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

Book Remixing #03 is the third 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 third workshop will focus on sharing, discussing and excerpting passages from ‘books about books’ that explore publishing histories, the future of the book, the unbound book, the library as book, Open Access books, the digital book, and so on.

We’ll have some copies of the books from the collection at A Public Library, but please bring some of you own. In addition, please select a passage or two that you would be interested in sharing. Some of the books that have already been selected are: Indexing It All; Reading Writing Interfaces; Paper Knowledge; Uncreative Writing; Transforming the Humanities in the Postprint Era; Questioning Library Neutrality; Post-Digital Print; From Print to Ebooks; Paper Machines; Book Was There; The Library Beyond the Book; Fantasies of the Library; The Coming of the Book; The Early History of Smalltalk; Book to the Future; Publication Taxonomy.

We began a collection and reading list on Zotero*, which can be found here. This reading list is just a beginning; you can make additions by signing up for a Zotero account and adding items. (Please email info@apubliclibrary.org if you have any problems or need assistance joining the group.)

During the third workshop we’ll collate the selected passages into a new publication using the Hybrid Publishing Consortium’s multi-format publishing software A-machine. Additionally, we’ll explore how to address the translation of the printed form into the book as a networked digital repository.

The book remixing workshops will unfold over a series of monthly meetings, leading to the launch of a metashelf/exhibition from the ongoing exploration of books on books. 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 on Facebook as well as on GitHub where you can follow along.

For more information on #bbl see the Github page. More information on the first workshop can be found here and the second workshop here.

*The Zotero reading list is partially mirrored here.