Describing the Material Text: A New Program funded by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation

July 6, 2020

Thanks to a collaborative effort by the Development Committee, the BSA has received a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation to fund an exciting new initiative, “Describing the Material Text.”

The Society recognizes that today’s broad community of librarians, collectors, students, and booksellers needs opportunities for flexible and accessible, introductory level training in the description of textual artifacts from cuneiform tablets to zines. Through “Describing the Material Text”, we will address this need by:

• developing training workshops and accompanying pedagogical resources,
• building a small traveling teaching collection, and
• redesigning the BibSite section of our website to as an open-source repository not just for bibliographical datasets, but also for pedagogical resources like syllabi, worksheets, and other materials for instructors.

Originally planned as a one-year project, the global pandemic will delay the first phase of the initiative, which involved holding workshop design seminars with leading experts in global material textual cultures. While some of these planning seminars may be held virtually, the resulting workshops will be designed around gathering together with textual artifacts in hand.

Stay tuned for updates on our progress in the months to come. We are grateful to the Delmas Foundation for their support of this important initiative and very much look forward to making it a reality.