RBMS 2017 Seminar D: Future of Bibliographic Data

Abstract

This seminar will examine the use of data in the study of incunabula, a field where ground-breaking work is being conducted utilizing centuries of bibliographic information. Seminar participants will learn about some of the newest incunabula projects, as well as some of the oldest, in a presentation led by the directors of database repositories and digital humanities projects. Seminar participants will study several resources in-depth: Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI), a global effort to expand copy-specific descriptions of incunables, the Incunabula Short Title Catalog (ISTC), today the most comprehensive database of incunabula, the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (GW), the more than 100- year-old effort to catalog all surviving incunable editions, and the Atlas of Early Printing, one of the earliest digital GIS book history sites that applies mapping to bibliographic data about incunables. The 15cBOOKTRADE project will also be presented and analyzed. The international collaborative efforts underlying these projects will be highlighted.

Moderator: Greg Prickman, University of Iowa