Versions of the following have appeared online regularly, since 1992, as a feature of the FYI France ejournal, ISSN 1071-5916, which is distributed for free via email every month except August. Ejournal subscriptions may be obtained via email request to: kessler@well.sf.ca.us

Here this file is one of a number made available -- hopefully attractively, all in one place, and relevant to libraries and online digital information work in France and Europe -- as part of FYI France (sm)(tm), an online service to which anyone can subscribe for 12 months by postal mailing a check for US $45, payable to Jack Kessler, to PO Box 460668, San Francisco, California, USA 94146 (site licenses also are available): please write your email address on the front of your check. And you can pay via PayPal, on the FYI France homepage:

Please email suggestions for improvements to me at kessler@well.sf.ca.us

The full announcement of these remarkable classes follows below: a variety of seminars on the History of The Book, to be offered in September in Lyon, bilangue... Some of this deserves further explanation.

Lyon enjoys a history remarkable in many respects, not least of these its role in the invention and development of early printing techniques, of the book, of the book trades, of librarianship.

Lyonnais time has not stood still, either. The city is modern, accessible -- the latest in digital information techniques and online access is available, and in use and under discussion, everywhere in Lyon.

Lyon also offers large modern universities, research institutes, one of France's leading and most digitally-advanced bibliothèques municipales, and its Musée de l'Imprimerie and Institut d'Histoire du Livre.

Plus gastronomie, local wines and cheeses, beautiful views of the Alps from La Croix Rousse, great walks along the Rhône and Saône and through the Monts Lyonnais... and chocolate, Lyon even has great chocolate...

All within easy reach of Central Paris via TGV, two hours from the Gare de Lyon, zipping through Cluny's beautiful little valley at 200mph -- although the reverse, staying / living in Lyon and using the TGV to visit Paris, is perhaps the better and certainly the less expensive alternative.

"History of the Book", then: it's a term-of-art, intended very deliberately to denote the story of the-book-as-a-thing -- as opposed to its contents, the "information" inside it -- that so recently liberated by the digital revolution, some say, to float free on the Internet Aether independent of its previous cardboard-and-paper "support", as the French label the latter.

So, "illuminations", "ephemera", "type and calligraphy", "incunabula" -- this year's offerings -- the book as an object, often an objet d'art. The meanderings through a sea of "information overload", characteristic of our current digital age, can benefit from consideration of the packaging and presentation of information: not only can it be efficient and economical, on occasion it even can be beautiful as well.

And should it all be discussed in English, or solely in French simply because the particular techniques were developed there? Kudos therefore, once again, to our friends in Lyon for being broad-minded: access to all of this can be difficult, for foreigners, so taking down some barriers makes the maintenance of other more important distinctions more possible -- as folks in the outside world learn the wonderful stories of the rue Mercière, as told now in the wonderfully-named rue de la Poulaillerie, they will want to know French to learn more.

It is a great cultural role, for museums and institutes and libraries, and for the Internet -- and so much the better, then, if it can be pursued in a place as interesting and rewardingly-visited as Lyon.

Jack, kessler@well.com

BOOK HISTORY WORKSHOP
Lyon, 1 - 4 September 2008
__________________________

For the sixth edition of its Book History Workshop, organised in collaboration with the Rare Book School (University of Virginia), the Lyon-based Institut d'histoire du livre is offering four advanced courses in the fields of book and printing history.

Courses on offer this year are:

Sandra Hindman
GOTHIC ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE BOOK
(new course, in English)

Michael Twyman
PRINTED EPHEMERA UNDER THE MAGNIFYING GLASS
(course in French)

James Mosley
TYPE, LETTERING AND CALLIGRAPHY: PART TWO 1830-2000
(existing course, for the first time in English)

Kristian Jensen
INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF INCUNABULA
(course in English)

The Book History Workshop is aimed at book and printing historians and at the many other specialists who encounter questions related to book and printing history in the course of their work: researchers, teachers, archivists, librarians, museum curators, antiquarian booksellers, collectors, designers, etc.

The four-day courses offered by the Institut d'histoire du livre cover various aspects of the history of the book and graphic communications. Subjects are dealt with from both theoretical and practical points of view through illustrated lectures, discussions and close study of original documents. The courses make abundant use of the collections of Lyon City Library and Museum of Printing.

The courses will take place in Lyon from the 1st to the 4th September 2008. Classes will be held at the Ecole normale supérieure - lettres et sciences humaines (Lyon) with sessions at the Lyon City Library and Printing Museum.

Tuition fee: 490 euros (mid-day meals included).

In order to facilitate access to collections of original documents the number of participants is limited to twelve per class.

For further information see:
http://ihl.enssib.fr/siteihl.php?page=212&aflng=en

or contact:

Anne-Laure Collomb
Bibliothèque de la Part-Dieu
30 boulevard Vivier-Merle
69003 Lyon
France

alcollomb@bm-lyon.fr
http://ihl.enssib.fr

FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal                   ISSN 1071-5916

      *
      |           FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
      |           journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
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