Obituaries for “the book,” or at least the printed book, continue to pile up — for instance, this interesting pseudo-obituary and reframing of book as concept rather than container by Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired magazine.  It’s a fascinating piece; for libraries, here’s a provocative (if familiar) sentence: “In the long run [...]

For those interested in the rapidly changing fields of publishing and cultural history, the new online journal Bibliodiversity: Publishing and Globalization will prove an interesting read and useful resource.  As the opening editorial by Étienne Galliand explains, the term bibliodiversity “refers primarily to the publishing sector’s capacity – with “publishing” used here in the [...]

In the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, librarians, archivists, and researchers work to discover the clues inherent in materials such as Ethiopic manuscripts, forged poetry, Confederate publications, false imprints. Despite this bibliographic work, is there a more passé word in the humanities than bibliography? When every day brings more commentary on the popularity [...]