More SHARP

Two more SHARP book history conference panel recordings watched. The first discussing special collections and book history teaching. Including cook book collections. Also a quite gobsmacking talk where the class was given a budget to buy things to add to the special collections - e.g. from rare book dealers etc. - and the students chose candidates and voted on what would be bought. I couldn't see that happening in many universities over here for obvious reasons! The other panel I watched was about Dickens and his readers and manuscripts. The first was a really interesting account of his reception in Australia and New Zealand in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And then a talk about how Dickens prepared his manuscripts for compositors. Which should have had illustrations of the manuscripts, but they were having huge technical difficulties. Despite that the speaker communicated the key issues well. So good stuff. I will be watching more SHARP panels later this week. I can watch the recordings until the end of August.