for librarians and researchers from Cambridge University. For example, Cambridge Core, an academic platform bringing together 30,000+ eBooks and 360 journals in one platform. Also, Cambridge Archive Editions, a digitised research material of 1000 volumes of government records available in MARC format such as 'America and Great Britain: Diplomatic Relations, 1775-1815'. I took the opportunity to speak with presenters about the one-time fee for perpetual access available to institutions.
  

Furthermore, the exhibition showcased the important work of conservators such as the National Conservation Service whose repaired volume of 'Liber A' from the Stationer's Archive was on display. I met the Honorary Librarian, Andrea Cameron who introduced everyone to the Stationer's Foundation Library Fund, for the conservation and preservation of books and manuscripts in the Stationers' Company Library and Archives. If you would like to contribute to the restoration of the books you see below join-in the Support-A-Book scheme. 


To read more about the book trade check out these new titles from Palgrave Macmillan's New directions of Book History series:

  

Meeting my mentor

At the Stationer's New Members Evening late last year, I finally met my mentor for the first time. Sarah Mahurter, is the current Manager of University Archives & Special Collections Centre (ASCC) at University Arts London (UAL) and she invited me on a tour of her workplace.

It was interesting to learn that the Centre were created around 2007 with the Stanley Kubrick Archives as one focal point of the collections. As a mainly film and design archives and special collections, the layout of centre is a futuristic glass reading room and office space with red chairs, modelled after a clip in the movie Odyssey. The centre does not hold any university records (as they are located elsewhere) but the collections are embedded into the university courses curriculum. Furthermore, half of all users are students and the other half are external users such as film historians and actual film companies which is an exciting prospect.

In my opinion, the major strength of these collections is that they truly support academic teaching and foster learning development, as the student has physical resources to use as reference. The academic staff and library staff also understand the need for these resources and support their use. However, one downside is that there is usually only one copy of each resource and if damaged the chances of it being replaced is slim. Conversely, this explains the importance of the collections and why trained archivists work with the collections and supervise their use.

Innovation in Conservation Presentation

Well I have had a busy Tuesday last week. I started off the day cataloguing and then proceeding to spine labelling, before being swamped on the enquiry desk with 4 hours worth of enquiry retrievals. Then to top it all off, I had to make my way to King College University to attend Hugh Phibbs talk on "Innovation in conservation mounting and framing" before running to my Japanese class.

According to Mr. Phibbs, one of the most important forms of preservation is that of paper, because it forms the memory of the human species. In the 21st century, content is gradually becoming paper-less and preserved through digital means. However, this form of content has a finite shelf-life, whereas paper has infinite use when preserved in its original state. Therefore, there is a need for transparency in the ways in which paper can be preserved. 

The materials used in preservation are made of three things: cellulose (plant changed to paper), animal (vellum from calfskin) and synthetic materials. Hugh went on to describe a millennia of history in the ways in which items have been preserved and found in present day. 

• Salt - It doesn't oxidize and keeps out forms of biology thus preserving contents.
• Clay- Holds enough oxygen within it to preserve animals (e.g. bone and impression) in a fossil form.
• Sub-marine preservation in either alkaline or acidic water has kept sunken ships in great condition.
• Drying/ice preservation as a form of mummification (e.g. the mummy or mammoth).
• Volcanic ash - carbonized paper in a way that allows you to still read the imprint of text.

Therefore, no matter the environment, anything can be preserved. However, he states that book preservation is the best form of paper conservation, as he quotes Christopher Clarkson (a book conservator) "best of all is the book". A book that has a thick cover with metal clasps hinges put the paper inside under pressure and acts as a press to reduce distortion/deformity, limit light thus reducing paper discolouration, gives support on shelves and finally reduces the threat of mould on page edges.