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| ALIA promotional material 2012 LIW theme |
In working toward this post I’ve learnt that researching events can hold unique trials. A particular challenge may be due to their ephemeral nature, in that notifications of impending events and references to past events are often published in temporal formats and are sometimes not readily retrievable due to the currency demanded by online publishing, where material is continually updated for relevance, expires, or the intended material does not follow through, eg, reportage may be intended and announced but does not actually ensue as envisaged, in which case other sources and methods would need to be sought.
Another pitfall is when a topic transpires to have less relevance than envisaged. So for instance while I presumed I would be including information in this post about the recent Clunes Booktown Festival 2012 as referred to in the previous post (5) in relation to two specialist booksellers and an author, upon further consideration of the program and website, there was not any more content apparent that is central to my topic beyond that which I’d already mentioned, other than the obvious involvement of hospitality venues and a Booktraders’ Dinner. This weekend festival is significant in that Clunes is the first location in the southern hemisphere to be declared an International Book Town (2010). A book town is defined by the International Organisation of Book Towns (IOB) as “...a small rural town or village in which second-hand and antiquarian bookshops are concentrated.” However even though it is two years since the declaration, sadly Clunes hasn’t literally made it onto the IOB labelled map online, even though the Google map itself displays a 2012 date!
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| Clunes Greengrocer image from Booktown website |
In a similar vein I wanted to find out more about The Department of Food Science exhibition, Australian Food and Society 1901 – 2001, a 2001 exhibition in the RMIT library, that I found mentioned online whilst researching the Emily McPherson College (for blog post 5) but the journal reference (Yee, A & Griffiths, J 2001, p.2) cited in the history sources was not apparent in searches of the RMIT library website; another thread that may yield results with more time for thorough research (and perhaps even more expert assistance) than I’ve been able to manage thus far within the limitations of this project.
There have certainly been events relative to my topic of convergences, at The Wheeler Centre since it opened in a renovated wing of the SLV in 2010, also its new (November 2011) basement bar and café venue The Moat, on the opposite side of the building to Mr Tulk the SLV café named after the first librarian Augustus Tulk. Similarly Melbourne Library Service (MLS) events held at Journal, the endearing café in the frontage of the Flinders Lane building that City Library (MLS) shares with Council of Adult Education (CAE). A comprehensive roll of literary hospitality venues can be found at Melbourne Literary, an app. recently developed by local author Narelle M. Harris. However I have had to selectively confine myself to a few events that epitomise my topic.
To coincide with the International Edible Books Festival held annually since on April 1, embracing the spirit of April Fools’ Day and honouring the birthday of Brillat-Savarin (1755), the Melbourne University Library (MUL) held its second annual Edible Books Festival with special guest judge Stephanie Alexander, who trained as a librarian at the university before pursuing her culinary career. There are at least 2 online entries documenting this event at MUL and the exercise of searching for suitable material was instructive. I wanted to select a photograph of an entry relating to books published in Australia, if not Melbourne. The photos on the MU Library News Blog are captioned eg Driving Over Lemons by Stephanie Jaehrling; so I started searching for this title and author at SLV, discovering other titles by this author/editor (including the catalogue of the Banned Books exhibition I saw at the Bailleau Library MU, coinciding with the aforementioned (post 5) Monash exhibition 2010) It was serendipitous to find this author had locally published some library related work but I couldn’t find the book in the picture until I searched the title alone on Trove (NLA) to discover the book was by an another author (and international at that) so the caption was the title of the entry plus name of entrant, not author (which I should well have realised, having been to Edible Books events myself!)
It was heartening to see the William Angliss Institute LRC holding an Edible Book competition to appropriately celebrate the ALIA Library and Information Week 2012 slogan, THINK OUTSIDE THE BOOK. As the event wasn’t due to occur until after publication of this post was due, the PDF I’ve hyperlinked above from the LRC website is so far the most relevant reference, and it demonstrates how the LRC uses the latest technology to engage and inform staff and students, eg the QR barcode to reach a Flickr photostream. However I was dismayed that the originating website is not supplied here, although perhaps not so surprisingly, as I now recall my same reaction when I attended a 2010 Edible Books event at a Melbourne library and learnt that they were unaware of the derivation and scale of the event, even though it was supported by no less than an ALIA group! These 2 instances no doubt explain the dearth of Australian representation among the albums on the international website; and further are perhaps indicative of how events take on their own momentum through hearsay or “word-of-mouth” and possibly even typify the “borrowing” culture prevalent in modern media usage. However I consider that the most intriguing questions this issue raises, to be about the relevance of referencing to events. I may be a pedant, but I do so appreciate the context of authenticism provided by authoritative attribution. Perhaps I’ve just been spoilt by the comprehensive colour catalogues published by the universities for their rare book exhibitions.
As disappointing as it was to have missed the 2011 Monash University Matheson Library Rare Books Collection exhibition Cookbooks : The Sandy Michell Collection (refer blog post 5) it was most gratifying not only to be able to request a hardcopy catalogue after enjoying the virtual exhibition online, a year later, but to receive it the very next day!
The library event I’m most eagerly anticipating this year is similarly another historical exhibition, Gusto! A culinary history of Victoria, Friday 3 August 2012 - Sunday 28 April 2013, State Library of Victoria (SLV).
While the exhibition is complemented - as is usual at SLV- by a full program of events and activities, I’m most looking forward to the curator events. Whilst visiting the Special Collections of the William Angliss Institute (WAI) Learning Resource Centre (LRC) (refer blog post 5) I learnt of their collaboration with SLV, so the combined resources should result in an impressive exhibition.
Finally to answer the envisaged title I proposed at the outset of this project, pertaining to this post being Events & Futures. At these final stages I’ve realised how more than necessarily ambitious this was, that events would provide enough content in and of themselves, but I was trying to anticipate the permutations of what may arise during the research process, mindful of our kind tutor’s guidance as to how the process may influence the evolution of the content. Therefore I feel it fitting enough to have ended the post with an event that at the time of writing will occur in the (near) future and appropriately at what must be my favourite public institution, the grand old State Library of Victoria (SLV).
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| ALIA promotional material 2012 LIW theme |
