Simon's Why Why How 26-9-18

Simon's What/How/Why

What

From the books: SLV RBRR 000-099 (FTB: SLV RBRR 000-099) is a publication that explores the marks left in books by visitors to the State Library of Victoria (SLV) Redmond Barry Reading Room (RBRR). These include ex-libris, marginalia, underlined, circled, and highlighted text, dog-ears, wear and tear, and objects left within books, such as photographs, scraps of paper or letters to future readers. The publication catalogs marks in books from the first section of the Dewey Decimal System, 000-099, as well as an essay, and transcripts of sounds recorded in the RBRR. Accompanying the book are a collection of photographs taken at the SLV, loosely inserted between pages, and a zine with a contributed essay by Federico Antonini on the use of book-marking as a creative strategy in art and literature.

How

The publication developed from a research project undertaken in collaboration with graphic designer Masaki Miwa. Part of the research involved exploration of the books within the 000-099 section, in which we removed each book, inspected for marks, and scanned results, which were then identified, catalogued and inserted into the layout of the publication. Other research included interviews with librarians at the SLV on marks within rare books (which can indicate provenance). This resulted in an essay I wrote on the changing role of public libraries from repositories of knowledge to active social spaces, which acted as a preface to the image section of the book.

Why

The project initally began with an interest in this phenomenon, and curiosity about the possible intentions of mark-makers. This expanded into a wider exploration of public libraries and their role within society. Our interviews with librarians at the SLV revealed the relationship between a book’s value and the phenomenon of mark-making, which can transform a book from a lowly multiple into a rarefied object and determine its place within the collection, i.e. moving it from public shelves to stacks in less-accessible locations of the library. FTB: SLV RBRR 000-099 also is an attempt at a taxonomy of mark-making (within the limited context of this section at that particular time), in the discovery, interpretation and cataloguing of these marks.

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