Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction: Towards a pedagogy of Bibliography
- Part I Rationales
- Part II Creating and Using Resources
- Book History on the Road: Finding and Organizing Resources Outside the Classroom
- Jane Eyre on eBay: Building a Teaching Collection
- History of the Book in the American Literature Classroom: On the Fly and on the Cheap
- From Printing Type to BlackboardTM: Teaching the History of the Early Modern Book to Literary Undergraduates in a ‘New’ UK University
- Part III Methodologies
- Teaching ‘History of the Book’
- Teaching Bibliography and Research Methods
- Teaching Textual Criticism
- Part V Resources
- Index
Book History on the Road: Finding and Organizing Resources Outside the Classroom
from Part II - Creating and Using Resources
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on Contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction: Towards a pedagogy of Bibliography
- Part I Rationales
- Part II Creating and Using Resources
- Book History on the Road: Finding and Organizing Resources Outside the Classroom
- Jane Eyre on eBay: Building a Teaching Collection
- History of the Book in the American Literature Classroom: On the Fly and on the Cheap
- From Printing Type to BlackboardTM: Teaching the History of the Early Modern Book to Literary Undergraduates in a ‘New’ UK University
- Part III Methodologies
- Teaching ‘History of the Book’
- Teaching Bibliography and Research Methods
- Teaching Textual Criticism
- Part V Resources
- Index
Summary
I first taught the history of the book while a faculty member at a New England liberal arts college. My syllabus centered on the figure of Samuel Johnson, and our class met in the Rare Book Room where we examined treasures from its underutilized collection of eighteenth-century materials. My ten students examined a first edition of Fanny Burney's Evelina, a second edition of Johnson's Dictionary, Johnson's Plan for a Dictionary, volumes of the Harleian Miscellany, a second edition of Christopher Anstey's New Bath Guide, and local newspapers from the 1790s. My determinedly contemporary students enjoyed the atmosphere of the Rare Book Room: its white gloves, pencil-only policy, and leather and wood interior, gave them the thrill of visiting a dignified time capsule. They also enjoyed a strong sense of privilege, as they entered a room not normally used for classes. Studying the history of the book made students feel like academic insiders.
When I joined the faculty at Buffalo state college, I couldn't imagine how to teach my seminar in its old format. Buffalo State College, with an enrollment of 11,000 students, offers a standard liberal arts curriculum, but specializes in teacher training and technical studies. he library has no Rare Book Room, and its collection in areas like eighteenth-century studies has not been consistently maintained, though its electronic resources are excellent.
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- Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014