Workshops

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Active Learning with Challenging Objects

Tuesday, June 23 | 9:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m. | Oakland Marriott

Presenters: Anne Bahde, Librarian and Assistant Professor, Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Oregon State University; Heather Smedberg, Reference and Instruction Coordinator, Special Collections and Archives, University of San Diego Library; Mattie Taormina, Head of Public Services, Special Collections, Stanford University.

Registration: Limited to 24 participants. SOLD OUT

Cost: $160 (includes materials and refreshment breaks).

This workshop will begin with a short section on effective pedagogies for special collections and archives materials, covering recent advances in our profession related to the development of primary source literacy guidelines, including a short introduction to object-based learning and crafting appropriate learning objectives for different audiences.  We will discuss methods for teaching with challenging material types found in our collections, such as artists’ books, ephemera, realia/artifacts, media objects, and born-digital materials.  We will bring original examples of these collection materials to help participants think creatively about how they might be used in teaching.

We will also run pedagogical exercises, in which participants will gain exposure to creative ways to teach and engage students with these materials, and learn practical methods for moving away from the traditional show and tell using object-based educational theory.


A Multi-Faceted Exploration of Digital Exhibitions for Special Collections Libraries

Tuesday, June 23 | 9:00 a.m. -4:00 p.m. | Oakland Marriott

Presenters: Jason Kovari, Head of Metadata Services, Cornell University; Jessica Lacher-Feldman, Head of Special Collections, Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana State University.

Registration: Limited to 24 participants. SOLD OUT

Cost: $160 (includes materials and refreshment breaks).

This workshop is an opportunity to explore aspects of digital exhibits from two distinctive but critical approaches: curatorship and the digital infrastructure.

Jessica Lacher-Feldman will lead discussion of the analog side of digital exhibits and the importance and significance of developing digital components to physical exhibits using innovative means.  She will also address ideas for creating digital components using social media tools and other means.  She will also talk about organization and workflows, generating ideas, and collaborative approaches to the digital exhibit.

Jason Kovari will lead discussion of the digital end of digital exhibits, namely the difference in narrative between physical and digital exhibitions and the various ‘easy’ technologies to employ a digital exhibition, including how those technologies are often less than successful.  Jason will also discuss user expectations for digital spaces, techniques such as template-ing and reusability in order to facilitate successful exhibits, as well as sustainable design & development.

Although this workshop will not include programming or technological exercises, we will present commonly used technologies available to create digital exhibitions.  Further, participants will review past entries to the Katherine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Awards.

Sponsored by Juxta Editions


A Very Speedy Introduction to Vernacular English Paleography

Tuesday, June 23 | 12:30 – 4:00 p.m. | Oakland Marriott

Presenter: Dr. Simran Thadani, Executive Director, Letterform Archive

Registration: Limited to 6 participants. SOLD OUT

Cost: $55 (includes materials and refreshments).

This four-hour workshop will introduce participants to reading and transcribing documents written in English secretary hand.

Early modern manuscripts can often look like they’re covered in inscrutable squiggles. A lack of paleographical training can preclude scholarly and professional encounters with these important and unique cultural artifacts. The good news is that it is actually surprisingly easy to get the hang of reading secretary hand.

The workshop will begin with close examination of “classic” secretary hand letterforms, then move on to collaboratively deciphering and reading aloud from high-resolution digitized exemplars. Next, after a short overview of the practice of semi-diplomatic transcription, participants will each transcribe a short early modern document.

Participants will leave with their transcriptions and a list of useful resources for the study of English paleography. Each participant should bring a laptop computer or a tablet for easy consultation of images.


Printing with Wood Type: Cabarets, Capitalism, & Snake Oil during the Industrial Revolution

Tuesday, June 23 | 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. | City College of San Francisco Mission Campus Letterpress Shop
1125 Valencia St. (between 22nd and 23rd), Room 207

Presenter: Grendl Löfkvist, Instructor, Visual Media Design Department, City College of San Francisco.

Registration: Limited to 16 participants. SOLD OUT

Cost: $60 (includes materials).

The workshop will be held in the letterpress shop at CCSF Mission Campus, which has an impressive selection of both wood and lead typefaces as well as five well-maintained antique letterpress printing presses.

Participants will be introduced to the development of wood type via a short historical slideshow, linking the rise of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution to the need to create larger and more varied typefaces for advertisements, broadsides, and playbills.  Examples of ephemera from the 1800s will be shown, as well as slides of equipment developed to manufacture the type.  Slides of specimen sheets, taken from the San Francisco Main Library’s Special Collections Department, will be shown to illustrate the wide variety and beauty of wood typefaces that were generated during this era.

Following the slides, we will explore the variety of types available in the CSSF shop.  Participants will collaborate on a unique broadside in the style of the playbills, political proclamations, and snake oil advertisements of the Industrial Revolution.  All participants will learn the basics of setting type, inking up the press, and printing multiples.  Each participant will receive three copies of the broadside to take away.

Sponsored by Maggs Bros Ltd.