Bibliography Week 2024

Become a sponsor of a BSA Bibliography Week Event and introduce yourself and your business to our broad audience of collectors, curators, scholars, and students!

As a BSA Annual Meeting or Bibliography Week Event Sponsor, your business will be featured prominently on registration pages and in the sponsor garden on BibliographyWeek.org (check out last year’s sponsors at the link!). Sponsorship opportunities start at $250: there are options available for every budget.

Thank you to our sponsors:

Session Sponsors
Lisa Unger Baskin ◌ The Independent Online Booksellers Association ◌ McBride Rare Books ◌ Patrick Olson Rare Books ◌ Type Punch Matrix

Folio Level Sponsors
Christie’s Books ◌ Heritage Auctions ◌ Maggs Bros. Ltd.

Quarto Level Sponsors
James and Fiona Blanco ◌ Bluemango Books and Manuscripts ◌ Bulls Head Rare Books ◌ Bruce McKittrick Rare Books ◌  Gerarld W. Cloud Rare Books & Manuscripts ◌ Musinsky Rare Books ◌ Pryor-Johnson Rare Books ◌  Rare Book School ◌ Richard C. Ramer, Old & Rare Books

New Scholars Program: Pre-Program Virtual Presentations | ONLINE | Register

Join the 2024 New Scholars and members of the New Scholars Committee for pre-program virtual presentations and dedicated Q&A sessions for each scholar. The sessions are scheduled as follows:

• January 9, 5pm Eastern: Yolanda Mackey (Penn State University, Blanck & Porter New Scholar) & Kinohi Nishikawa (Princeton University, moderator): “Reclaiming and Recovering Claude Mckay’s “Lost” Novel Amiable with Big Teeth”
• January 19, 9am Eastern: Hallie Nell Swanson (University of Pennsylvania, McKenzie New Scholar) & Agnieszka Rec (Yale University, moderator): “Moving Stories: The Indo-Persian Romance”
• January 19, 5:30pm Eastern: Andreas P. Bassett (University of Washington, Pantzer New Scholar) & Meghan Constantinou (Simmons University, moderator): “The Typographical Evolution of Printed Play and Sermon Titles in the Early English Book Trade, 1590–1640”

January 19, 12:30pm ET: Info Session: Cambridge University Press Elements Series on Publishing and Book Culture | ONLINE | Register

This session offers an opportunity to hear about the Cambridge University Press Elements Series on Publishing and Book Culture.

This series aims to fill the demand for easily accessible, quality texts available for teaching and research in the diverse and dynamic fields of Publishing and Book Culture. Rigorously researched and peer-reviewed, this Elements series is published in thematic areas, or ‘Gatherings’, that can then be augmented by additional online materials.

The series is cross-disciplinary in nature, making it useful in a number of areas where there are currently few helpful resources for teaching and research purposes: Young Adult Publishing, for instance, or Bookselling.

A Gathering typically consists of at least 3 Elements (20k – 30k words each) which complement each other (either by discipline or by publisher or topic). Crucially, content draws on the collected expertise of the different communities connected to each Gathering – academics, librarians, booksellers, publishers, policy makers, learned societies, festival organisers, – so that the perspectives are represented in the round. Ideally, the perspectives would encompass a variety of geographical and ideological explorations.

Each Gathering has an Editor with experience in the field who commissions and oversees the development of their Elements in close collaboration with the Series Editor and Associate Editor.

In this session, editors of some of the Publishing and Book History Gatherings will give a short description of their series, and we’ll be delighted to answer any questions you might have about publishing with us.

Bibliography Week Orientation | ONLINE | Register

What is Bibliography Week, anyway? Join BSA members Charlotte Priddle and William P. Stoneman and Executive Director Erin McGuirl for an overview of this mainstay in the book world, taking place at the end of January each year. During this Zoom meeting, hosts will provide an overview of the program and help attendees prepare for a week of bibliographical events in New York City. We’ll cover the week’s events (virtual, hybrid, and in-person only) and NYC travel basics like weather and local transportation and leave plenty of time for your questions.

Sponsored by Patrick Olson Rare Books

POSTPONED: BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Disabled, & Spanish-speaking Bibliographers: Bibliography Week Meet-Up | 5:30pm Eastern | ONLINE |

Due to circumstances out of our control, this event has been postponed. A new date and further information will be announced in the BSA Newsletter this spring.

This event provides an opportunity to connect with people like you who are interested in bibliography. Check this page again soon for details about the hosts of this year’s event.

This will be a Zoom meeting, with breakout rooms provided for individual groups. Captioning will be provided in the main Zoom room and one breakout room.

This event is open to BSA members and non-members alike. It is intended for members of the Black, LGBTQ+, Indigenous, disability, and Spanish-speaking communities. If you do not identify with one of those groups, don’t worry! There is plenty of space for you to connect with fellow bibliographers at other BSA Bibliography Week events, in person and online. Scroll through the listings above and below, and register to join us for as many events as you like.

Chinese Book Culture in Art-Historical Context | 1-2:30pm Eastern | ONLINE | Register

Art historians Ruiying Gao and Amy McNair will introduce and explore two types of books with ancient roots in Chinese culture: materia medica and seal catalogs. Materia medica convey the healing properties of the natural world. Focusing on illustrated manuscripts, Professor Gao will reconstruct the historical roots of Chinese materia medica, which proliferated from the 7th century. Chinese seals have long been prized for their historical and artistic qualities. Professor McNair will address seal catalogues, attested since the 12th century, and their utility to collectors, artists, and patrons. Bibliographer and book historian Devin Fitzgerald will provide remarks following the presentations.

Beyond Educational: Book Arts as Research Method with Breanne Weber, Dylan Lewis, and Kadin Henningsen | 5:30-7pm Eastern | In person at the Center for Book Arts | Register

Teaching bibliography and book history through making physical books is a current trend at all levels of the educational system. But what impact does making books or other book related objects have on the scholarly record? Or bibliographical practice more generally? This panel will explore how three scholars have used their book arts experience to enhance their scholarship as well as their bibliographical practice in different contexts, from publicly available makerspaces to artist’s books.

The panel will be followed by a reception: bring your friends! Come for the brilliance, stay for the wine and snacks!

Sponsored by Type Punch Matrix & Lisa Unger Baskin

Members & Friends Mixer | 5:30-7pm Eastern | In Person @ the New York Society Library | Register

Join us at the New York Society Library for a gathering in the Members’ Room. This is an opportunity to meet your fellow members of both the BSA and the Society Library, learn more about our organizations and the many resources we have to offer to the broad community of book people.

Members of the Grolier Club: many Club members attend both events this evening! Attend in black tie with Executive Director Erin McGuirl, Membership Committee Chair Charlotte Priddle, and other BSA-Grolier members who will carpool to the Metropolitan Club in time for the start of cocktail hour.

Sponsored by McBride Rare Books

The 2024 Annual Meeting & New Scholars Program | 1-6pm Eastern Convene, 75 Rockefeller Plaza & live online via YouTube | Register

The 2024 Annual Meeting and New Scholars Program will be held in-person and live-streamed to our virtual audience starting at 1pm Eastern with New Scholars’ papers and a group question and answer session. Following a 30-minute break (snacks and beverages will be available at Convene for our in-person audience), the 2024 Annual Meeting will begin at 3pm Eastern. The entire program will be live-streamed for a virtual audience on the BSA YouTube Channel.

Registration
Registration is required for in-person attendance by January 22. All attending the live program in New York must register by January 22, 2024 at 9am Eastern. Seating is limited, so register now.

Virtual attendees need not register but are welcome to do so.

1-2:15pm Eastern – The 2024 New Scholars Program

The Bibliographical Society of America’s New Scholars Program promotes the work of scholars new to bibliography, broadly defined to include the creation, production, publication, distribution, reception, transmission, and subsequent history of all textual artifacts. This includes manuscript, print, and digital media, from clay and stone to laptops and iPads.

Learn more about the 2024 New Scholars and their presentations.

• D.F. McKenzie New Scholar: Hallie Nell Swanson (University of Pennsylvania), “Moving Stories: The Indo-Persian Romance”
• Jacob Blanck & Dorothy Porter Wesley New Scholar: Yolanda Mackey (Penn State University), “Recovering and Reclaiming Claude McKay’s Lost Novel(s) ‘Amiable with Big Teeth.’”
• Katherine F. Pantzer New Scholar: Andreas P. Bassett (University of Washington),  “The Typographical Evolution of Printed Play and Sermon Titles in the Early English Book Trade, 1590–1642”

3pm Eastern – The 2024 Annual Meeting & Keynote Lecture
Sponsored by the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA)

Dr. Daniela Bleichmar will give the 2024 Keynote lecture, entitled, “Rethinking the Aztec Past, Rethinking the Codex Mendoza”

This talk will discuss the production, circulation, reproduction, and changing interpretations of a remarkable early-colonial Mexican manuscript known as the Codex Mendoza. Created by Nahua painter-scribes and Spanish interpreters and scribes only a few decades after the Spanish conquest, the manuscript presents one of the richest and most detailed accounts of the Aztec empire from an Indigenous perspective. The codex was sent to Europe and moved from one notable owner to another for about a hundred years, before entering the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in 1659. As the only Mexican Indigenous manuscript that Europeans found legible for more than three hundred years, it became the most studied, used, and reproduced non-European manuscript in early modern Europe, and a central source for the interpretations of Indigenous books and Indigenous societies. Over the centuries, many notable scholars reproduced the manuscript and offered wide-ranging interpretations, rethinking the Aztec past through them. As we continue to rethink this manuscript today, what are the implications for our understanding of Indigenous manuscripts?

The 2024 BSA Annual Meeting Reception

Come raise a glass and celebrate the 2024 New Scholars, newly elected Officers and Council members, and spend some quality time with your friends from the bibliographical community!

Covid safety protocols

• Read about Convene’s Covid standards and safety protocols.
• Masking is encouraged but not required.
• In alignment with our host venue’s policy, we strongly recommend staying up to date on vaccinations at all times. Proof of vaccination will not be required for entry.

Getting to Convene & Accessibility

Convene at 75 Rockefeller Plaza is located between 5th and 6th Avenue, near the B, D, F, M; E; 1; and N, R, W subway lines. The location is wheelchair accessible. For more information about access, including parking recommendations, visit Convene’s website and scroll down to the “Location” Heading.

Coming to New York for Bibliography Week? Hotel rates tend to be very reasonable in late January, the lowest point in the NYC tourist season. If you are uncertain about attending, check hotel cancellation policies: you can book reservations early to secure the best rates and cancel if necessary at no cost.

Executive Director Erin McGuirl suggests the hotels below based on strong online reviews and affordable nightly rates, but not on personal experience.