Related Institutes Around the World

Institutes related to the Rare Book School can currently be found in the following countries:

UNITED STATES

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Los Angeles, California

The California Rare Book School (CALRBS) is a continuing education program dedicated to providing the knowledge and skills required by professionals working in all aspects of the rare book community and for students interested in entering the field. CALRBS offers weeklong courses covering a broad range of topics.

Students at the California Rare Book School benefit from expert faculty and the wealth of special collections of rare books, manuscripts and archival materials in the Los Angeles area. The current 2008 CALRBS schedule is available from the CALRBS website.

College Station, Texas

Since 2001, Professor Steven Escar Smith (Director, Cushing Library and Archives, Texas A&M University) has directed an annual Texas A&M Workshop in the History of Books and Printing. The five-day workshop is intended for librarians, archivists, students, teachers, collectors, and private individuals who have an interest in the first three and a half centuries of the printed book. The course consists of a unique combination of labs and seminars designed to provide students with practical experience as well as a broad historical survey of the field. The labs, centered around Cushing's period-accurate common press, will allow students to experience bookmaking in the hand press era, with sessions devoted to printing, typesetting, papermaking, typecasting, and bookbinding.

For further information, consult the Book History at Texas A&M workshop website.

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

In 2007, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign partnered with the IU Rare Book & MSS Library, to form the Midwest Book & Manuscript Studies Program (MBMS). The MBMS offers a series of courses and workshops focused on special collections and the book arts. The program offers both two-week summer classes that can be taken credit/no-credit, and traditional semester-long credit courses. A wide variety of subjects are covered, including rare book & special collections librarianship, archives, and the history of papermaking, printing, and manuscripts. The MBMS also offers a Certificate in Special Collections, a 12-credit-hour graduate certificate open to library and information science professionals and students who want to develop expertise in special collections librarianship and to other professionals interested in developing or enhancing their knowledge of special collections.

For further information, see the Midwest Book & Manuscript Studies Program website.

Colorado Springs, Colorado

The 30th Annual Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar will be held August 3-8 2008 at Colorado College, Colorado Springs. "Specialists share their expertise and experience with booksellers, librarians, and collectors in this comprehensive survey of the out-of-print, antiquarian, rare and used book markets. Basic procedures and problems are discussed both formally and informally through a series of lectures, demonstrations, discussions and practical workshops."

For further information, consult the Book Seminar's website.

FRANCE

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École de Institut d'histoire du livre | Book History Workshop

The Book History Workshop (BHW) was inaugurated in 2001 in Lyon under the auspices of the Institut d'histoire du livre. Each spring, the BHW offers courses in both English and French at the Ecole Normale Supérieure - Lettres et Sciences Humaines (Lyon), with sessions at the Lyon Printing Museum and the rare book collection of the City Library.

For further information, consult the Institut's website.

or write

Institut d'histoire du livre
c/o Musée de l'imprimerie de Lyon
13 rue de la Poulaillerie
69002 Lyon

or email

GREECE

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Book and Manuscripts Conservation Studio, St John. Thelogian Monastery, Patmos

The Conservation Studio hosts five-day seminars at its premises in Patmos. The September 2008 historical offerings include "European Bookbinding, 1500-1800” (Nicholas Pickwoad), and "Byzantine Bookbinding and Bookbinding Documentation" (George Boudalis and Athanasios Vellos). In addition, there are practical courses offered on parchment and Byzantine bindings. For further information, consult the Conservation Studio's website.

ITALY

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Montefiascone Project

Montefiascone is a medieval walled Italian city located about half way between Rome and Siena. Each summer, conservators, archivists, art historians, librarians and others interested in the history and the structure of the book meet to participate in courses which are held within the city walls. Stay tuned for more information about the 2008 course schedule.

Further information on the Montefiascone Project’s website:
http://www.monteproject.com/

UNITED KINGDOM

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Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies

In 2001, a Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies was created at the University of London by merger of the Centre for Palaeography and the Research Centre in the History of the Book. The Institute of English Studies (part of London University's School of Advanced Study) hosts the Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies for a partnership including the British Library, St Bride Printing Library, the University of London Library, the English Departments of the Universities of Birmingham and Reading, and the Open University. Since 2004, the new Centre's Summer School in Manuscript Studies has offered a variety of related one-day courses on medieval manuscripts and related subjects. For details consult the Centre's website.

The first London Rare Books School (LRBS) ran in July 2007, a series of four-day, intensive courses on a variety of book-related subjects taught by internationally-known scholars associated with the Institute's Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies, using the library and museum resources of London, including the British Library, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the University of London Research Library Services. In 2008, the following courses will be offered during two sessions running 30 June - 4 July and 14 -18 July:

Week 1: 30 June - 4 July 2008.

The Book in the Ancient World
Course tutors: Professor Mike Edwards & al.

The Medieval Book
Course tutor: Professor Michelle Brown

The Printed Book in Europe 1455-2000
Course tutor: Professor John Feather

A History of Maps and Mapping
Course tutors: Dr Catherine Delano-Smith and Mrs Sarah Tyacke

An Introduction to Bibliography
Course tutor: Professor Tony Edwards

Children's Books
Course tutors: Ms Jill Shefrin; Additional lecturers: Mr Brian Anderson & al.

Week 2: 14 -18 July 2008.

The Early Modern Book in England: Exploring the Evidence
Course tutors: Dr Arnold Hunt and Mr Giles Mandelbrote

Modern Literary Manuscripts
Course tutor: Dr Wim van Mierlo

Modern First Editions
Course tutors: Mr Laurence Worms, Julian Rota & al.

Bookbinding Decoration
Course tutor: Professor Mirjam Foot

Mapping Land & Sea before 1800
Course tutors: Dr Catherine Delano-Smith and Mrs Sarah Tyacke and

Publishing Today
Course tutor: Professor Iain Stevenson

Each course will consist of thirteen seminars amounting in all to twenty hours of teaching time spread between Monday lunchtime and Friday afternoon. There will be timetabled 'library time' that will allow students to explore the rich resources of the University's Senate House Library, one of the UK's major research libraries. There will also be a full evening programme with an opening reception and talk, a major book history lecture, and a reception hosted by a major London antiquarian bookseller. For those able to stay on to the Saturday, there will be various additional book history-related activities on offer.

Postgraduate credit is available for these courses at the Institute, which is one of the ten member-Institutes of the University of London's School of Advanced Study. In order to achieve the award of credit a student will have to complete and pass a 5,000 word essay within two months of the course (an extra fee to cover marking and other costs will be charged).

The fee will be in the region of £500 which will include the provision of lunch, and coffee and tea throughout the week. It is likely that a small number of bursaries will be available, details will be provided later.

A range of different sorts of accommodation will be available including cheap student housing (on a bed and breakfast basis) close by Senate House; Senate House is next to the British Museum in the heart of Bloomsbury.

Application forms will be available by early February 2008 but you are invited to register your interest in a course or courses now (given the likely demand you would be well-advised to list a second choice). Those who register now will be the first to receive application forms. You can register your interest in LRBS 2008 by emailing your name and address (with an indication of preferred courses) to: .

Further details can be found at the Institute of English Studies.

AUSTRALASIA

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New Zealand

Rare Books Summer School 2008

The fourth Australia and New Zealand Rare Book Summer School will be held in Melbourne at the State Library of Victoria (and other associated venues) from 11-15 February 2008.
The four courses proposed are as follows:

Lithography: The popularisation of printing in the 19th century
Instructor: Michael Twyman

The Colonial book trade in Australia and Canada: A comparative approach
Instructors: Mary Jane Edwards & Des Cowley

The book in transition, 1750-1850
Instructors: Brian McMullin & Pamela Pryde

Book collecting
Instructor: Wallace Kirsop

Each of the four courses runs for the five full days of the school.

The tuition fee is Aust $700.

For further information contact:

Centre for the Book
School of English, Communications & Performance Studies
Monash University
Victoria 3800
Australia

Tel: 61 (0)3 9509 7570 or 61 (0)3 9905 2135 (afternoons only)
Fax: 61 (0)3 9905 2135
E-mail:

Rare Books Summer School 2007

The 2007 session of Australasian Rare Book School was held in Wellington, New Zealand, 12-16 February 2007.

Courses:

Rare Book Cataloguing
Printing on the Handpress
History of the Chinese Book
Implementing Encoded Archival Description

For more information, visit

http://www.vuw.ac.nz/rbs2007/

or download the the 2007 brochure (PDF).

The fee for an intensive five-day course is Aust $700 (inclusive of GST).

Further information and a downloadable applications form are available at http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/cftb/.