Saturday, November 17, 2012

Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand

The Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand was founded in Melbourne in February 1969 after long discussions among bibliographers working in comparative isolation in cities of both countries. Modelled on the Bibliographical Society (UK) and on the Bibliographical Society of America, the Society has as its province all the studies that form part of or are related to physical bibliography: the history of printing, publishing, bookselling, typefounding, papermaking, bookbinding; palaeography and codicology; and textual bibliography.

Interests

The Society also has an interest in the general field of reference bibliography, and has been enthusiastically involved in efforts to document the holdings in Australia of pre-1800 books through the recently completed Australian Book Heritage Project (the Australian arm of the international Early Imprints Project).
No countries or periods are excluded from its preoccupations, which range from Italian and German incunabula to 19th and 20th century Australian publishers. In all these areas it seeks to encourage scholarly enquiry and thereby to improve the quality of bibliographical work being done in the two countries.

Members

The membership of the Society is predictably diverse: academics drawn from a wide range of historical and literary disciplines, rare book librarians, collectors, printers interested in the history of their craft, antiquarian booksellers. Provision is made for students as well as ordinary members, while institutions interested in the Society's publications have available to them a special membership category. The bond uniting all these members is concern for and interest in serious and scholarly bibliographical research.

Footnote:
The Bookman was a guest speaker Thursday at their annual conference being held at University of Otago in Dunedin. Most folk I mentioned this to in advance of the Conference had not heard of the Society. Check out their website at -http://www.bsanz.org/home . Think about joining.

Photos below taken at Conference opening in the University of Otago Library.





No comments: