With any luck, some of the superb broadband that is supposed to be coming Dunedin’s way can be used to highlight the rich literary traditions of our beloved town. Congratulations to Liz Knowles, Bernie Hawke, Noel Waite, and Annie Villiers, plus all those who helped put the bid together. The Centre for the Book is proud to be a part of it and we look forward to even more great book-focused activities.

We join three other new Cities of Literature: Granada, Spain, Prague, Czech Republic, and Heidelberg, Germany.  Check out the UNESCO news for other creative city awards.

Dr. Shef Rogers will offer a new summer school paper over six weeks in January and early February 2015. Entitled “The Power of Print,” the paper examines how the development of writing, printing, mass literacy and digital media have changed the world.  As a 300-level English paper, the normal prerequisites are at least one paper at 200-level in ENGL.  However, variations can be granted for those with suitable backgrounds and experience.  See the Summer School website to find out more about enrolment, or contact Shef if you have specific questions about the paper (shef.rogers@otago.ac.nz).  It is a very hands-on paper, with each student responsible for a large research project on some book or manuscript held in a Dunedin collection.

With a visit from Claire Bolton to discuss 15th-century books in late February and the annual World Book Day Centre for the Book Dinner on Thursday 5 March, the new year is starting to feel very real.  For 2015 we are looking forward to having as our World Book Day speaker one of Australasia’s best-known book dealers, Kay Craddock, from Melbourne.  Meanwhile, we are keeping our fingers crossed for the 30 November result of Dunedin’s bid to be a UNESCO City of Literature.  So check back here regularly for more details, and mark your calendar for World Book Day.

But also remember that 2014 is not over yet, and the University Library will open its final exhibition of the year on 17 December, focused on Dunedin’s very own Joseph Mellor. Organised in part by Prof. Lyall Hanton from Chemistry, a member of the Centre’s advisory board, this exhibition will once again exhibit the depth and diversity of Dunedin’s print collections.

The Centre is pleased to host a free public lecture by Catherine Griffiths, entitled A Type of Improvisation. Griffiths is a designer & typographer, who in the past has worked with Wellington poet Jenny Bornholdt and ceramic artist Raewyn Atkinson to create typography onto ceramics. In 2000 she created a series of 15 astonishing, large-scale concrete text sculptures that were positioned along Wellington’s waterfront. Writings by New Zealand authors including Bill Manhire, Katherine Mansfield, and James K. Baxter are set in blocks of either Helvetica Extra Compressed or Optima type, to varying but always impressive effect. In 2009, Simone Wolf (Typevents Italy) and Griffiths conceived, curated and organised TypeSHED11, New Zealand’s first-ever international typography symposium.

(Initially, Sarah Maxey was to deliver this opening talk, but unfortunately for personal reasons she had to withdraw.)

Catherine’s talk will launch the 2014 symposium on Book & Art.

You can learn more about Catherine on her website, http://www.catherinegriffiths.co.nz

We hope you can join us for this special evening.

Venue: Dunningham Suite, 4th Floor, Dunedin Public Libraries, Moray Place

Time: 7 pm, Thursday, 16 October 2014

For further enquiries, please contact Dr Donald Kerr, Special Collections, University of Otago.
Email: Donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz
Phone: (03)-479-8330

The Centre for the Book is delighted to be collaborating with the Art School at the Otago Polytechnic to present a two-day symposium on the 17th and 18th of October 2014.

Accompanying the event will be an exhibition of book art at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art.

Full details are available at the Symposium web page, http://artandbook.org.  The symposium is free and open to the public, so put it in your calendar now.

An exhibition entitled “Botany: Our Heritage, Our Future” has begun at the de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, University of Otago. It runs through 5 December 2014. The exhibition was mounted to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Botany Department at the University of Otago, which remains the only university Department of Botany in New Zealand. The Department is very proud of its heritage and in looking ahead considers Botany to be essential to society’s needs more than ever. Indeed, knowledge about plants is fundamental to our survival.

Although botany was taught at the University of Otago from the outset, it was in 1924 that the Botany Department was established, with the appointment of Dr J. E. Holloway. After his retirement in 1944, a number of dedicated staff kept the department functioning until 1946 when Geoff Baylis arrived as Head of the Department (HoD). He became the first Professor of Botany in 1952. Baylis was replaced by Professor Peter Bannister in 1979, who was HoD until 2003, when Associate Professor Paul Guy took over. Professor Bastow Wilson replaced Guy as HoD in 2008. Professor Jim Simpson became HoD in 2010, and Professor Katharine Dickinson in 2011.

Since 1924, students have been exposed to all aspects of the life of plants, algae, fungi, and other closely related organisms. Today’s student engages in a subject that is now multidisciplinary, covering the gene to the ecosystem, and from the mountains to the sea. Of course the Department’s achievements are due to all staff: the technicians, the administrators, current academics, Emeritus and Honorary Professors, and other research associates. Each have contributed greatly to the excellence in teaching and research that has been afforded to students, and more broadly to the general public, over many years.

Notable items on display include a copy of Daniel Solander’s Primitiae Florae Novae Zelandiae [1770], one of the first European documentations of flora in New Zealand, Captain Cook’s A Voyage towards the South Pole (1777), Mrs Featon’s colourful New Zealand Flora album (1889), a sample sheet of flax paper made in Dunedin in 1866, a pōhā with tītī (muttonbird) inside blades of kelp (2009), a colourful edition of T. Kirk’s The Forest Flora of New Zealand (1889), and plant specimens from the University’s Regional Herbarium, including Pennantia baylisiana (1965), Hypopterygium setigerum [Mosses], and Celmisia markii. Also on display will be some colourful Botany teaching posters, numerous 19th century Brendel Plant Models, and a number of Banks’s Florilegium (1769; 1980-1989) prints on loan from the Hocken Library.

Exhibition dates: 11 September to 5 December 2014. Venue: Special Collections, de Beer Gallery, 1st Floor, Central Library, University of Otago Hours: 8.30 am to 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday

For further details contact Dr Donald Kerr, Special Collections Librarian, Donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz

Jill Shefrin, Senior Research Associate in Arts, Trinity College, University of Toronto, will deliver a talk entitled “‘Miss Silvia…Reads Like a Great Woman.’ The Education of a Young English Girl in the Eighteenth Century.”

Venue: Central Library staffroom, 1st floor, University of Otago

Date & Time: 5.00 – 6.30pm, Thursday 9 October 2014

With many thanks to Trish Brooking for arranging Jill’s visit.

The latest Hocken Collections Exhibition, “The Art between the Covers: Artists & the Book (1930s- 1960s),” should interest all book lovers, esp. those in Dunedin.  You can learn more about the Exhibition here (http://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago075559.html).  It will be on from this week until 25 October 2014.  Well worth a visit, though few of us need an excuse to spend time at Hocken.

The Centre for the Book is delighted to feature the recent Otago Daily Times story on this year’s project.  If you missed it in print, you can still enjoy it virtually at http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/311966/local-rags-limited-edition

And the University Bulletin has run a piece reporting the project’s progress, with a great photo of Peter in the press room, at http://www.otago.ac.nz/otagobulletin/news/ otago077391.html

And now Peter is a TV star–check out this video interview:
http://www.dunedintv.co.nz/content/old-hand-press-used-compile-works-port-chalmers-artist

The Centre for the Book and Continuing Education are pleased to offer a 20-hour introduction to handpress printing at the Otakou Press.  The course will be spread over two weekends, Friday evening and all  day Saturday, 5–6 and 12–13 September.  The workshop is limited to six students to permit plenty of hands-on instruction by Dr. John Holmes and Dr. Donald Kerr.

Contact Dr. Kerr to express interest (donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz)