The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) will be proposing a panel
at the sixteenth annual conference of the Society for the History of
Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP), which will meet in Oxford,
England, June 24-28, 2008. The Bibliographical Society of America is the
oldest scholarly society in North America dedicated to the study of
books and manuscripts as physical objects.
The panel is being organized by Caroline Duroselle-Melish (Houghton
Library, Harvard University), Michael Laird (Michael Laird Rare Books)
and James N. Green (Library Company of Philadelphia). The panel will be
moderated by Caroline Duroselle-Melish.
The proposed BSA panel at SHARP will be organized around the theme of
encyclopedias. Proposals are invited from scholars in any discipline
studying any time period and geographic area. Proposals that match the
optional SHARP conference theme of pedagogy are especially invited, but
proposals dealing with other themes are also encouraged. Repositories
of knowledge, encyclopedias have been intended for self-instruction,
among other uses, since their early development. This session will deal
with issues regarding production, distribution, ownership, and use of
encyclopedias.Within this context, subjects typical of this genre of
book will be considered including, but not limited to, the secular and
religious censorship, the rapid obsolescence of knowledge, plagiarism,
and the shaping of the physical presentation of encyclopedias.
Please send abstracts (150 words maximum) and one-paragraph CVs to both
Caroline Duroselle-Melish (carolinedm@earthlink.net) and James N. Green
(jgreen@librarycompany.org) by October 30, 2007.
Please note that speakers and chairs must be members of both BSA and
SHARP upon registering for the conference or they cannot be
included in the program. For further information about BSA, please visit
http://www.bibsocamer.org/