Research Guides: History of the Book: Organizations and programs

Professional organizations and conferences

Bibliographical Society of America
The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) is the oldest scholarly society in North America dedicated to the study of books and manuscripts as physical objects. It was organized in 1904 and incorporated in 1927 with the principal objectives of promoting bibliographical research and issuing bibliographical publications. The BSA publishes the journal Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America (PBSA).
Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, Association of College and Research Libraries
RBMS strives to represent and promote the interests of librarians who work with rare books, manuscripts, and other types of special collections.
SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing)
The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing was founded to create a global network for book historians working in a broad range of scholarly disciplines.
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Research addresses the composition, mediation, reception, survival, and transformation of written communication in material forms including marks on stone, script on parchment, printed books and periodicals, and new media. Perspectives range from the individual reader to the transnational communications network. With more than 1000 members in over twenty countries, SHARP works in concert with affiliated academic organizations around the world to support the study of book history and print culture.
Society for Textual Scholarship
An international organization of scholars working in textual studies, editing and editorial theory, electronic textualities, and issues of textual culture across a wide variety of disciplines.

Centers and programs

California Rare Book School
Founded in 2005, the California Rare Book School (CalRBS) is a project of the Department of Information Studies in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSE&IS) at UCLA. CalRBS is a continuing education program for professionals working in all aspects of the rare book community, and for students interested in entering the field. CalRBS offers week-long courses covering a broad range of topics.
CUNY Center for the Humanities
The CUNY Graduate Center offers a series of lectures, seminars, exhibitions and events around the humanities, many of which focus on aspects of book history.
Rare Book School
Rare Book School (RBS) provides continuing-education opportunities for students from all disciplines and levels to study the history of written, printed, and born-digital materials with leading scholars and professionals in the field.
Rutgers Initiative for the Book
The Rutgers Book Initiative is designed to introduce a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students to the intersection of media history with book arts. We offer talks and workshops on the history of print and digital media, along with field trips and studio sessions; a book arts makerspace with facilities for printing and binding and a collection of books for reference, study and dissection; and tuition fellowships for extramural training as well as internships at libraries and presses.
University of Edinburgh, Centre for the History of the Book [UK]
The Centre for the History of the Book (CHB) was established in 1995 at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, as an international and interdisciplinary centre for advanced research into all aspects of the material culture of the text - its production, circulation, and reception from manuscript to the electronic text.
Yale Program in the History of the Book
The Yale Program in the History of the Book brings together scholars across disciplines to explore the materiality of the written word over time and across cultures. A collaboration between Yale’s Department of English and Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, it offers seminar meetings for the Yale community and a series of public lectures by speakers across the field of book history.