News & Updates
Rare Book School Now Online!
LECTURE SERIES
Superheroes and Shocking Affairs, or, Adventures in Cataloging Popular Literature
with Brenna Bychowski
A 45-minute RBS lecture followed by 15 minutes of Q&A scheduled for
Thursday, 11 June, 7–8 p.m. ET, via Zoom.
https://rarebookschool.org/rbs-online/superheroes-and-…pular-literature/
Ephemeral popular literature has traditionally been under-described in library catalogs. In addition to the long-standing perception that these materials are of relatively little interest or value, they are challenging to describe. As scholarly and mainstream interest in popular culture has increased, however, special collections catalogers are grappling with how best to approach these materials, which are often poorly served by current cataloging standards. This lecture will make a case for reevaluating and looking beyond traditional cataloging practices and resources.
Everyone is welcome to attend. To ensure the security of the event, advance registration is required; to register, click here.
Your registration will be automatically accepted. You will receive an email reminder the day before the event. The day of the event, we will send you the Zoom URL and password. Please direct any questions to RBS Programs at (rbs-events@virginia.edu).
COURSE-RELATED CONTENT SERIES
Spending Bloomsday Talking to Checkers, Wingtip, and Speckles: or, How to Understand the First Printings of James Joyce’s Ulysses
with John Hessler
A 30-minute Zoom talk followed by 15 minutes for Q&A scheduled for
Tuesday, 16 June, 4–5 p.m. ET
https://rarebookschool.org/rbs-online/spending-bloomsday-talking-to-checkers-wingtip-and-speckles-or-how-to-understand-the-first-printings-of-james-joyces-ulysses/
Join RBS faculty member John Hessler for a fun celebration of Bloomsday! This event will be a combination of a talk and a reading from James Joyce’s Ulysses, followed by a Q&A session.
Checkers, Wingtip, and Speckles—they are the names of pigeons, long gone, but once the gleeful inhabitants of Marsh Plaza in Boston. During their lives they spent many a day in a one-sided conversation with John Kidd, who wandered the plaza in a black fedora and overcoat; he knew the ins and outs of the various editions of Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses, better than almost anyone alive.
We will look closely at the Joyce Wars of the 1980s, when correcting the 1922 edition caused controversy and derision amongst fans of the book. The battles and skirmishes were played out in the New York Review of Books, in an exchange between John Kidd and Hans Walter Gabler, over what Joyce wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. Gabler produced a “corrected” new edition that supposedly fixed more than 5000 errors in the original printed versions. Kidd argued, with the sympathy of many readers, that some of those so-called errors were Joyce’s actual intentions and that Gabler had massacred the original.
Everyone is welcome to attend. To ensure the security of the event, advance registration is required; to register, click here.
Your registration will be automatically accepted. You will receive an email reminder the day before the event. The day of the event, we will send you the Zoom URL and password. Please direct any questions to RBS Programs at (rbs-events@virginia.edu).
PANEL DISCUSSION SERIES
Books as Bridges
A one-hour panel discussion sponsored by RBS followed by 15 minutes of Q&A scheduled for Tuesday, 23 June, 4–5:15 p.m. ET, via Zoom.
https://rarebookschool.org/rbs-online/books-as-bridges/
On Tuesday, June 23, tune in via Zoom for a conversation that builds on the kind of lively discussions that take place during RBS course weeks with Krystal Appiah (Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library), Mark Dimunation (Library of Congress), Selby Kiffer (Sotheby’s), and Rebecca Romney (Type Punch Matrix). These four well-known figures from our community will talk about working with rare books and textual artifacts with a wide variety of publics in various settings and across different media, including public television. The panel will focus on how rare books and textual artifacts serve as bridges connecting individuals, communities, and institutions with each other and with the past. Panelists will also reflect on the challenges of moving from in-person outreach to online venues for public engagement. The panel will be co-moderated by Laura Perrings and Ruth-Ellen St. Onge (Rare Book School).
Everyone is welcome to attend. To ensure the security of the event, advance registration is required; to register, click here.
Your registration will be automatically accepted. You will receive an email reminder the day before the event. The day of the event, we will send you the Zoom URL and password. Please direct any questions to RBS Programs at rbs-events@virginia.edu.
YOUNG BOOK LOVERS SERIES
Join us for our first read-along in our Young Book Lovers Series. Intended for children and adults alike who love books and book history, our first featured video is a reading by Rare Book School staff of Gutenberg's Gift. This narrative poem about Guterberg's production of his first printed Bible (here envisioned as a Christmas gift for his wife) was written by Nancy Willard and illustrated by Bryan Leister. Follow this link to discover the accompanying read-along activities and more available content from our Young Book Lovers Series.
PREVIOUSLY RECORDED CONTENT
In addition to our upcoming live events, you can watch recordings of past events on our YouTube channel. Please click on the pictures or titles below to view our latest recordings:
A Curator’s Look at Indigenous Mapping in the Early Americas (1500–1575) 27 May 2020
Gains & Losses: COVID-19, Institutional Collecting, and the Antiquarian Book Trade 19 May 2020
Since 1992, Rare Book School is based at the University of Virginia. The school was founded in 1983 and is one of the key educational institutions for the rare book profession. About 40 courses are offered each year on topics concerning old and rare books, manuscripts, and special collections.
For more information about the school, please follow this link.