- The 2016 iteration of Rare Book Week New York is in the books. As usual, there were great things to be had at each of the fairs, and it was lovely to see so many friends (as well as so many good books). Jonathan Kearns has a roundup of the writeups (and offers his own), and Ian Kahn posted a video booth tour. I'll have a post soon on my "find of the fair."
- Entries are currently being accepted for the 2016 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest (through 31 May).
- Oak Knoll Fest will be held this fall from 30 September to 2 October.
- Another First Folio has been identified, this one in the library at Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute. The copy is believed to have belonged to 18th-century Shakespeare editor Isaac Reed. Emma Smith's identification, including a good amount of description, was published in the TLS. Lots of coverage, including from Jennifer Schuessler for the NYTimes and Sean Coughlan for the BBC.
- Emma Smith also has a feature on the OUP blog mapping the current locations of First Folios.
- Keith Houston offers a closer preview of his forthcoming book The Book.
- Lisa Fagin Davis visits Nova Scotia on her Manuscript Road Trip.
- Carla Hayden's confirmation hearings before the Senate Committee on Rules & Administration will be held on 20 April at 2:15 p.m. The hearing will be livestreamed here.
- The DPLA and Europeana have launched RightsStatements.org, "a collaborative approach to rights statements that can be used to communicate the copyright status of cultural objects."
- UVA announced that John M. Unsworth has been appointed University Librarian and Dean of Libraries.
- In other appointment news, Martin Antonetti is headed to Northwestern University this summer as Director of Distinctive Collections, and David J. Gary to the American Philosophical Society as Curator of Printed Materials. Many congratulations to John, Martin, and David!
- Smithsonian highlighted a revolving circular book case from 1894 this week. I Googled around and could find no photos of these monsters in action: can anyone locate such? Were they ever made?
- Also from Smithsonian, a report on recent work on literacy in biblical times.
- The Notre Dame magazine explores a 1504 book reportedly bound in human skin and owned by Christopher Columbus. Spoiler alert: not so much, but the story's worth a read.
- Watercolors by Maria Sibylla Merian are now on display at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace.
- APHA is seeking an editor for Printing History.
- Tamara Plakins Thornton has a post at the UNC Press blog about her new biography of Nathaniel Bowditch.
- DPLA executive director Dan Cohen writes in the Atlantic about an interesting wrinkle in the digital divide.
- The University of Delaware is searching for a postdoctoral fellow in special collections and digital humanities.
- The David Rumsey Map Center opens at Stanford University this week with a series of what look to be very interesting talks.
- David D'Arcy writes for The Art Newspaper about the ownership battle over the 13th-century Birds' Head Haggadah, currently in the collections of the Israel Museum but once owned by a German-Jewish family whose descendants would like their title recognized.
- From Colin Hill Urbina in the Guardian, "I'm a professional bookbinder. Amazon's new Kindle won't put me out of business."
- The William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan has reopened after a $17 million renovation.
- The KU Libraries blog highlights a Hinman Collator for "Flashback Friday."
- Stephen Milner gave the Hofer Lecture at Harvard last week to present findings from a project undertaken to determine the origin of the parchment used in book production in Europe. Milner also reports on a recent visit to the Morgan Library to sample their books on parchment.
- Over on the ILAB blog, an interview with Andy Stauffer about the Book Traces project.
- David Kipen writes for the LATimes about the parallels between Shakespeare and Cervantes.
- Over at Jot101, "A Byron forgery—rediscovered."
- The Book Club of California is issuing Robert Bringhurst's Palatino: The Natural History of a Typeface in an edition of three hundred copies with letterpress specimens.
- There's a call for proposals for a 2017 NYU colloquium, "Libraries and Archives in the Anthropocene."
Reviews
- Sarah Allan's Buried Ideas: Legends of Abdication and Ideal Government in Early Chinese Bamboo-Slip Manuscripts; review by Ian Johnson in the NYRB.
- Laura Claridge's The Lady with the Borzoi; reviews by Michael Dirda in the WaPo and Peter Lewis in the CSM.
- Laura Cumming's The Vanishing Velázquez; reviews by Jennifer Senior in the NYTimes and Henrik Bering in the WSJ.
- Peter Onuf and Annette Gordon Reed's Most Blessed of the Patriarchs; review by Peter Baker in the NYTimes.
- Joshua Hammer's The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu; review by Jeffrey Brown in the WaPo. Hammer has an essay/excerpt from the book in the WSJ.
- Samuel J. Redman's Bone Rooms: reviews by Barbara J. King in the WaPo and Edward Rothstein in the WSJ.
- Chanan Tigay's The Lost Book of Moses; review by Isaac Chotiner in the WSJ.
- Matthew Kirschenbaum's Track Changes; reviews by Dylan Hicks in the LARB and Eric Banks in Bookforum.
