Publishing News
Guadalajara Book Fair, Mexico 2008
Held annually, the Guadalajara International Book Fair is the leading book fair in Latin America. In December 2008 the 22nd fair attracted representatives from 1,600 publishers from 39 countries. The fair, known as the FIL (Feria Internacional del Libro), is also open to the general public, who can buy books from the stands. It is a major cultural festival with a range of events from literary readings to concerts. Overall half a million people attended the fair, at which the guest of honour was Italy.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 19 Dec 2008 around 12pm
Filed Under Publishing
Outcome of RAE 2008 for the School of Arts and Humanities - ‘pleasing and positive’
Steven Matthews, Assistant Dean (Research and Consultancy) writes:
‘The outcome of RAE 2008 for the School of Arts and Humanities has been especially pleasing and positive. Everywhere, there has been a movement forward in the recognized standards of our research from the rankings in 2001. In several cases, including Art and Design, Art History, and Music, we have risen strongly up the national league tables. Much of our work has been scored as being of 'international quality' or above, with History, English, and Art and Design performing at over 90% on this measure. Particularly pleasing is the amount of our research which has been ranked in the highest two categories: 3* ('internationally excellent') and 4* ('world leading'). Taken department by department submitted, this is the breakdown of our work in these categories:
- French 35%
- English 40%
- History 65%
- Art 30%
- History of Art 55%
- Music 35%
We look forward to building ambitiously on these exciting results across the next phase of our research development'.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 18 Dec 2008 around 2pm
Filed Under Research
Staff training is the way forward in the Economic downturn!
The Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies is pleased to announce its programme of short courses to be held in January 2009.
In October of this year, captains of industry, including CBI director General Richard Lambert and Marks & Spencer chairman Sir Stuart Rose, published an open letter in which they stated that despite the current economic downturn, cutting training budgets would be a false economy. The letter went on to say, "investing now in building new skills will put us in the strongest position as the economy recovers. From our experience in previous downturns, it was the businesses that did invest in their staff that saw the most dynamic recovery."
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 15 Dec 2008 around 5pm
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Moscow calling
The Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies, at Oxford Brookes University, and Moscow State University of Printing Arts notched up another first when the new Master's in Publishing opened its doors to a 50-strong cohort in Moscow on 1 November 2008.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10 Dec 2008 around 2pm
Filed Under Publishing
Sound Diaries: Recording Life in Sound
Sound Diaries is an initiative of the Sonic Art Research Unit. The Project is focused around sound-recordings and sound-texts and the ways in which sound can be used to document our lives.
This project is designed so that anyone working with sound and the idea of sound diaries can share their projects online, talk about their ideas with other people working in this territory and contribute to discussions around how sound diaries are made and shared.
What is a Sound Diary? Why create a Sound Diary? What period does it cover: minutes, hours, days, weeks, years? How much of that period will it capture? How do Sound Diaries relate to written diaries, or photo albums? What is a sonic snapshot? These are some of the issues that will be addressed during the Sound Diaries project - do get involved!
Throughout December our Sonic Advent Calendar will be online with a new sound everyday. Hear the sounds now at:
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10 Dec 2008 around 1pm
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Alexandra Wilson to be interviewed about Puccini on Radio 4 and Radio 3
Alexandra Wilson (Music) will contribute to three programmes on BBC Radio this month marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer Giacomo Puccini. On Tuesday 16 December at 13.30 she features in a Radio 4 documentary presented by James Naughtie entitled "Puccini: Touched by the Little Finger of the Almighty". On Saturday 20 December she will take part in a special Puccini-focused edition of "Music Matters" on Radio 3 (12.15-13.00). Finally, on Radio 3 on 27 December (from 18.00) she can be heard in conversation with Martin Handley at a performance of Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" recorded at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 05 Dec 2008 around 12pm
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Publishing students visit the Oxford University Press Museum
Students from the MAs in Publishing in the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies recently visited Oxford University Press's Museum.
Marina Debattista, MA student, reports on the visit:
'The Oxford University Press Museum - consisting of a large, circular hall - creates the illusion that its history is also circular. The online version of the Oxford English Dictionary - the last item in the museum, placed close to the exit - coincides, at least symbolically, with the very first one, the book published in 1478. The opposites meet here, only to remind us that the electronic medium is not necessarily the negation of the printed medium.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03 Dec 2008 around 4pm
Filed Under Publishing | European Publishing
“Cultivating Britons” Conference held at Brookes
A one-day interdisciplinary conference took place at Brookes on 19 September 2008 entitled "Cultivating Britons: Culture and Identity in Britain, 1901-1936". The event was organised jointly by Alexandra Wilson (Music) and two historian colleagues: Alex Windscheffel (RHUL) and Ruth Clayton Windscheffel (Oxford). The aim of the conference was to examine ruptures and continuities in the social and cultural life of Britain in the first three and a half decades of the twentieth century and to explore the extent to which attempts to "cultivate Britons" (often regarded as a distinctively Victorian endeavour) continued into and metamorphosed during the early twentieth century. 33 delegates attended the conference and the range of disciplines represented included History, English Literature, Music, Theology, Art History and Publishing. The twelve papers presented covered topics as diverse as First World War propaganda; the interwar Dictionary of National Biography; gender and the politics of respectability; blackface minstrelsy in the British police; and Jewish youth work. The conference organisers hope to arrange future "Cultivating Britons" events.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 03 Dec 2008 around 11am
Filed Under Research | Publishing
National Museum Workshop held in Oslo
Voksenasen, in the hills above Oslo, hosted the sixth and final workshop in the NaMu series on 17 - 19 November. Sally Hughes presented a short paper on museum guide books using material from her AHRC funded research in museum publishing. NaMu I is funded by the Marie Curie Foundation and the European Union under the Sixth Framework.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 26 Nov 2008 around 9am
Filed Under Research | Publishing
Digs magazine launched!
Launched in the autumn of 2008, Digs is a magazine about student life in Oxford which is freely distributed to students at Oxford Brookes and Oxford Universities. The magazine started out as coursework for a first-year undergraduate project at Oxford Brookes, in the module Introduction to Magazine Publishing.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 26 Nov 2008 around 9am
Filed Under Publishing