The Society promotes research in physical and textual bibliography and the history of the written word.
Broadsheet No. 121 is here!
We are delighted to release number 121 of the Society’s newsletter, Broadsheet. As you’ll immediately notice, this issue has a new look with an updated format, designed by Broadsheet‘s digital and publication designer, Claire Summerville.
This number brings together reports from last year’s very successful conference, Transformations, articles from BSANZ members, exciting information about new and occasional publications and opens with another of the President, Simon Farley’s eloquent letters.
As always, many thanks to everyone who has contributed ideas, suggestions, writing and feedback to Broadsheet. Our aim is to support the BSANZ community by recording and sharing some of the Society’s many and varied activities.
Happy reading!
BSANZ Conference 2025
Whose work is it anyway?
In conjunction with the University of Otago Centre for the Book
Dunedin, New Zealand 18–20 November 2025
A book is the product of multiple actors (author, agent, printer, editor, publisher), and once a book exists, its life beyond the printer depends on a whole series of additional actors (distributors, booksellers, purchasers, reviewers, prize committees, second-hand sellers, collectors, libraries). This conference focuses on all of these processes, at different times and in different places. Whether we regard these agents as part of a full circuit of connections or fortuitous players that may interact haphazardly, we should not conceive of the book as simply a unified container of ideas, though books often strive to give that appearance. Papers that examine how any of these interactions impact on or account for the power of the book are welcome. We especially welcome studies that examine points at which Darnton’s circuit is disrupted or rerouted in unexpected directions. And ‘book’ encompasses all written communication: in manuscript, periodical or monograph form, physical or virtual.
Possible topics may include but are not limited to:
- Relations of authors with ghostwriters, translators, designers, editors, agents
- Intermediations beyond print or from other media into print
- Typography and its cultural impact: evolution of sorts, limitations in particular locations or periods, creation for a particular title, re-use/re-design in new contexts
- The role of AI in any aspect of the life cycle of a book
- Modes of book acquisition: historical, contemporary or future
- Interpretation and value of marginalia
- Social reading across all periods: aloud, in groups, informal or performed
- Role of reviews and prizes in the life cycle of a book
- Collectors and dealers, particularly in relation to the cultural status of titles
- Role of books in enabling or repressing diverse voices
- Libraries as repositories, suppressors, promoters, or defenders of books
- Books that fail to achieve their intended impact and books with unintended consequences
- Censored books and the effects of censorship, intentional or unintentional
- Ownership and rights of transfer: copyright, digital rights, moral rights, creative commons and open access
- Books and their environmental impacts
The 2025 Conference will be an in-person conference, with presentations recorded and made available later (for a modest fee) to those unable to join us. We anticipate a public opening keynote on the evening of Tuesday, 18 November, followed by two days of panels on Wednesday and Thursday and a gathering of Rare Book librarians and curators on Friday, 21 November. Those interested in the Friday event should contact the Centre for the Book (books@otago.ac.nz), which will be coordinating the gathering.
As details become available, more information will be added to the Conference website at https://bsanz2025.wordpress.com/, or from a link on the BSANZ homepage (BSANZ.org). Feel free to contact one of the conference organisers with any questions:
Donald Kerr (donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz)
Shef Rogers (shef.rogers@otago.ac.nz)
Paul Tankard (paul.tankard@otago.ac.nz)
Latest Issue of Script & Print— Vol. 46 No. 4 2022
New Occasional Publication
BSANZ is very pleased to announce the publication of a new Occasional Publication .
Carlo Dumontet Collation, Reference Notation, & Statement of Signing 109pp. ISBN: 9780645666229. AUD$25 Members AUD$20 Non-members. Please add $A15 per order for postage and handling within Australia, and A$25 per order for postage and handling to any other destination.
This workbook discusses the various techniques which can be employed in book collation writing in order to provide readers with the capacity to construct collations and to interpret published ones. W.W. Greg’s and Fredson Bowers’s approach is discussed in depth, together with Thomas Tanselle’s view on how to handle inserted leaves. Upon this Greg-Bowers-Tanselle bedrock other possible solutions are also discussed. The exposition relies on a large number of examples and also on some exercises in order to render this workbook as practical a tool as possible. This workbook will be an invaluable guide for students of bibliography, early printed books cataloguers, and booksellers, but it is hoped that all those engaged in collation-writing may find it a useful reference tool.
Please contact Amanda Laugesen (amanda.laugesen@anu.edu.au) to arrange payment by bank transfer or to organise a Paypal invoice.
Journal
Script & Print is the Society’s quarterly scholarly journal. S&P is sent to all paid-up members of the Society. Read more…
Click here for details of the latest issue of Script & Print.
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