Paul Otlet, Traite de Documentation (1934), p.41
Paul Otlet, Traite de Documentation (1934), p.41

The Bureau for Book Liberation: Book Remixing #01 is the first in a series of workshops for designing and making new types of hybrid books. The hybrid book, or unbound book, is an experiment to investigate what happens once the book is free of its current form of a printed book and usable in multiple and malleable digital forms.

The hybrid book will be pieced together using analog as well as open source technologies to create new publication types for public libraries in general. The #bbl uses the readers’ ‘book playlist’ as a starting point, assembling book passages from the playlist into new hybrid publications, and adding a book sharing data layer onto the existing public library. Secondly, we use ‘ways of reading’ to inform how we will design this new hybrid book that depart from familiar habits using paper books: hand drawn maps on the book, notes, stickies, lists, index cards, etc.

#bbl will invite you to paper-prototype, as well as test out our digital workflows; book-stacks (yes piles of books), Xeroxing, wish-lists, mapping, reading, discussion, photo sharing, and producing of remixed publications in multiple manifestations.

The book remixing workshop will unfold over a series of monthly meetings, leading to the launch of a metashelf of book remixes. The workshops will address different components of hybrid books at each meeting, but please feel free to join at any time. There will be information posted here as well as on github where you can follow along.

During the first meeting, we will:

  • Introduce the concept of the hybrid book.
  • Discuss the book remixing workflow.
  • Work on the first step in the book remixing process. Please bring a ‘book playlist’, as a box of books or a list of links, and some of your favorite ‘ways of reading’–how you make notes, share books, arrange book shelves. In groups, or alone, we will work through assembling the passages from the book playlists.

You can see how the entire book remixing process works at the #bbl wiki.

This event will take place in English.