Reviewed on 06 January 1998
Review by Sheona Farquhar
The Scottish Centre for the Book has been established at Napier University Edinburgh to enhance and promote the study of print culture in all its forms. This Web site is intended to provide information about the Centre, which concentrates on research, scholarship and teaching on print culture and the sociology of texts. There are links to details of seminars and conferences hosted by the Centre, ongoing research projects, publications by Centre staff and related Web resources. A good navigational characteristic is that these links remain as a constant on the screen wherever the enquirer is in the site.
A feature of the site is the pages relating to the Edward Clark Collection [http://www.napier.ac.uk/depts/library/clark/ecc1.html]. This is a major collection of rare and valuable works relating to printing, publishing and print media housed within Napier University. The custodians are keen to establish, maintain and develop the collection as the hub of the Scottish Centre for the Book. A limited number of images from material in the Edward Clark Collection are reproduced [http://www.napier.ac.uk/depts/library/clark/imgindex.html]. There is one colour illustration, two black & white images of bindings and three pages from books in the collection, such as Porrus, Petrus Paulus. Psalterium Hebraeum, Graecum, Arabicum ... Genoa, 1516. Some of the links to these images could be improved. For example, the links to illustrations and fine bindings from the Edward Clark Collection page lead to excellent images but there is no accompanying text description.
As stated in the introduction to the site the new field of print culture is interdisciplinary in nature so is worth a visit by those with an interest in the history of the book, print culture, publishing or literary sociology.
Reviewed by: Sheona Farquhar
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Material on this page is copyright Ariadne/original authors. This page last updated on 07-Jan-1997