Reading in our 21st Century Library: Unexpected Encounters of the Digital and Pre-Digital Kind
On March 7 from 11:00-2:00 the Library is hosting an informal opportunity to meet and learn from researchers who are exploring the unique reading and research experiences offered by digital and pre-digital (print) materials.
Part of IdeaFest, this drop-in event in the Library's multi-purpose room offers free coffee and the chance to meet the researchers and discuss the projects one-on-one. All six projects demonstrate the variety of scholarly opportunities afforded by the form of the materials: pre-digital, digitized, and born-digital. Every 30 minutes one project will be described in a brief presentation in the adjoining room. Unique materials used in the work will be on display.
By profiling projects that emphasize the importance of the library to researchers on campus, and the effects of that activity in the community, this event will highlight the integral role that the UVic Libraries play in research success.
Presenters
• 11:00. Lisa Surridge and Caley Ehnes on Victorian reading practices. Lisa and Caley will discuss what working with original publications of 19th century periodicals allows us to understand about Victorian reading practices that using modern reprints would not.
• 11:30. Ray Siemens and Constance Crompton will discuss e-text projects that illustrate a variety of new scholarly practices and insights afforded by electronic text.
• 12:00 James Nahachewsky will describe his experiments with e-texts in the secondary classroom, and what they imply for future reading practices.
• 12:30 Hélène Cazes and Erin Fairweather: "Unexpected encounters in big books: monsters, flowers, and marriages." Hélène and Erin will show three artifacts inscribed in, attached to, or left in big books. A delightful surprise for the researchers, these gifts from readers tell us stories of “special readers” to be found in Special Books. Sizes too tell us of readers: very big and very small will be show
• 1:00. Zsofia Surjan: "Biblia, das ist: Die gantze heilige Schrifft: a Luther Bible from 1560" and Erin Kelly “The greatness of Foxe’s Actes and Monuments (1610).” Zsofia and Erin will talk about what looking at unique copies of important Protestant texts can teach us about the spread of the reformation as well as the lives and experiences of individual believers.
• 1:30 Chris Petter (text digitzation). Chris and collaborators will discuss the Colonial Dispatches project, and what digitization of the important historical set has enabled scholars to do.
