News Archives

Frederick Bearman Research Grant: Call for Applications

Each year, the Institute of Conservation’s Book & Paper Group (Icon B&PG) awards the Frederick Bearman Research Grant, which offers up to £1,000 towards research into any aspect of books, paper, or archival materials. Applicants’ research topics should in some way be of interest and importance to the book and paper conservation profession but does not exclusively need to be about conservation.

The application deadline is 20 November 2002. For more information, including how to apply, click here. […]

“Keats and Shelley on the Move” Symposium

The Keats-Shelley Association (K-SAA) invites you to attend a free symposium, “Keats and Shelley on the Move,” on 28 October 2022, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. The event will take place in person at the Grolier Club in New York City. […]

Special Collections & Archives Instruction & Reference Librarian – Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is seeking a Special Collections & Archives Instruction & Reference Librarian (0.75 FTE position, with benefits). This role, which is from January to December 2023, will work with staff, faculty, librarians, and students to provide innovative instruction and research services using Special Collections & Archives holdings in the areas of rare books, the history of the book, manuscripts, artists’ books, and primary source literacy. […]

Two New Job Openings – Black Bibliography Project (BPP)

The Black Bibliography Project (BPP) is hiring two new positions: Project Manager and Black Studies Subject Specialist Librarian. Both jobs are funded by a three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Application review for both openings will begin on 20 October 2022, with the goal of filling the positions by mid-December. […]

“Archive and Theory: The Future of Anglo-American Early Modern Disability Studies” conference

The UCLA Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies invites you to attend a free conference on “Archive and Theory: The Future of Anglo-American Early Modern Disability Studies,” scheduled for 7–8 October 2022 in person at UCLA’s Clark Library and online. […]

RBS Scholarship & Fellowship Applications Now Available

We are now accepting applications for the 2022 Rare Book School scholarship and fellowship cycle.

Applications are open for all RBS-awarded scholarships (for both first-time and returning RBS students), and for the M. C. Lang Fellowship in Book History, Bibliography, and Humanities Teaching with Historical Sources and the SoFCB Junior Fellows Program. For general queries about scholarships or fellowships, see the FAQs page. Participation in the scholarship/fellowship program implies acceptance of the scholarship and fellowship Terms and Conditions.

To begin the application process, […]

APHA Awards 2022: Call for Nominations

The American Printing History Association (APHA) Board of Trustees and the Awards Committee invite nominations for the 2022 APHA Individual Laureate and Institutional Awards. Submit your nominations here, before noon on 1 November 2022. These awards, which celebrate outstanding contributions to the history of printing, are presented each January at APHA’s Annual Meeting. […]

Librarian – Grolier Club

The Grolier Club of New York invites applications for the position of Librarian. The Librarian of the Grolier Club oversees the day-to-day activities and operations of the Library. These duties fall into three general categories: management, administration, and leadership; curatorial; technical services; and public service and outreach. Qualifications include a master’s degree in library science from an ALA-accredited program (or the equivalent in education or experience), preferably with an emphasis on bibliography and/or the history of the book; at least 3 years’ experience in a research library setting; experience cataloguing rare materials; knowledge of archival practice, preferably including the archiving of digital content; […]

Building the Book from the Ancient World to the Present Day: Five Decades of Rare Book School & the Book Arts Press

This fall, the Grolier Club in New York City—America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles—presents a special exhibition that details how books have been produced throughout history and across various regions of the globe. Organized by Rare Book School and drawn from its unique collections, Building the Book from the Ancient World to the Present Day: Five Decades of Rare Book School & the Book Arts Press will be on view in the Grolier Club’s ground floor gallery from 28 September through 23 December 2022. The exhibition celebrates the international institute—founded by MacArthur Fellow Terry Belanger and currently directed by Michael F. […]

“Heavy Metals and 19th-Century Euro-American Bookcloth Manufacture” Lecture

The ICON Book and Paper Group invites you to attend the 2022 Annual Frederick Bearman Research Grant Lecture: “New Perspectives on Old Material: Heavy Metals and 19th-Century Euro-American Bookcloth Manufacture” by Dr. Melissa Tedone. This free virtual event is scheduled for 7:30–9 p.m. GMT+1. To learn more and register, click here. Please direct any questions to Victoria Haddock, Special Projects Officer for the ICON Book & Paper Group, at spo.iconbpg@gmail.com.

Dr. Melissa Tedone holds a dual appointment as Associate Conservator/Lab Head for Book and Library Materials Conservation at Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, […]

Rare Books Librarian – University of Southern California Libraries

USC Libraries at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) invites creative, collaborative, and outstanding candidates to apply for the full-time continuing appointment-track faculty position of Rare Books Librarian. The anticipated start date is October 2022. USC is looking for candidates with experience managing and developing rare book collections, primary source literacy instruction, exhibition curation, and outreach. Applications are due 31 August 2022. To view full details, including application instructions, click here. […]

Cataloger Positions – University of Southern California Libraries

USC Libraries at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) is accepting applications for a Monographs & Special Projects Cataloger and a Rare Books & Special Formats Cataloger. The successful candidates will bring experience and demonstrated knowledge in cataloging, metadata management and development, collection management and assessment, and management or supervision experience in an academic or research library. For the full posting, click here. […]

Call for Submissions: Metropolitan Museum Journal

The editorial board of the peer-reviewed Metropolitan Museum Journal invites submissions of original research on works of art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collections.  

The journal publishes articles and research notes. All submissions must take accessioned objects in the Met’s collection (including illustrated rare books in the Met’s collections, such as those housed in Watson Library) as their points of departure. Articles contribute extensive and thoroughly argued scholarship, whereas research notes are often smaller in scope, focusing on a specific aspect of new research or presenting a significant finding from technical analysis. […]

Jane Austen Society of North America Online Lecture

JASNA, the Jane Austen Society of North America, is reinvigorating its regional group in Central Virginia. The society’s first virtual meeting will be a free public lecture at 2 p.m. on Sunday, 28 August. Dr. Juliette Wells (Goucher College) will be sharing the never-before-told full story of how the topaz cross pendants that Charles Austen gave to his sisters Cassandra and Jane passed from descendants to an American collector, Charles Beecher Hogan, and from him to Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, England. Of special interest are the reading journals that Hogan kept for two decades, in which he reflected on his reading and rereading of Austen. […]

Rare Books Librarian – University of Southern California

USC Libraries at the University of Southern California invites creative, collaborative, and outstanding candidates to fill a full-time continuing appointment-track faculty position as Rare Books Librarian. This position’s anticipated start date is October 2022. USC  is looking for candidates with experience managing and developing rare book collections, primary source literacy instruction, exhibition curation, and outreach. The closing date for applications is 1 August 2022 or until filled. For more information about this position, contact Marje Schuetze-Coburn, chair of the standing search committee, at schuetze@usc.edu. Click here for the full posting. […]

Special Collections Instruction Librarian and Curator for Black Arts and Culture – James Madison University

James Madison University Libraries seeks a creative and energetic librarian/archivist or scholar to fill a newly created, tenure-track faculty position in our Special Collections department. This position is designed to be filled by a colleague with significant subject knowledge in Black arts and culture, teaching expertise with archival collections, and enthusiasm for the power of primary sources. Click here for full details. Review of applications begins 6 June 2022. […]

RBS Announces 2022 Summer Lectures

We are thrilled to announce the lineup for this summer’s lecture series at the University of Virginia. All talks will take place at 5:30 p.m. ET. Monday lectures will be held in the Dome Room of the Rotunda; Wednesday lectures, in the Auditorium of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Lectures will last 30–40 minutes with 10 minutes for Q&A, and will be followed by a reception. Lecture recordings will be made available by fall 2022.

Monday, 6 June: Dorothy C. Wong, Professor of East Asian Art, University of Virginia: Making Merit: East Asian Buddhist Material Culture of the Seventh and Eighth Centuries – NEH-Global Book Histories Initiative Lecture […]

Rare Books Curator of Special Collections – Vanderbilt University Libraries

Vanderbilt University is hiring for the position of Rare Books Curator of Special Collections. The Curator of Special Collections conducts outreach and instruction utilizing rare books and other resources from the collections. This position meets frequently with faculty and students to promote the use of rare books in the classroom. The Curator is also responsible for interacting with existing and potential donors and for curating exhibitions for the libraries. The Curator acquires rare books by purchase and donation to augment the collections. The position reports to the Director of Special Collections.

Please apply by 31 May 2022 for first consideration for this position. […]

Announcing the 2022 RBS-Mellon SoFCB Junior Fellows

The Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB) at Rare Book School is pleased to welcome its 2022–24 cohort of Junior Fellows, including the recipient of the Nancy Norton Tomasko Fellowship. Many congratulations to all the new Junior Fellows; we look forward to seeing you at RBS!

The names and institutional affiliations of 2022–24 RBS-Mellon SoFCB Junior Fellows are:

Cat Lambert – Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Classics, Columbia University

Amanda Licastro – Emerging and Digital Literacy Designer, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, […]

Now Available Online: “LEOcode” Compendium of Watermarks and Resource for Coding, Visualizing Handmade Laid Papers

LEOcode is a working compendium of watermarks in the Codex Arundel, Codex Leicester, and other papers of Leonardo da Vinci and is intended to be a research tool for art historians, conservators, and paper/book historians. This website presents the results of an innovative computational approach to enhance, measure, compare, and match pre-machine-made papers through the detailed encoding and visualization of their internal manufactured patterns, including watermarks, chain line intervals, and laid line densities. In addition to identifying papers formed from the exact same mold (moldmates) among Leonardo’s papers, LEOcode provides enhanced photographic images of every available watermarked sheet in the Codex Arundel and the Codex Leicester, […]