Digitization at UVic Libraries
Digitization at UVic Libraries
Recently, we digitized a series of notes and edited typescripts for Langrishe, Go Down, a novel by Aidan Higgins, first published in 1966 and later adapted for BBC television in 1978 by Harold Pinter. As I worked through scanning the many iterations of the story, I was struck by what we’ve lost to the digital era of writing and editing: insight into the author’s personality.
A slight detour from what happens in my job, I wanted to highlight a workshop that was organized and hosted recently by UVic Special Collections: An Introduction to Bookbinding with Joan Byers (Canadian Bookbinding and Book Arts Guild), a “two hour talk and workshop on the physical aspects of books,” plus the opportunity to try our hand at making two pamphlets.
Sometimes I am tempted to keep adding more and more layers to the digital collections we provide but I have to remind myself that it is not the role of the library to work with the raw materials, only to provide access to them.