This is a free event and registration is available here.

This one day workshop explores the past, present and future of the British Book Trade Index (BBTI). Based initially at the University of Birmingham, then at the Bodleian Library in Oxford BBTI was and is a vital resource for studies in book trade history: its data is now freely available, both in bulk through the Bodleian and through new search portals at the Universities of Saskatchewan and Victoria.

This workshop will explore new uses of the BBTI dataset while also provide an historical overview of how it came to be. It will begin with a hands-on introduction to working with the BBTI dataset, covering some simple tasks such as data clean-up, matching, enrichment and visualisation. There will then be a series of presentations on BBTI’s history and new uses in offline analysis and online resources. We will conclude with a roundtable discussion of BBTI’s potential for the future.

Participants in the hands-on session should bring a laptop: no prior experience of working with bibliographical data is required.

PROGRAMME

Morning Session 09:30-12:00

09.30: Registration and Coffee

10:00-12:00 Working with BBTI data: a hands-on introduction, led by Giles Bergel (University of Oxford) and Alex Hitchman (The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford)

All are welcome to participate in or to observe this (gentle) introduction to the basics of data analysis using the legacy BBTI dataset hosted by the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. Hands-on participants will need a laptop on which they have installed OpenRefine (https://openrefine.org) and to have obtained the Bodleian BBTI dataset ( bbti_database_export.zip) from https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:19b63441-9497-4b07-903b-ec5742c44806. 

12:00 -13:00 Lunch break (Lunch is not included, but there are many good options in the immediate area) 

Afternoon Session 13:00-16:00

Maureen Bell (University of Birmingham) Elaine Jackson (Independent): From shoeboxes to the internet: BBTI from then till now

Martin Holmes (University of Victoria) Janelle Jenstad (University of Victoria) From Digital Fragility to Resilience: The Future of the BBTI

Allison Muri (University of Saskatchewan) The Fragility of Networks Past, Present, Future: Eliza Haywood, the ESTC, and the BBTI

Roundtable discussion on where to next for the BBTI, led by Giles Bergel (University of Oxford)