The Library Circulation Histories Workshop (19-30.04.2021)

UK Project Lead Dr. Shafquat Towheed, with OU colleague Dr. Edmund King, are offering a talk entitled ‘From RED to READ-IT’ at ‘The Library Circulation Histories Workshop’, on 20 April 2021.

This event takes place as an online asynchronous event, with recorded presentations and a live forum discussion, from 19-30 April. Details of the event are available here, you can register for free here, and the full programme and details of participants are available as well.

The Library Circulation Histories Workshop (LCHW) aims to make historic library circulation data more accessible and more analytically powerful. Over the past two decades, a number of projects have provided scholars and the public access to a rich body of evidence derived from handwritten library circulation records that capture the borrowing choices of thousands of library patrons. These projects document reading experiences in several countries, during various time periods, and through a range of institutions. Organized by the leadership of the What Middletown Read project, an NEH-funded effort to create and share the circulation records of the Muncie (Indiana) Public Library from 1891 to 1902, LCHW brings together scholars, librarians, and developers representing many of these projects, as well several similar undertakings, to share insights and develop new strategies for increasing the value of these already powerful research tools.

LCHW is hosted by the Center for Middletown Studies at Ball State University, with support from BSU’s Digital Scholarship Lab and its Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts Lab. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services have provided funding for the workshop.