Delving into the Depths of the Library: Fort Worth Edition (An annotated bibliography on the history and influence of the printed book)

Rachel recently posted about her experience "delving into the depths of the library", and I had a similar experience at some different libraries. Since I'm home for the Thanksgiving break, I didn't have access to everyone's favorite library, the HBLL. Instead, I got to explore two of the Fort Worth Public Libraries.

For my annotated bibliography, I wanted to do the history of typography, but I decided against it since Summer already did hers about the same thing. Instead, I found books about the history, evolution and influence of the printed book.

The Fort Worth Southwest Regional Library

My journey started at the library of my youth, the Fort Worth Southwest Regional Library, about 10 minutes from my house. After searching the library catalogue and having a rather lengthy discussion with an elderly librarian, I found that while this library is great for children's literature and James Patterson books, it is not the best for books about the history of print knowledge. She directed me to the Fort Worth Central Library, located in beautiful downtown Fort Worth (it seriously is cool, downtown Provo can't hold a candle to it).


I had been to the Fort Worth Central Library once before in days of yore, but I forgot what an awesome building it is.

It has some cool quotes in the entry way too.

 Ok, now that we're through with the fun pictures, time to learn about my bibliography process. I started by asking the lady at the front desk where I could find books about the history of the printed book. She directed me, naturally, to the history section of the library. When I got there, I asked the librarian the same thing. (Interesting how much oral communication was used in this process.) She PRINTED me out a list of books and where to find them. (I found it very interesting that two of the books on the list were in the "technology" section of the library; it reminded me of the video we watch about the book support guy in the special collections section of the HBLL):

(Another quick note, doing this project at the Fort Worth library made me appreciate having the HBLL within a 5 minute walk of my dorm. First off, it is much closer than any of the Fort Worth libraries are to my house, and second, it has a much better collection than all of them combined. I was somewhat limited by the selection of books geographically near to me.)

After that it was simple. I just skimmed the books, read the prefaces, and made my annotated bibiographies. Here it is:

• Carter, John, and Percy H. Muir. Printing and the Mind of Man: a Descriptive Catalogue Illustrating the Impact of Print on the Evolution of Western Civilization during Five Centuries. London: Cassell, 1967. Print.
  This book essentially offers a history of books through annotated bibliographies of the books (how ironic!) and notes their influence on Western culture and thinking. It breaks time into separate periods and gives annotated bibliographies of important books from each one. The specific books used in the books were the collection on display at the British Museum and Earl's Court in London at the time.[This one was in the "rare book" collection at the library, I had to give the librarian my drivers' license to see it! I couldn't find a digital copy of it, so I just included a link of where you can buy it.]

• Howard, Nicole. The Book: The Life Story of a Technology. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2005. Print.
  

  The author gives a broad history of the book, from papyrus all the way to ebooks (with special emphasis on printed books), including a timeline of important events, and their influence on religion, science, government and technology. She stresses the fact that printed books are a technology we take for granted more than any other.

• Febvre, Lucien, and Henri-Jean Martin. The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing 1450-1800. Trans. David Gerard. London: NLB, 1976. Print.
  

  This book, originally written in French, also analyzes how the printed word influenced Western European culture and thinking. This book is interesting; however, in that it takes a look at how Western European culture and thinking brought about and popularized the printed book. The authors argue that social and ideological strifes of the day had a great influence on the spread of the printed book, as people not only sought for their words be read, but also sought for word confirming their beliefs or disproving those they disagreed with. [I couldn't find a digital copy of this one either so once again there's a link to somewhere you can buy it.]

• Keen, Paul. The Crisis of Literature in the 1790s: Print Culture and the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.
  

  Although this is slightly after the time period we are discussing in class, I found the subject matter to be very interesting and it goes along with my theme of the printed book influencing society and culture. The book discusses how printed books created a new class of readers and allowed a much greater percentage of the population in England to be literate. It discusses the debate brought about by this fact, mainly due to working class people and feminists "getting ideas" about how to improve their plights.

• McKitterick, David John. A History of Cambridge University Press: Printing an the Book Trade in Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. Print.
  

  This book details a more specific subject: printing in the Cambridge University Press. This first volume deals with the press's origins in the 16th century and its printing of Bibles, almanacs, schoolbooks, and prayer books, as well as the book trade and its influence not only at Cambridge University but in all of England. [Once again, no ebook, so there's just a link to buy a hard copy.]

I hope you enjoyed!