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Let's save Shakespeare's folios, but the play's the thing – the Bard is online too Let's save Shakespeare's folios, but the play's the thing – the Bard is online too
(14 days later)
The unanimous outcry that has greeted the revelation that London University's Senate House Library plans to sell off four of its prized Shakespeare folios will, hopefully, guarantee that their proposed auction at Bonhams in November will no longer go ahead. The fact that the folios were left to the library in 1960 by Sir Louis Sterling with the strict proviso that they remain "permanently housed in the university library" should have been enough to kill the idea before it ever reached the desk of the library's beleaguered director, Christopher Pressler.The unanimous outcry that has greeted the revelation that London University's Senate House Library plans to sell off four of its prized Shakespeare folios will, hopefully, guarantee that their proposed auction at Bonhams in November will no longer go ahead. The fact that the folios were left to the library in 1960 by Sir Louis Sterling with the strict proviso that they remain "permanently housed in the university library" should have been enough to kill the idea before it ever reached the desk of the library's beleaguered director, Christopher Pressler.
But that the finest lending library in London, with more than 30,000 users consulting three million volumes, should choose to even consider such a move suggests that the function of university research libraries, and with it the object it has housed for so long, the physical book, is changing.But that the finest lending library in London, with more than 30,000 users consulting three million volumes, should choose to even consider such a move suggests that the function of university research libraries, and with it the object it has housed for so long, the physical book, is changing.
Behind the sale lies a more prosaic problem faced by all of us in the humanities. Senate House Library is in trouble: as part of a wider library funding crisis, its public revenue was axed in 2010, and it is struggling to define itself as part of a slowly disintegrating London University federal system.Behind the sale lies a more prosaic problem faced by all of us in the humanities. Senate House Library is in trouble: as part of a wider library funding crisis, its public revenue was axed in 2010, and it is struggling to define itself as part of a slowly disintegrating London University federal system.
Many students – my own included – are accessing information through virtual learning environments (VLEs), and often turn up to seminars with tablets and laptops rather than texts and photocopied articles. They are now able to search and analyse texts like Shakespeare's in online open-access editions (many of them created by the senior academics currently decrying the sale of the folios). The work they produce is original and exciting, but it isn't being done just by sitting at a library desk hidden under a pile of books.Many students – my own included – are accessing information through virtual learning environments (VLEs), and often turn up to seminars with tablets and laptops rather than texts and photocopied articles. They are now able to search and analyse texts like Shakespeare's in online open-access editions (many of them created by the senior academics currently decrying the sale of the folios). The work they produce is original and exciting, but it isn't being done just by sitting at a library desk hidden under a pile of books.
It is now possible to produce digital facsimiles of the four folios that the library proposes to sell at a high enough resolution to see every correction, revision and blot, even down to the nature of the paper stock and its watermarks (issues which are crucial in providing clues to the book's creation, and hence its potential meaning).It is now possible to produce digital facsimiles of the four folios that the library proposes to sell at a high enough resolution to see every correction, revision and blot, even down to the nature of the paper stock and its watermarks (issues which are crucial in providing clues to the book's creation, and hence its potential meaning).
Such a project could bring these folios – which I suspect have not even been seen by many of those currently signing the petition to "save" them, and who are also unaware that they were the result of an over-zealous 19th-century editor who dismantled them to make one, hardly Shakespearean, volume – to a wider student audience, and also bring a new virtual community into the library, which is, after all, defined as a place that holds not just books, but also all forms of stored information. Unfortunately, neither the government nor the university sector is able to think in a sufficiently long-term way to produce that most ubiquitous of terms, an "e-strategy".Such a project could bring these folios – which I suspect have not even been seen by many of those currently signing the petition to "save" them, and who are also unaware that they were the result of an over-zealous 19th-century editor who dismantled them to make one, hardly Shakespearean, volume – to a wider student audience, and also bring a new virtual community into the library, which is, after all, defined as a place that holds not just books, but also all forms of stored information. Unfortunately, neither the government nor the university sector is able to think in a sufficiently long-term way to produce that most ubiquitous of terms, an "e-strategy".
But here's the rub. The rise of tablets, Kindles and online editing has not signalled the death of the printed book, but instead only alerted scholars to the importance of its history as a physical object, and provided us with digitised tools that enable us to work at an unprecedented speed and comparative detail. Literary critics have always been fond of saying that form dictates content, and in recent decades the study of the history of the book has transformed how we interpret them.But here's the rub. The rise of tablets, Kindles and online editing has not signalled the death of the printed book, but instead only alerted scholars to the importance of its history as a physical object, and provided us with digitised tools that enable us to work at an unprecedented speed and comparative detail. Literary critics have always been fond of saying that form dictates content, and in recent decades the study of the history of the book has transformed how we interpret them.
My students now understand that because there are three different early printed texts of Hamlet, they need to study each before they make any assumptions as to what the play is "about". But we still need the old paper book to sit alongside its new, pixelated digital version. Senate House Library now has a wonderful opportunity: withdraw the folios from auction, and start planning for an exhibition to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 2016, with a physical and digital display of their precious collection of Shakespeare texts.My students now understand that because there are three different early printed texts of Hamlet, they need to study each before they make any assumptions as to what the play is "about". But we still need the old paper book to sit alongside its new, pixelated digital version. Senate House Library now has a wonderful opportunity: withdraw the folios from auction, and start planning for an exhibition to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in 2016, with a physical and digital display of their precious collection of Shakespeare texts.
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