Print Culture Society

Lasr Meeting of the Semester--Monday, Dec. 8, 2008

2008-12-07T12:06:00.001-08:00

Hello all-

It's time for the last meeting of the semester! Take a break from your papers and projects and join us for some cookies and tea as we discuss events for next semester, including a tentative paper making workshop and a bookbinding session. For those working on the exhibition, we'll also talk about a time line for getting materials chosen and installed over the Winter Break.

That's tomorrow, Monday the 8th, at 4:30pm in SLIS Commons.

Yours in print,
Lisa.

Meeting Minutes for September 8, 2008

2008-09-21T16:26:00.000-07:00

Hello all-

For those that couldn't attend the meeting on Monday afternoon, here is what we discussed:

1. Introductions. Everyone said a little something about their interest in print culture.
2. Planned events. Dave Mindel discussed the upcoming Religion and Print Culture symposium and asked for suggestions on our fourth speaker. I discussed the corresponding Special Collections exhibition and put out a call for assistance.
3. New events. Gabe Gossett discussed ideas for upcoming events, including a trip to the Newberry Library and the Chinatown Branch Library in Chicago on September 27. Email Gabe (gossett@wisc.edu) if you'd like to come along. Road trip! Good times! He also proposed a book show and tell, as well as a historic recipe cook-off and pot luck. If anyone has other ideas for workshops or activities, pass them along to Gabe.
4. Facebook group. Print Culture Society is on Facebook! Join up, post messages, do whatever else the kids do on the Facebook.
5. Discussion group. There's been interest in reviving a print culture reading discussion group. If anyone is interested in joining, let me know and I'll pass the information along to the pertinent coordinator.
5. Wrap-up. Two members suggested Thomas Dale from the Art History Department for the symposium. Several in attendance signed the email sign-up sheet to help with the exhibition. If anyone who wasn't at the meeting is interested in helping with the exhibition, let me know! Our first step is to set up a meeting with Robin Rider at Special Collections and discuss the process of creating an exhibition.

As always, please let Dave, Gabe, or myself know if you have any ideas for events and activities.
Yours in print,
Lisa Muccigrosso

Welcome to the 2008-09 Print Culture Society!

2008-09-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the new semester! Many of you shudder to think that all the mailing lists are starting up again, but this one is the best.

Welcome back returning students, and welcome aboard new students, to the Print Culture Society! This year is looking to be an exciting one, and we're thrilled about all the new faces we saw at orientation last week. Our major event is a symposium/exhibition on the broad topic of print culture in religion. The symposium is scheduled for Friday, April 10, and the exhibition in the Special Collections exhibit space can go up over Winter Break and stay up through the middle of April. Our fearless Co-Chair, David Mindel, and our Events Coordinator, Gabe Gossett, have done lots of work rounding up speakers for the symposium. I am heading up the exhibition, and I need help! Anyone interested in helping me with putting together the exhibition with materials from Special Collections is urged to express interest at our first meeting.

Which brings me to: THE FIRST MEETING DATE, TIME, AND PLACE HAS CHANGED! THE FIRST MEETING DATE, TIME, AND PLACE HAS CHANGED!

Our first organizational meeting will now take place MONDAY September 8 at 4:30 pm in SLIS COMMONS.

Did you know that THE FIRST MEETING DATE, TIME, AND PLACE HAS CHANGED? Please see above for more information.

In fact, our meeting times in general have changed. Please expect PCS to meet the first Monday of each month at 4:30 pm in SLIS Commons. This change is reflected on our website's events page: http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~print/pcsevents.html, and of course any changes from the scheduled meeting times will be sent to this list.

The symposium is not the only thing planned for the upcoming year. We have room for other events and activities, so bring your ideas and interests to our meeting and suggest them! In the past we've held brown bag talks, a print culture reading list discussion group, a trip to Chicago's Newberry Library for the Caxton Club Symposium on the Book, a bookbinding workshop, and a bake sale. The opportunities are broad, and we're eager to hear what you want to do with your time and involvement in PCS.

Don't forget to come to the meeting MONDAY September 8 at 4:30 pm in SLIS COMMONS!

Yours in print,
Lisa Muccigrosso
Chair, Print Culture Society

The Culture of Print in Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEM)

2008-09-04T12:33:00.001-07:00

THE CULTURE OF PRINT IN SCIENCE,TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE (STEM), scheduled for September 11-13. About fifty presenters from several different countries will provide a fascinating line up in sessions held on Friday and Saturday
in the Pyle Center. The most recent version of the program is on the web at
http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~printcul/STEMConferencePage.html

Two free and public lectures and receptions are associated with the
conference.

On Thursday at 4.30, Professor Anita Guerrini will give a lecture titled: "Animals and Humans in Early Modern Anatomical Illustrations" This will take place on the 9th floor of Memorial Library, where you can also view the Special Collections Exhibit "Color Enhanced: The Use of Color in Scientific Books."

On Friday at 6.00, Professor Jim Secord will lecture on:
"The Laboratory of Print."
It has become a ritual commonplace to claim that we are witnessing a
profound transformation in print culture, akin to the introduction of
the printing press in the fifteenth century. Yet much current research
on communication in science, medicine, and technology remains resolutely
unhistorical. Conversely, historians of these subjects are only
beginning to draw upon the insights of contemporary communication
studies, although they have used work in (for example) the
microsociology of knowledge for at least two decades. This paper
explores how these fields might benefit from being brought more closely
together. It suggests the need to reexamine some of the
taken-for-granted dichotomies which structure research in these fields,
particularly the role of ethnographic, literary, and rhetorical
approaches in relation to statistical studies and accounts of long-term
trends.

The lecture will take place at: Memorial Union, Tripp Commons (2nd Floor), University of Wisconsin-Madison

Mark Lasner Fellowship in Printing History 2009

2008-09-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

APHA ANNOUNCES 2009 MARK LASNER FELLOWSHIP IN PRINTING HISTORY

New York, August 15, 2008: The American Printing History Association
(APHA) is pleased to announce a fellowship award for the study of
printing history. An award of up to $2,000 is available for research in
any area of the history of printing in any form, including all the arts
and technologies relevant to printing, the book arts, and letter forms.
Applications are especially welcome from those working in the area of
American printing history, but the subject of research has no
geographical or chronological limitations, and may be national or
regional in scope, biographical, analytical, technical, or
bibliographical in nature. Study related to the history of printing with
a recognized printer or book artist may also be supported. The
fellowship can be used to pay for travel, living, and other expenses.

APHA fellowships are open to individuals of any nationality.
Applicants need not be academics and an advanced degree is not required.

Previous APHA Fellowship recipients have included Pablo Alvarez and
Keli E. Rylance for work on one of only two known extant copies of
Institución y origen del arte de la imprenta, y reglas generales para
los componedores (Institution and Origin of the Art of Printing, and
General Rules for Compositors) written in 1680 by Spanish printer and
compositor Alonso Víctor de Paredes, Renzo Baldasso for his study of
graphic representations by Erhard Ratdolt in 2007, Paul Shaw for a full
length biography of W. A. Dwiggins in 2006, Lance Hidy for work on the
Society of Printers in 2005, Susanna Ashton for work on African-American
printer, publisher, editor and poet William Stanley Braithwaite in 2004,
and John A. Lane for work on the type specimens of the Voskens/Maapa
Foundry in 2003.

Applicants are asked to submit an application form, curriculum vitae,
and a one-page proposal. Two confidential letters of recommendation
specific to this fellowship should be sent separately by the
recommenders.

Applications and letters of support must be received by Friday 12
December 2008. An announcement of the award will be made at the APHA
annual meeting, to take place in New York on Saturday, 24 January 2009.

An application form is available at the APHA website at
http://printinghistory.org/htm/fellowship/index.htm. To receive an
application form by mail contact: Fellowship Committee, APHA, P.O. Box
4519, Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y. 10163-4519.

First meeting of the 2008-2009 School year

2008-09-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

First meeting of the year will be held on Monday, September 8, 2008 in the SLIS commons. This is located on the 4th floor of the Helen C. White building (NOT the College Library section) It will start at 4:30.
Topics will include a welcome to new interested members, overview of what we have planned for the year and input from new members about what they are interested in and would like to see happen.
Hope to see everyone there!

What can be included in "Print Culture"?

2008-04-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

In one of my non-archives classes the other day, I was talking with a fellow student and I had been telling him about some of what was going on in the archives classes. He had mentioned a quote that he heard from one of the professors that he said he has on a Post-It by his computer.

Digital documents don't survive by accident.

This was implying that paper documents can. And if you leave paper documents sitting around for a hundred years, someone will still be able to find them and figure out what they were meant for. Digital documents don't work like that, you will be lucky to retrieve a file that was created in a program 15 years ago.

The question of "Are digital documents still part of print culture?" seems to be what I am getting at here. But that wasn't really my intent, it was just a great quote, and it can be an issue to be discussed later. The idea of items laying around for decades and still having the capacity to be recovered is fascinating and exciting. And it applies more to than just the "written word."

My interest is in photographs. I enjoy the visual nature of items and I would like to say that photographs can be just as valuable as text. Pictures can be understood in any language. They can give detail in a single glance that would take pages upon pages of text to convey.

I would like to share a video story of a photographer by the name of Leo Beachy. This story has a few parts to it: the story of the photographer and the story of the journey of his negatives. I was profoundly touched by this story, the amazing zeal for life and the extreme importance of photography in this man's life and the crazy happenstance that some of his work still survives today. This video left me very misty-eyed. I hope that you will enjoy the story, as well.

Leo Beachy's Story

Meeting Minutes, April 1, 2008

2008-04-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

Print Culture Society
April 1, 2008 meeting.
Attended by 8 members. (Welcome, Simone!)

Blog

There is now a print culture blog at: http://uwmadisonpcs.blogspot.com/. There are links on it to the Print Culture Society website, as well as to the Center for Print Culture in Modern America website.

Meeting minutes will be posted there, as well as discussion. Anyone interested in writing articles in it with print culture themes, please email uwprintculture@gmail.com

Religious Text Exhibits

Anna and Dave M met with Jill Rosenshield to discuss display opportunities. Anna has prepared a Proposal Outline, which will be summarized.

The dates of the exhibit are still To Be Determined and space needs to be reserved with Robin Rider in Special Collections.

The categories listed are ideas for displays. We have approximately 12+ displays to fill. Each category/research topic would ideally fill one case. Anna, Jill and Dave came up with topics, which we discussed at the meeting and a few people expressed interest in doing the research for that topic, these are tentative, working ideas:

1. Print Culture and Literacy in Religion
2. Textual Criticisms of Religious Works (Simone)
3. Alternative Uses of Religious Texts
4. Pamphlets and Politics in Print Culture
5. Wisconsin Religion
6. Religious Themes in Icelandic Sagas
7. Women in Religions
8. Print Culture and Education in Eastern Religions (Gabe)
9. Religious Publication Practices (Anna)
10. Book Burials (Anna)
11. (suggested at meeting) Cult, 1960s-1970s literature

Each person would be responsible for researching the subject area, writing short pieces for the display case and selecting examples from the holdings in Special Collections. Information that would need to be included: Bibliographic information (publication and distribution), relevance to religion, relevance to print culture and any other interesting facts.

For these 12 cases, we would need about 3-4 people to help, students may be able to do this as an Independent Study .
Research issues/suggestions: There is a huge Western bias in the Special collection holdings, ideas on doing inter-library loan for the exhibit came up, as well as an opportunity for a research project (ie “Challenging the Dominant Paradigm”). The Chicago Art Institute has a good Eastern collection and that would be a good place to go for researching. Jim Danky has a collection at WHS which includes information on feminism and Paganism, which would be good to look at. The Odd Wisconsin blog also has some information on early printed material (Native American prayer book).

It has also been requested that we fill the Memorial Library cases in the entrance lobby. Less rare materials (Cult literature) would preferably go there.

An exhibition booklet/catalog should be prepared with summaries of the cases and the overall scope of the exhibit.

Funding from UW Friends should be looked into, as well as matching funds from the University.

Religious Studies Speakers

Dave is still trying to contact professors, and is also trying to get a grasp on a succinct, articulate scope for the lecture series. It was also suggested that after our displays are created, we could give presentations on our research.

Secret History of the Mongols

Book that Gabe is currently reading, it was brought up that he could give a presentation on this, as well.

STEM conference

Science, Technology Engineering and Medicine, interdisciplinary conference. Christine Pawley will be asking Print Culture Society for volunteers, please consider.

Chicago Caxton trip

Please check the Facebook group “Print Culture Club”

If you are going for sure, PLEASE email Gabe ASAP. He will be coordinating transportation. The workshop is from 9am-4pm. Do you have a car to carpool? Will you be spending the night?

Gabe (gossett@wisc.edu)

Website

Lisa has all content and all control of the website. Here it is: http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~print/

Bake Sale

We will be having a Bake Sale, Tuesday April 29, 2008 in the SLIS commons. Hopefully members can contribute about 2 batches of goodies to help start our organization’s finances. Please come and enjoy the goods!

Our next meeting (and last of the 2007-2008 year) will be Tuesday, May 6, 2008 in the SLIS commons at 11:45 am.

Introduction and Welcome!

2008-04-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

This account has been created to record information and events sponsored by the UW-Madison student Print Culture Society. We hope that current members will add input and it can spur discussion. Meeting minutes will be posted here.

My name is Rachel and I am the Communications Coordinator for UW-Madison PCS for the Spring 2008 and the 2008-09 school year. I will be moderating and updating this blog.

Some ideas on how I'm hoping to use this blog:
I'm going to try to implement it much like a wiki, but with a bit more structure.

1. I will attempt to give each event and event-in-planning titles so that we can have all discussions on an event linked together. When a new set of meeting minutes has been posted, all comments should be made about the topic under the most recent entry about it.

2. If commenting, please leave your name. If you are not comfortable using any of the Open ID boxes, it can be written in the entry. Anonymous posts will most likely be deleted.