BOOK/LIKE: An Exhibition on The Art of The Book, Suna Kıraç Library, March 3 to April 4, 2011, Koç University, Rumelifeneri/İSTANBUL (original) (raw)
In spite of its short history of eighteen years, Koç University has developed its library towards meeting its goals of educating the most exclusive alumni and advancing the borders of art and science in addition to fulfilling its mission of serving our country and humanity. In this short period of time, Suna Kıraç Library has become one of the most established university libraries by acquiring products of universal knowledge of culture. While using the most advanced technology, it has also preserved original rare works which convey knowledge from the past. These rare books are preserved within the library building under special conditions which also allow patrons direct access to the materials. The students in "The Art of the Book" course that was recently offered by Ilgım Veryeri-Alaca from the Media and Visual Arts Department in the College of Social Science and Humanities worked towards the same goal: to design and produce their own books. Students initially gained knowledge on the theory of book design, and then by integrating this knowledge with their own imagination, they fabricated their art works. Suna Kıraç Library would like to present to art lovers these original book designs side-by-side with a selection of rare books from our collection that may be inspirational to contemporary book design. It is exhilarating for us to see that almost all the students enrolled in this class are majoring in different departments, a factor which enriched the creative process. By revealing the creative sides of our students and showcasing our collection of rare books- produced in different times, in differend languages, and by different people- this exhibition creates an exquisite fusion of the old and the new. I congratulate my colleague Ilgım Veryeri-Alaca, with whom I take great pride in having worked together in this organization, and her students, I thank her particularly for having led the effort for the promotion and presentation of our rare book collection.
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This paper will review the one-year project to conserve the Turkish collection at the Chester Beatty Library. The materials and techniques of conservation were adapted from historic examples of Islamic bookbindings, notably examples of Andalucian Islamic bindings. These were incorporated to facilitate the book conservators' ideals of reversibility and accessibility. The conservation methodologies used will be discussed, before an analysis of the binding structures is given. Many of the bindings within the collection have been produced in a significantly different way to the case-binding structure which is usually associated with Islamic bindings, thus providing an example of differing book traditions within the Islamic world. This structure may be specific to Turkey and the cultural and historical reasons for this will be considered. The one-year project to conserve the Turkish manuscript collection at the Chester Beatty Library will hopefully provide significant insight to the methods of book construction used in Turkey.
In this paper I would like to share my experience in devising ways to encourage people unacquainted with rare books to discover them – especially children and young people. I will refer to my experience, which is based mainly in Italy. In particular, I am going to describe the methods and content of training courses for librarians that I have conducted on this subject. The aim of these courses is on the one hand to highlight the value of rare collections in order to make them better known and to revamp them, and on the other hand to explore ways to promote reading. My opinion is that librarians are the key figures in acquiring knowledge of rare book collections as they play a major role in the dissemination of knowledge and in the promotion of reading. Therefore, my aim is to raise awareness of the fact that the rare book collections in libraries can be excellent tools for the promotion of culture across all age groups. No one questions the importance of exhibitions or catalogues, but it is clear that those activities engage only a small number of people, i.e. scholars or enthusiasts. It is thus up to librarians to find other tools and means to publicize the rare book collections in their libraries. In Italy, for instance, there exist various educational events linked to rare books, but their number is still too small and their potential not yet fully exploited. The proposed training courses stem directly from my experience, as I have worked for many years on manuscripts and rare books collaborating with, among others, the Italian governmental office for books and libraries and the official cataloguing institute, Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico (ICCU). I have taken part in various cataloguing projects ‒ among the most recent, one on manuscripts preserved in the archives of popular writings in Trento, and the census of mediaeval fragments in the libraries of the Trentino region of Italy. Finally, I have been teaching codicology as a contract professor for several years at the University of Trento (Italy). * Very special thanks to my friend, Elisabetta Morelli Vilday, who helped and above all, supported me with her competence not only during the translation of the paper, but also by continually 'provoking' me with lively discussions about the text.
“Books from the shelves in the hand”: The study of the Armenian book collection at the Adjara Museum Introduction Handwritten and Old Printed Books on the eve of the new era are windows to the past and their study leads to important literary, historical, socio-cultural insights. The Adjara Museum preserves 32 Armenian Manuscripts and 12 Old Printings dating from the 17th-19th centuries. The collection originated from the Armenian communities of the Black Sea region (Ardvin and Trabzon). The main part of the book covers Christian devotional and liturgical books. In this topic, we will present the case studies of the Armenian Manuscripts and Old printings within three parts. In the first part we will discuss the history of the collection: from pre-Soviet to post-Soviet period of the collection/s, text study, mobility of the books by region. In the second part, we will implement the new methodology of the collection. In the third part, we will analyze the books within the framework of new methods and digital tools, and the mapping system. Aims and Objectives Although two books are presented in the exposition of the Museum, there is a memory gap concerning this collection as it has not been discussed in academic circles ever and no one is interested in it. • to achieve these goals, the paper comprises the following parts: • to present the text and paratext: colophons, handwritten notes, signs that appear along with the main text; for the purpose of the historical context of the book and the path; • to show the visualization from the text to the image; • to implement intercultural exchanges and socio-cultural relations. Methodology We will take advantage of new methods of Digital Humanities, to apply new developments of codicological methods and digital tools, and to analyze these main details: • to present the full accessibility of Armenian collection with the mapping system; • to make a visual image of a book with the emergence of digital tools and new editing regimes; • to create an external database with the tools of the Omeka network. Analysis to analyze the communities of Ardvin and Trabzon, and their cultural and trade network connected-ness to the Armenian large-scale centers (Constantinople, Venice); to show the huge geographical distances from the place of their creation to very remote Armenian regions; • to implement the catholic influence on the Armenian manuscripts and Old Printings; • to discuss the particularities of the Latin, Persian translations; • to analyze the visual culture of the books in comparison with the Armenian miniature tradition and compliance with the European cultural environment and artistic movements of the time. The research was realized within the framework of the program: Knowledge Exchange and Academic Cultures in the Humanities. Europe and the Black Sea Region, late 18th – 21st Centuries, Horizon 2020, GA Number: 734645
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