Section on Rare Books and Manuscripts

Newsletter - Winter 2000

People Part I

Secretary/Treasurer: Dr Wolfgang Undorf, Unit Book History, Lib. Binding & Planning of Stacks, Kungl. Biblioteket, Box 5039, SE-10241 Stockholm, Sweden, Tel. *(46)(8)463095, Fax *(46)(8)4634004 E-mail: wolfgang.undorf@kb.se

Information Coordinator:Professor Henry L. Snyder, 220 Trinity Avenue, Kensington, CA 94708-1139, USA, Tel. (510) - 528 - 5113, Fax (510) - 528 - 4155, E-mail: hlsnyder@earthlink.net

65th IFLA Council and General Conference Bangkok, Thailand, August 20 - 28, 1999

Minutes of the two meetings of the Standing Committee, held in Bangkok Saturday 21 August 1999 and Friday 27 August 1999

First Meeting: Saturday 21 August

Apology was received from: Mercedes Dexeus Mallol, David Pearson, Annette Wehmeyer,

The chairman professor Henry Snyder opened the meeting by welcoming the members and the observers and by expressing the Standing committee's sincere thanks to Annette Wehmeyer from the SC for the excellent result of her efforts to prepare the Newsletter for the Section

1.Agenda Chairman's report added as item 4a. Items 7 and 9 were switched: Election of officers was proposed to be item 7 and Program for Jerusalem 2000 to be item 9. The Agenda was then approved.

2. Minutes The minutes from the Standing Committee meetings in Amsterdam 1998 had been distributed and were approved.

3. Report on the meeting of the Co-ordinating Board of Division V. Henry Snyder reported on the Division V CB meeting on August 20. Marjorie Bloss, the CB chair, had reported that the IFLA Hq had experienced problems with the organizers of the Jerusalem meeting. Hotel prices were a problem. There had been some protests regarding the choice of the city Jerusalem as host for an IFLA meeting. Some countries had announced that they would boycott the 2000 IFLA meeting, which initiated a lively discussion in the CB. To what extent should political considerations be taken when selecting the host for IFLA meetings - a world wide non political professional organization. The report from IFLA working group on the revision of the statutes and rules of procedure, which established by the Executive Board following the IFLA meeting in Copenhagen 1997 had resulted in a resolution placed before the council. The report from the working group had been circulated only to institutions, which was considered to be too limited distribution for such an important report. It should have been distributed to the members of the Standing Committees. The most controversial recommendation in the report was that Division 8 on Regional activites should be disbanded. The election procedure for SC members was also thoroughly discussed. The nomination process has to be simplified in order to create full membership in the SC:s (20 members). The SC members are elected for a period of 4 years. Officers within the respective committees are elected for 2 years and can be reelected once. The SC RBM is now almost a full committee.

A lively discussion followed. The SC members unanimously agreed that the report of the working group should have been more widely distributed to give everybody an opportunity to penetrate its contents before the IFLA meeting.

4.The Treasurers report The treasurer reported on the Section's account. The opening balance for 1999 was 1 553.74 SW Cr (EUR 174.49). Administrative funds received from IFLA HQ was NLG 790 (SWCr 3, 191). Something might be charged for hire of equipment during the Bangkok meeting. Membership of the Section was recorded to 113 - an increase of 4 members since 1998.

4a) The Chairman's report . Henry Snyder reported on his activities. (See also p 8 below). A committee to create an electronic atlas of book trade and print culture history using GIS as one of the technologies for analysis and display has been established. An article on the topic was published in Book History, 1998:5 pp 11-31.

5. Brochure of the Section The need for a brochure of the Section was widely felt. The brochure was considered a first priority of the Section. Money should be applied for to cover the cost of production. The brochure could be used in the IFLA Booth and for worldwide distribution to recruit members of the Section. We should develop a strategy for recruiting more members particularly from the Third World countries.

6. Projects ABHB: Jan Bos reported on the project and promised to submit a statement on it for the forthcoming Newsletter. Auction and Booksellers' catalogue: Richard Landon reported that a questionnaire had been distributed regarding collections of catalogues. Getty museum has indexed their catalogues but in most cases holdings of auctions and booksellers' catalogues are not indexed by the libaries. Scipio project was mentioned. Richard Landon will make a notice for the Newsletter. Library Stamps. In David Pearson's place Henry Snyder reported on this project. The stamps are historically very interesting since they is an indication of how institutions have changed over the centuries. The library stamps are also very important for security reasons. What might be left of the Sections money was decided to be spent on David Pearsons project on Library Stamps. Viveca Halldin Norberg will ask David Pearson to send copies of the draft to all new committee members and to ask Annette Wehmeyer to distribute copies of the catalogue over German library stamps.

7. Election of officers. Henry Snyder has served as chairman for two 2-year terms and was therefore not eligible for another term. Viveca Halldin Norberg has served for only one 2-year term, but she was not available for reelection for a 2nd term. Alice Prochaska, Head of Special collections at British Library in London was presented as candidate for the position as chairman of the Section. Wolfgang Undorf, head of the Department of Book History at the Royal Library in Stockholm was presented as candidate for the position as Secretary/treasurer of the Section. No other candidates were presented. The election was made by acclamation. Alice Prochaska was unanimously elected as chairman of the Section for the period 2000 - 2002. Wolfgang Undorff was unanimously elected as Secretary/Treasurer of the Section for the period 2000 - 2002.

8. Report on Copenhagen Conference, 25-27 November 1998, sponsored by IFLA Henry Snyder reported from the International conference on Bibliographical services in Copenhagen 25-27 November 1998 to revisit the UNESCO 1977 recommendations on National bibliographies. Focus was on annual publication of national bibliographies. Revision of guidelines for national bibliographies, which would also recognize the responsibility for retrospective cataloguing. Several interesting papers were presented. At Henry Snyder's request Gunilla Jonsson (Royal Library, Stockholm) had prepared a paper in behalf of the Section of Rare Books and manuscripts a paper on the need for rare books and retrospective bibliography to be put on the agenda. (A report from the conference was published in RBM Newsletter Summer 1999) He also participated in the first meeting of FRANAR (Functional Requirement and Numbering of Authority Records) in Copenhagen on Sunday 29 November 1998

9. Program for Jerusalem (2000). The 66th general conference of IFLA will take place 13-18 August 2000. The Section discussed the program and suggested to arrange an open meeting on a general topic. Details as well as the topic would be discussed during SCII meeting.

10. Other business. IFLA Booth RMB was scheduled to be on duty at the IFLA Booth on Monday morning 9-10. It was decided that Susan M. Allen and Viveca Halldin Norberg would take the stand 9-10 and Henry Snyder after that if needed. Newsletter. The chairman appealed to the committee members to send contributions to the Sections Newsletter. The minutes from the SC meetings should also be published in the Newsletter. The Sections open meeting Wednesday August 25. Rare Books and manuscripts: The Southeast Asian Dimension. Two of the three speakers on the program A Kohar Rony and May Kyi Win in the last minute changed their plans and could not come. Henry Snyder was pleased to announce that Alice Prochaska (British Library) , Peter Haddad (National Library of Australia) and Allan Riedy (Cornell University) despite a very tight schedule had accepted to present papers on a very short notice. Only Amphorn Tikhara (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok) remains of the original speakers.

Second Meeting Friday 27 August 1999

2. Programs for Jerusalem (2000) and Boston (2001) Jerusalem 2000. A representative for the organizing committe of the 66th IFLA Conference in Jerusalem 13-18 August 2000, presented the facilities in Jerusalem and the planning of the conference. There had been a statement against Jerusalem from some IFLAmembers, who were planning to boycott the conference. But for the moment it was not clear what was going to happen. Some hotels are already fully booked. Early registration was recommended. The Sections program for the conference was left in the hands of the newly elected chair and secretary. Some proposals were presented: Open session on Material from the Near East. Something on illuminations together with the Art section. A workshop: conservation dealing with non paper material. Concentration on manuscript preservation. Focus on less traditional material. Cooperation with the Institute of Manuscripts of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Library Tour: Contact was recommended with professor Richler regarding conservation project in St Cathrine's Monastry in Mount Sinai. Study visit to a conservation unit. Boston 2001: Henry Snyder presented some ideas: Open meeting on history of printing in the Americas. Speakers should also be recruited from outside English-Speaking America. Half day tour to Fulton Library at Harvard to study the Rare books (Wednesday). Full day tour to American Antiquarian Society (situated about 50 miles from Boston) (Thursday). Probably to see Newspaper conservation, to see printed material, manuscripts and graphic material, reception afterwards. Limited number of participants. Pre registration to secure place.

3. Closure of session: The outgoing chairman Henry L Snyder stated that he had enjoyed the work as chair and expressed his thanks to the SC members for their work and wished the incoming Chairman Alice Prochaska and secretary/treasurer Wolfgang Undorf all the best in their future work. The outgoing secretary Viveca Halldin Norberg expressed the SC:s sincere thanks to Henry Snyder for his devoted work as chair of the Section. The meeting was closed.

Viveca Halldin Norberg
Secretary/Treasurer

As you can see from item 10 on Saturday the program of the open session of the Section had to be changed. Viveca Halldin Norberg sent us the following text giving more details:

The Section's program during the 65th IFLA Council and general Conference 20-28 August 1999 Bangkok - a surprise

The British Library's holdings of SE Asia material and policies for access

• Alice Prochaska, British Library, UK

• Allen Riedy, Cornell Univ., USA

• Peter Haddad, National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia

• Amporn Tikhara, Chulalongkorn Univ. Bangkok, Thailand

Now let us look forward to the Section's program in Jerusalem in coming August. I wish our new Chairman Alice Prochaska and our new Secretary/Treasurer Wolfgang Undorf all success in their important work for the Section. I hope to see you all in Jerusalem.
Viveca Halldin Norberg,
outgoing Secretary/Treasurer

All members of the Section seem to be extremely busy at the moment with problems at their own libraries, so, to our regret, we cannot publish the articles of Jan Bos on ABHB or Richard Landon on Auction and Booksellers' catalogues announced at the Bangkok meetings. We will try to get them, however, for the next issue.

News from ESTC

In the last few months, the ESTC has taken giant strides towards completion. 25,000 records from machine?readable versions of Pollard and Redgrave's Short Title Catalogue . 1475?1641 (STC) and Wing's Short Title Catalogue . 1641?1700 have been added to the ESTC so that there are now records for all items listed in the two major bibliographies of the pre?1701 period. In addition, over 500,000 locations from STC and Wing (as well as several other sources) have been appended to records already in the ESTC.

This brings the total number of records in the file to 460,000, and the total number of appended locations to 2,800,000. As users familiar with STC and Wing would expect, the new records are brief, as are the entries in STC and Wing. They are designed to serve as placeholders until ESTC staff can replace them with full bibliographic records. Compare one of these brief records

Author: Milton, John.
Title: Paradise lost.
Edition: "Third' edition.
Published: London By R. E[veringham] to be sold by John Whitlock 1688.
Physical Details: folio.
Location: Glasgow University Library, Glasgow, Scotland
Shelfmark: [Shelfmark not available]
References: Wing (CD?ROM, 1996), M2154A.
Source: English Short Title Catalogue.
Record ID: ESTC R188580

to a full record for a similar item:

Author: Milton, John, 1608?1674.
Title: Paradise lost a poem in twelve books. The authour John Milton.
Edition: The fourth edition, adorn'd with sculptures
Published: London : printed for R.E. for Jacob Tonson at the Judge's Head near the Inner Temple
Gate in Fleetstreet, MDCXCIII. [1693]
Physical Details: [4], 336 p., [13] leaves of plates : port. ; 2°.
Location: University of Illinois Library, Urbana, Illinois
Shelfmark: Xq821.m64 m1 1693
Location: University of Sussex University Library, Brighton, England
Shelfmark: [Unverified]
Note: [Catalog match]
Notes: "Frontispiece is Robert White's engraved portrait with Dryden's epigram, ... [plates] for each book ... engraved by M. Burghers; ... P.P. Bourch; ... " ?? Shawcross 345, cf. Shawcross 363. In verse.
References: Wing (2nd ed.), M2150A.
References: Shawcross, J. Milton, 363.
Notes: Microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, 1987. 1 microfilm reel ; 35mm. (Early English books, 1641?1700 ; 1816:11). IU.
Other Authors: Dryden, John, 1631?1700.
White, Robert, 1645?1703, engr.
Burghers, M., engr.
Bourch, P. P., engr.
Subjects: Fall of man?Poetry?Early works to 1800.
Source: English Short Title Catalogue.
Record ID: ESTC R224089

Though the first record is clearly not up to ESTC standards it can still serve scholars and librarians on a temporary basis.

The easiest way to determine whether a record is of the completed or of the placeholder variety is to examine the Physical Details field. Placeholders include format only, whereas completed records include pagination as well as format.

It may be worthwhile to remind users of the ESTC that there are other "interim" records in the file. These are fuller than the placeholders described above, but they still stand in need of editing. These records are identifiable in several ways. They have pagination in the Physical Details field, but lack bibliographical format. They also have "umi" or "oclc" in the Location field. While we believe that these records serve a useful function as?is, they will be even more useful once edited. Editing is an ongoing process. Of the 50,000 or so records we have imported into the file, only about 15,000 remain unedited.

The big task for the ESTC over the next several years will be the upgrading of the placeholder records, and the big challenge the acquisition of reports that will enable the upgrades to take place. To that end, "Plan A", arrangements with a number of large institutions, such as the National Library of Scotland, Cambridge University, Oxford University, and Harvard University, for the provision of necessary reports, has been put into place. "Plan B", which will involve contacting the remaining institutions from which reports are needed, is currently in the planning stage (watch your mailboxes!).

A careful perusal of the second record, above, would reveal that the University of Sussex University Library, Brighton, England, location includes the note "[Catalog match]". This note is the clue indicating that the match was part of the automated upload. The upload involved more than the locations listed in STC AND Wing. Also included were the Cathedral Libraries Catalogue (approximately 25,000 holdings in 37 libraries), and the holdings of a number of libraries, gleaned from their catalogues, including The Library Company of Philadelphia, Archbishop Marsh's Library (Dublin), the Fisher Library (University of Toronto), the Guildhall Library (London), Windsor Castle Library, the Plume Library (Maldon), and the University of Goettingen Library.

While "[Catalog match]" should not be parsed to mean "Caveat emptor" it does indicate that machine algorithms were involved in the decision to attach this location to this record, and that it might be wise to contact the institution involved for verification before venturing on a research expedition.

While the additions of the placeholder records and the catalog match holdings means that everything included in STC and Wing is now included in the ESTC, it does not mean that all is now known about pre?1701 imprints. New items continue to be discovered; new information comes to light; old ideas are overturned by new evidence; that is the way of scholarship. But both STC and Wing are complete; no new editions of either bibliography are planned. What venue is there for new information?

The Bibliographical Society, copyright holder for STC, has contracted with the ESTC to become the venue for addenda and corrigenda relating to pre?1641 imprints. Contributors to STC have been asked to send reports to the ESTC office (contact johnbr@ucrac1.ucr.edu for further information).

The situation in regards to Wing is not so straightforward. Though the MLA, publisher and copyright holder for Wing, has no plans for further publication, we are told that the editor of Wing continues his labors. We are not aware of his plans for dissemination of new information. It is suggested here that any report sent to the Yale Wing office be also sent to the ESTC, in order to ensure that the information becomes widely accessible. John Bloomberg?Rissman Assistant Director for English Projects (ESTC) Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research University of California, Riverside.

People Part II

Dr Wolfgang Undorf, the new Secretary/Treasurer, is head of the Section Book History, Planning of Stacks and Library Bindings in the Department of Preservation and Access at the Royal Library in Stockholm. He has done research on private libraries and, most recently, was editor for Sweden with the Handbuch deutscher historischer Buchbestände in Europa .

From Dr. Prochaska we got the following note on Dr Brian Lang who has agreed to write an article for this newsletter which you will find further on: Dr Brian Lang, Chief Executive of the British Library, will be leaving the Library in May 2000 after a distinguished tenure of nine years. During that time, Dr Lang has steered the Library through many vicissitudes, successfully overseeing a massive and complicated move from some nineteen or twenty different buildings into the Library's new flagship building beside St Pancras Station: the largest public building to be built in the United Kingdom during the twentieth century. Dr Lang came to the British Library from the National Trust, and before that he headed the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), awarding grants to museums, libraries etc. for important acquisitions of value to the UK national heritage. It was therefore appropriate that he should have presided over a period when the British Library acquired, often with the help of the NHMF, some of the most significant collections of manuscript and other rare material to have been added to the collections in the 250 years since the national library first came into existence as a part of the British Museum.

Alice Prochaska
12 January 2000

It is a time of changes and leavetaking in member libraries, it seems. At the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Professor Tilo Brandis, head of the Manuscript Department for many years, retired by the end of January. Professor Brandis came to Berlin in 1973 from the University Library in Hamburg. He took responsibility for that part of the manuscript collection of the library - then still divided into two - that was in the western regions of Germany. The Manuscript Department was one of the first to return to Berlin, long before the new building at Potsdamer Platz was finished. Over the years he managed to acquire important collections and to care for the many manuscripts, autographs, incunabula and during several years also for rare books from former Königliche Bibliothek and Preussische Staatsbibliothek. In 1984 a center for the cataloguing of medieval manuscripts in the libraries of North Germany was established and attached to the Manuscript Department. Professor Brandis was a member in many professional committees and is a honorary professor at Berlin Freie Universität since 1995. Besides a large number of catalogues, exhibition catalogues, and articles he published a new edition of the "Denecke" (Die Nachlässe in den Bibliotheken der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and the first part of "Handbuch der Handschriftenbestände in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland". When in 1992 the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek and the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz were united, the two Manuscript Departments merged. Due to building problems the department had to move to Potsdamer Strasse though it will be Unter den Linden again when the old house will be fully restored. On January 28th, Professor Brandis was able to introduce his successor, Dr Everardus Overgaauw who is the new head of department from February 1, 2000.

Celebrations

There is an interesting site established by Lyon's Printing Museum, founded in 1964. The museum owns a library and variuos archives, the library's catalogue is available online via the City of Lyon Library (www.bm-lyon.fr/). The museum's own website is under www.bm-lyon.fr/musee/imprimerie.htm, there is an English version, too. Ireland of the Welcomes, the journal of the Irish Tourist Board, has a lengthy article on the National Print Museum at Beggars Bush, Dublin, in its latest issue (Vol. 49 No 1 January-February 2000). If you are interested , you can get a first impression on the journal's website: www.irelandofthewelcomes.com. There are some of the splendid photographs from the article.

The Ransom Center Conservation Department at Austin celebrates its 20th birthday in 2000.

In April, the Library of Congress will celebrate its 200th birthday. There will be several events, including a birthday party. More detailscan be found on the libraries' homepage.

From the Collections

The British Library's Manuscript treasures

The answer, of course, is that we acquire and care for original manuscripts because they are irreplaceable, because they are the primary source material for history, personalities, the process of intellectual creativity¼.a competent librarian will go on adding to the list. As for the exciting new possibilities of what can be done with new technology, yes, they offer an infinity of means to enhance and widen access, but they will never replace the primary source. There can be no real substitute for the actual pieces of paper on which Queen Elizabeth I's ill-fated favourite, the Earl of Essex wrote to her in the 1590s. True, and it is the case for the British Library's Elizabeth- Essex correspondence, acquired in 1999, the manuscripts may be well and truly researched and published, but it must be the task of a national library to retain for posterity the actual artefacts of the past, and not mere substitutes. More important, at present, anyway, is the uncertainty as to just how long a digital surrogate will survive. We know very little about the longevity of CDRoms, discs, and so on. We can be confident that good quality paper, if properly looked after, will last just about for ever.

The BL has continued to acquire historical and modern manuscripts, of politicians, diarists, poets, novelists, soldiers, to give direct access to the warp and woof of history. Another irony, though, is that just as new technology makes cheaper surrogates available, so the prices of the originals rise steadily. Libraries have to be ever more adventurous and ingenious in their search for purchase prices unless, as still thankfully happens, manuscripts and papers are given to them, gratis. Otherwise, numerous sources of funds have to be tapped. In Britain, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and its muscular brother, the Heritage Lottery Fund, are indispensable and we benefit from their sympathetic and genuinely knowledgeable staff and governing bodies. The NHMF has helped since 1980 and the HLF since 1995, with the BL's very varied acquisitions of manuscripts. The draft of the Duke of Wellington's despatch to government following the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the papers and diaries of the 17th-century statesman, scientist and diarist John Evelyn, and in 1997 the most significant cartographic item to be acquired by the Library in the 20th century, Mercator's 'Atlas of Europe' (c. 1572)containing printed wall maps and the only two manuscript maps attributable to Mercator himself: these were all acquired with the aid of very significant amounts of funding from the two bodies. More recently, a massive grant of £4.2m. was given by the NHMF towards the purchase of the Sherborne Missal (1400), the greatest surviving treasure of English manuscript illumination.

Smaller funds are no less important . The Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust are but two who understand the true meaning of a manuscript.

Libraries will always collect manuscripts. Manuscripts are the stuff of history. To hold a significant manuscript of whatever antiquity puts one in direct touch with another moment of another person's thoughts. Caring for manuscripts is possibly the most exciting and rewarding experience in running a library.

Brian Lang,
Chief Executive of the British Library

Bodleian Broadside ballads

The Bodleian holds over 30.000 ballads in different collections. All of them are gathered in an integrated catalogue now wherein you can find bibliographical details as well as images of each ballad sheet. Illustrations can be searched by ICONCLASS. For the allegro catalogue there are 8 indexes:

1. Sheet titles, ballad titles, first lines, tunes
2. Words in titles, ballad titles, first lines, tunes
3. Subjects
4. Authors, performers, venues
5. Publishers, printers
6. Shelfmarks
7. Date
8. Iconclass

British Library Pamphlets

The BL has created a guide to its pamphlet collection. The collection contains pamphlets from the 19th and early 20th century. Besides authors, titles, publishers, etc. that are listed in the catalogue most of pamphlets have been digitized and can be looked at in .pdf format. The site is www.blpes.lse.ac.uk/services/guides/pamphlets/.

Additions to SCIPIO and HST

SCIPIO, the RLG database of art and rare book sales, is increasing permanently not at least thanks to the efforts of SCIPIO Task Force. There is an interesting article on it by Deborah Kempe from Frick Art Reference Library, New York, in RLG Focus 40 (October 1999). RLG Focus is available online at www.rlg.org/r-focus.html. News are there also from the RLG Citation Resources file History of Science and Technology, HST. Citations from the Wellcome Library have been added to the file and will be available from January 2000, as Focus 41 (December 1999) announces.

Forthcoming Events

"Worldwide Changes in Book Publishing from the 18th century to the year 2000" is the title of an international colloquium held 9?13 May, 2000 at the Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. There are five different aspects: 1. The spread of three European publishing models throughout the world; 2. International modifications of European models; 3. The development of independent publishing systems; 4. The book and the circulation of ideas; and 5. Internationalization of the Book Trade. More information is available from the following website: http://www.grelq.qc.ca.

SHARP's 8th Annual Conference will take place at Mainz from 3 - 8 July 2000, as the year 2000 is the 600th birthday of Johannes Gutenberg. Main topics will be early movable metal?type printing in Asia, letterpress printing in early modern Europe, and new media today. There will be an exhibition "Fascination Gutenberg" shown in six museums and institutes in Mainz. Details on Registration can be found under www.uni-mainz.de. There you have to follow "Fachbereiche Buchwissenschaft".

Also in July, ALA Annual Conference will be held in Chicago. "Libraries Build Community" will be the theme from July 6 - 12, 2000.

There is a pre-conference from July 5 - 7, 2000 by RBMS in Chicago: "Beyond Words: Visual Information in Special Collections".

"Patrons, Authors and Workshops - Books and Book Production in Paris circa 1400" is the subject of an international conference held at the University of Liverpool from 13 - 15 July, 2000. Details from www.liv.ac.uk/www/french/patrons/welcome.htm .

From September 17 - 21, 2000 the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie (AIB) will have its annual meeting in Berlin. The members will visit Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and several other libraries and museums, e.g. Kunstbibliothek, Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Museum für Islamische Kunst.

The Los Angeles Public Library will show an exhibition: "Visible Traces: Rare Books and Special Collections from the National Library of China" on from April 15 ? June 25, 2000. There will be items from the National Library of China, some of them never shown outside China before. Before that the exhibit will be shown at Queens Borough Public Library, Jamaica, NY, till March 15.

Publications

The History of the Book @ Oxford Project has a new name and a new location. It is called HoBo and hosted by the English Faculty at the University of Cambridge. The new address is www.english.cam.ac.uk/hobo/.

The International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS) has just published its new directory which lists the names of members, with their address, research interests and the institution to which they are affiliated.

There is a new email list hosted by the British Library. Its main concern is rare and early printed books. To participate you have to send an email to majordomo@lists.bl.uk. Please include 'subscribe rarebooks-l'. Further details will be sent to you.

From the Editor

A. Wehmeyer
Abteilung Historische Drucke
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Preussischer Kulturbesitz
Unter den Linden 8
D-10117 Berlin
Germany
Tel. *(49)(30)266 1410, Fax *(49)(30)266 1717
E-mail: annette.wehmeyer@sbb.spk-berlin.de

Printed by Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, February 2000.