Call for papers--Historic libraries

Call for Papers

Historic Libraries in Context
The Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library: Past, Present and Future
The University of Ulster
Magee Campus
6-8 June, 2011

This conference, organized by the University of Ulster, coincides
with the conclusion of the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library
Project, a 3.5 year project to conserve and publicize a collection
heretofore relatively unknown to modern scholarship. The aim of the
conference is to engage with bibliographers, historians and
conservators, each with their own understanding of book culture, to
identify future avenues for research within the collection, and
within similar collections in general. We hope to generate an
interdisciplinary discussion about the current and possible future
uses of such libraries and the curatorial and preservation issues
that have been raised over the course of the project.

Submissions for papers (to be presented at the conference and with a
possibility to be published as peer-reviewed post-prints) are
requested to address the following topics and themes:

The role of the diocesan (or cathedral) library, then and now

    Creation and history of the libraries
    Post-reformation church libraries
    The Bishops and their collections (e.g. Downame, Hopkins, King)

The Irish book trade and the antiquarian book trade (especially in
the second half of the 17th century)

    History of printing and publishing
    Temporary/ephemeral bindings
    The use of manuscript as waste material in bindings
    Acquisition and ownership networks
    Irish and European bookbinding: identification of local
    materials and techniques

Preservation and Access

    Conservation tailored to the collection
    Making minimum intervention work in the Reading Room
    The Museum of the Book
    Embedding historic libraries into the fabric of local
    communities: advocacy and outreach

The conference organizing committee welcomes submissions from all
relevant disciplines, and from approaches that are theoretical or
practical, case-studies or of general application. Please send an
abstract of no more than 350 words to Jennifer Jarvis, Project
Director, at j.jarvis<-at->ulster<.>ac<.>uk. Submissions will be accepted
until November 1, 2010 and prospective speakers will be notified
within 10 days thereafter. More information about the project can be
found at

    <URL:http://www.derryraphoelibrary.org>

Should you wish to consult the Derry and Raphoe Library in
preparation of your paper, please contact Joe McLaughlin, University
Archivist and Rare Books Curator, at jfe.mclaughlin<-at->ulster<.>ac<.>uk.
Any other queries may be addressed to the Project Director. Speakers
will have all conference fees waived and their travel expenses
reimbursed.

About the library: The library, today numbering roughly 5,600
printed books and pamphlets ranging in date from around 1480 to
1900, was formally founded in the early 18th century and
incorporated the collections of earlier bishops of Derry, notably
Ezekiel Hopkins. It was intended to provide the then Diocese of
Derry with a reading library that could be used by successive
Bishops, and later by all Diocesan members. Most of the books in the
Derry Library were printed in the 16th and 17th centuries, whereas
the Raphoe Diocesan Library, added to the Derry collection in 1881,
dates mostly from the 18th century. Both exemplify the intellectual
links between Derry and the wider world during an important period
in the city's history. Today the amalgamated library is under the
guardianship of the University of Ulster, through a long-term
agreement with the Diocese.

A large number of books still retain contemporary or
near-contemporary bindings. This happy circumstance offers a rare
opportunity to study aspects of their construction, to appreciate
them as artefacts and to uncover the histories of their ownership
and movement within the larger European book trade. Many avenues of
study pertaining to the history of the book in Britain and Ireland
have already been identified in preliminary reports undertaken prior
to the conservation project; others undoubtedly remain to be
discovered.

Jennifer A. Jarvis
Project Director/Chief Conservator
Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library Project
Shantallow Branch Library
92 Racecourse Rd., Shantallow
Derry BT48 8DA
+44 2871350791


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:17
               Distributed: Thursday, September 23, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-24-17-004
                                  ***