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== *A note to the reader ==
=Tasks of the Contingent Librarian=


This text has been written with the intention to be materialised in a very specific form; a set of A6-sized index cards, contained in a box. Please read it while holding the cards in your hands, shuffling and reordering them, making your own text as you read.  
The library is closed, the shelves are empty, the librarian has gone. All that is left is a set of index cards contained in a box. At the top of each card is a verb introducing the tasks performed within the space and duration of a particular, situated social infrastructure called the “bootleg library”. The reverse includes references and images that illustrate each task.


These cards list the tasks performed on the site of contingencies, the bootleg library. Tasks are described on the obverse, and related images and references are on the reverse.
This text was written with, by and for readers during library sessions. We wrote on cards by hand, we typed words in a collaborative writing environment. We wrote them together; humans and machines; texts were blended into a mix of keystrokes in changesets too complex, and dependencies too layered to determine singular authorship. These texts were never objects, always processes<ref>Barthes, R., ‘From Work to Text’, in Barthes, R. and Heath, S. (1987) ''Image, music, text''. London: Fontana Press.</ref>.


== Tasks of the Contingent Librarian ==
Participation from readers became a vital element in the practice of librarianship. The library grew, and we sustained it through conversation and correspondence. We wrote together in threads and strings; and so we created and maintained a space for publication. In the journey from private to public collection, texts were intermingled and rematerialised, gaining provenance and diversification through use. The readers are in the pages of the books, in the metadata of the library and on these cards, where traces of their presence remain.


The library is closed, the shelves are empty, the librarian has gone.
This text will never be complete. It describes a particular, situated library, one that does not exist anymore, but resembles those that came before it and those that will succeed it. This set of cards is also a library, a collection organised into a structure that directs readers towards the interior, towards the texts it contains. This set is a book, a hyper-index, forever pointing outwards to other books, libraries, readers and writers. Text, library, book and index all come together in this particular material form to comprise a manual, a thing to be manipulated in the hands of readers.
All that is left is a set of index cards contained in a box. At the top
of each card is a verb introducing the tasks performed within the space
and duration of a particular, situated social infrastructure called the
\"bootleg library\". The reverse includes references and images that
illustrate each task.


This text was written with, by and for readers during library sessions.
Cards invite shuffling, re-organising, flipping over, distributing, annotating, laying out. An A6 card like the one you’re holding now fits comfortably into the palm of one’s hand, and can be easily turned as it is gripped between the index finger and thumb.
We wrote on cards by hand, we typed words in a collaborative writing
environment. We wrote them together; humans and machines; texts were
blended into a mix of keystrokes in changesets too complex, and
dependencies too layered to determine singular authorship. These texts
were never objects, always processes\*1.


Participation from readers became a vital element in the practice of
Cards have two sides. Arranged on a table, only one side is visible, and proximity determines connections. Held in the hands and flipped like a book, new relationships between the verso and recto pages emerge. The reader becomes the writer anew, determining what to keep or discard, what to edit or leave as is; the author of the sequence, connections and hierarchy between tasks.
librarianship. The library grew, and we sustained it through
conversation and correspondence. We wrote together in threads and
strings; and so we created and maintained a space for publication. In
the journey from private to public collection, texts were intermingled
and rematerialised, gaining provenance and diversification through use.
The readers are in the pages of the books, in the metadata of the
library and on these cards, where traces of their presence remain.


This text will never be complete. It describes a particular, situated
<references />
library, one that does not exist anymore, but resembles those that came
[[Category: Tasks of the Contingent Librarian|Tasks of the Contingent Librarian]]
before it and those that will succeed it. This set of cards is also a
library, a collection organised into a structure that directs readers
towards the interior, towards the texts it contains. This set is a book,
a hyper-index, forever pointing outwards to other books, libraries,
readers and writers. Text, library, book and index all come together in
this particular material form to comprise a manual, a thing to be
manipulated in the hands of readers.
 
Cards invite shuffling, re-organising, flipping over, distributing,
annotating, laying out. An A6 card like the one you\'re holding now fits
comfortably into the palm of one\'s hand, and can be easily turned as it
is gripped between the index finger and thumb.
 
Cards have two sides. Arranged on a table, only one side is visible, and
proximity determines connections. Held in the hands and flipped like a
book, new relationships between the verso and recto pages emerge. The
reader becomes the writer anew, determining what to keep or discard,
what to edit or leave as is; the author of the sequence, connections and
hierarchy between tasks.
 
\*1 Barthes, R., \'From Work to Text\', in Barthes, R. and Heath, S.
(1987) *Image, music, text*. London: Fontana Press.
 
=== acquiring/removing ===
[see also]{.underline} administrating, finding texts, downloading
 
Many national libraries have acquisition programs in place with
stringent, highly formalised procedures through which new texts enter
the collection. Some countries require that an officially published book
is donated to their national library by way of a system called "legal
deposit". Purchase of a commercial identifier such as an ISBN
(International Standard Book Number) allows the book to be registered,
so that other libraries that subsequently acquire the same text may
share cataloguing details.
 
The library makes no such demands. Books are acquired through informal
means, in ways that are not regulated or legislated. Anyone may remove
or add texts to the library.
 
Image: ISBN barcode
 
finding texts
=============
 
[see also]{.underline} acquiring/removing, downloading,
searching/browsing
 
Most often, acquisition requests are as mundane as someone asking if the
library has a particular text. A quick search online produces a digital
file as a result. The provenance of these texts is buried in the file
paths of the uploader's computer, and the computers before it. Texts are
acquired by any means necessary, through a social network, or through a
digital network of so-called "shadow libraries" and groups of
sympathetic readers. It's often surprising how fast an unknown fellow
reader will respond to a request for a text via certain groups operating
on social media websites. *Type F to follow this post*.
 
Image: Flow chart from Facebook group *Ask for PDFs from People with
Institutional Access*
 
uploading
=========
 
[see also]{.underline} acquiring/removing, amateuring,
including/excluding
 
The digital collection is formed from individual uploads made by readers
who care to share. Uploading takes time---a precious commodity for many
readers---and each upload is a deliberate action, not an afterthought.
Fostering a culture of uploading requires a decentralised network of
readers, and likewise, librarians. A different notion of librarianship
is required; the librarian is not the central hub of access to
knowledge, but each reader should be a librarian, with the ability to
produce, recommend and request texts from others.
 
Image: "When *everyone* is **librarian**, **library** is *everywhere*."
Quote from *Why and How to Become an Amateur Librarian* by Marcell Mars,
Manar Zarroug and Tomislav Medak, available at
[https://www.memoryoftheworld.org/blog/2014/10/28/why\_and\_how\_to\_become\_an\_amateur\_librarian/]{.underline}
 
downloading
===========
 
[see also]{.underline} acquiring/removing, finding texts, uploading
 
A reader who downloads and does not upload is a passive observer to the
activities of the library. We prefer to be in the position of the
downloader due to the legal penalties for uploading and redistributing
copyrighted texts, which are far more severe than those for downloading.
The library will not grow if all we do is take. A library is a
collection of shared texts, and sharing is facilitated by both uploading
and downloading.
 
Image: A download symbol
 
bootlegging
===========
 
[see also]{.underline} diversifying through use, multiplying form,
republishing
 
Most people think of bootlegs as cheap knock-off products that
masquerade as the real deal; bootleg cigarettes, designer-label clothes,
not-quite-right imitations of Disney products and the like. Bootlegging
began during the prohibition era with the practice of illegally
distilling and distributing alcoholic beverages, often literally
concealed in the leg of a boot while being transported. Run an image
search on the keyword "bootleg" and you'll probably see all sorts of
suspicious-looking bootlegged products. But the way I want to speak of
bootlegging is as a social act, a homage, and one that creates and
celebrates a multiplicity of form. I'm referring in particular to the
vibrant culture of music sharing in the 1970s that followed portable
cassette tape recorders entering the market. These allowed fans to
cheaply record live performances and share these recordings---also known
as bootlegs.
 
Image: A "bootlegger" concealing a flask of an illegally distributed
alcoholic beverage in the leg of a boot during the Prohibition era
 
being kind to the reader
========================
 
[see also]{.underline} bootlegging, cleaning up text, diversifying
through use, multiplying form, republishing
 
While bootlegging makes a fairly faithful reproduction of a source
publication, the degree of transformation is sometimes due to
unintentional or uncontrollable factors, such as availability of the
equipment and materials needed to make a close copy. At other times,
more deliberate choices can be made concerning the transformed
materiality of the bootleg.
 
Economy, efficiency, and readability are the main concerns when
bootlegging texts for the library. Economy often dictates that materials
that are at hand are used---in the case of printed books for example,
this often means defaulting to certain choices with paper, printing
methods and binding. An efficient workflow is not too time-consuming.
Although the most important thing is to have the text by any means
necessary, we read best what we read most, and certain typographic
concerns may become vital to the readability of the text.
 
Being kind to the reader can involve adhering to typesetting
conventions; including headers, footers and page numbers should the book
be photocopied and pages subsequently separated from the others. Most
importantly, a reasonable line length and wide margins will allow the
book to be made in a way that ensures a comfortable reading experience
and provides space for annotation.
 
Image: A bootleg copy of *My Mother Was A Computer* by N. Katherine
Hayles. The source PDF has been reimposed into a booklet, with
reasonable line length (60-80 characters) and ample space for
annotations
 
diversifying through use
========================
 
[see also]{.underline} bootlegging, being kind to the reader,
multiplying form, republishing
 
Publications acquire difference through reproduction; sometimes
intentionally, always circumstantially. A printed book always ends up in
the hands of at least one reader. It is transported, pages are dog-eared
and annotated, time weathers the paper and cracks the spine. Multiply
this by many readers, and each printed copy starts to accumulate its own
traces, losing resemblance to the rest of the edition and acquiring its
own particular countenance and provenance through use.
 
Image: *1. Books are for use.*
 
The first law of S. R. R. Rangathan's *5 Laws of Library Science*, 1931
 
multiplying form
================
 
[see also]{.underline} bootlegging, diversifying through use, producing
texts, republishing
 
The jam band The Grateful Dead were followed around the United States by
a legion of die-hard fans, proclaiming themselves as "Deadheads".
Deadheads would record concerts with their cassette tape recorders, and
then share them amongst each other. Thinking of this, I'm reminded of
John Cage's motto, "Everything you do is music, and everywhere is the
best seat." Each position in the audience produces a slightly different
recording, and this multiplicity of form connects the audience not only
with the music, but with each other.
 
There are files in the library that are of the same text, but they have
travelled different paths to get there, accumulating difference through
methods such as annotation and material transformation. And so, they
have different materialities, lending weight to the argument that a text
is not identical with itself; that there is no such thing as a unique,
singular, original "work", but instead many different versions of texts,
born through the accidents of their creation.
 
Image: "Deadheads" recording a live Grateful Dead concert, 1972
 
republishing
============
 
[see also]{.underline} bootlegging, diversifying through use,
multiplying form
 
Samizdat publishers considered a printed text to be officially published
if it came in an edition of at least 5 copies. The library considers
this to be excessive, and reduces that number to 1. One copy of a text
can be shared and enriched by the accumulated annotations of many
readers. A one-to-many-publishing model distributes texts to the widest
possible public. The library instead insists on a many-to-one model,
drawing many readers to one text. Republishing the one text many times
creates a multiplicity of form, and subsequently a multiplicity of
publics in each instance.
 
Image: Staff working at Publication Studio, London. Publication Studio
is a federated publishing network with studios located worldwide. Books
ordered from the shared catalog are printed and bound one-at-a-time by
the closest studio. Differences in availability of paper and machinery
at each studio means that the materiality of each instance of a printed
text will vary depending on where and how the books are made.
 
cleaning up text
================
 
[see also]{.underline} being kind to the reader, editing, typing
 
A text found in the wild often comes with visible and invisible
artefacts. The visible ones come from bad OCR, with strange characters
popping up in place of the ones you expect, such as a 1 instead of an l.
The bane of the bootlegger is most definitely the line break or "soft
return", inserted by software that automatically breaks the line as you
type. Screen-based formats such as EPUB don't have the notion of a page,
and flow text according to window size.
 
You can either be methodical and remove each soft return manually, or
use the powerful automated *find/replace all* option. A useful tactic is
to *find* every instance of a full stop followed by a space where a line
was intentionally broken by the human writer. Next, *replace* each full
stop with an arbitrary but uncommon character, such as a dagger (†).
Then, do another *find/replace* and remove every instance of a soft
return and a space, and finally *replace* the uncommon character with a
full stop, in one final *find/change* command.
 
Another unwanted character that often appears is the hyphen, inserted
where words break at the end of a line. Here the pruning of errant
characters is trickier, and the best method is to *find* each instance
and remove them manually. Running *find/replace all* can often remove
necessary hyphens, such as in time ranges (e.g. 9-5) and compound
adjectives (e.g. inter-dependent).
 
Image: Hidden characters (e.g. tabs, spaces, carriage and 'soft'
returns)
 
editing
=======
 
[see also]{.underline} amateuring, multiplying form, republishing,
rereferencing, typing, writing
 
As soon as a reader edits a text its materiality changes either
unintentionally, or through more intentional methods, such as
republishing in a different format to make the text more accessible to a
wider public. Samizdat publishers often considered themselves editors,
or typists (rather than authors) due to the unwanted attention and risk
that this credit would bring. As they reproduced texts by hand, a
slippery form of authorship evolved through human error and also
particular idiosyncratic preferences for a new phrase, approximate
translation or text structure. Vladimir Bukovsky summarised the process
of self-publishing as "Samizdat: I write it myself, edit it myself,
censor it myself, publish it myself, distribute it myself, and spend
time in prison for it myself." The responsibility these self-proclaimed
editors took upon themselves by republishing dissident material bound
them to the texts; entwined in their creation and distribution. When no
writer wants to be an author, everyone becomes an editor.
 
Image: Facsimile of *A Chronicle of Current Events* (Russian: Хро́ника
теку́щих собы́тий), the longest-running Samizdat publication, (1968-1982)
 
repaginating
============
 
[see also]{.underline} being kind to the reader, cleaning up text,
editing, rebinding, reprinting, republishing, rereferencing
 
The simplest solution is to just print the source publication, but
sometimes you might want to lay the text out again using a different
format, font or layout, for reasons not worth going into in detail here.
This means either the original text flow and page numbers should be the
same, or there must be some references in the bootleg to the source
publication.
 
Some observations and methods:
 
1\) Justified text saves space and gives much more control over where to
break the page.
 
2\) The most basic reference system is to include an index that specifies
which page in the source publication matches the bootleg. However, this
is not so useful when setting text for a page (e.g. PDF), and more
useful for EPUBs, which don't have the notion of a page.
 
3\) Inserting page numbers directly into the text can indicate where the
page breaks in the source publication. This is quite time consuming, but
it allows you a lot of freedom to differ between fonts, page and type
size, text-block dimensions and page count.
 
Image: A page from a bootleg of Mladen Dolar's *A Voice and Nothing
More*, implementing new page numbers to mark the page breaks of the
source publication
 
reprinting
==========
 
[see also]{.underline} being kind to the reader, bootlegging, rebinding,
republishing
 
Making a printed book involves selection of paper stock and decisions on
how to economise with the printing method. Often this calls for text to
be imposed, 2-up, double-sided, into a booklet. Booklets are useful for
thin, staple-bound books, less than 64 pages of ordinary 80gsm paper.
 
A text block of 2-up imposed spreads is cut in the middle first, then
the two halves are joined together like a sandwich. Turning a single
page document into a 2-up imposed PDF also imposes a constraint. There
is no other way to create the text block. So, a book made in this way
will result in a visible "split", and the pages will naturally fall open
where the two halves were joined.
 
This is because most commercially bought paper comes with the grain
direction aligned with the long edge, not the short edge. The solution
is to print pages, not spreads, 1-up, double sided on a page. If you can
find a printer that takes sheets of paper smaller than A4 (such as A5)
this is perfect, if not, you may have to concede the loss that comes
from trimming down to a smaller than A5 size. Although this may seem
just a superficial concern, the book will not be split, making for a
materiality that emphasises the unity of the text.
 
Image: (clockwise from top left): imposition from a single-page PDF into
a booklet, anatomy of a book, a spread
 
rereferencing
=============
 
[see also]{.underline} being kind to the reader, cleaning up text,
editing, rebinding, repaginating, republishing, reprinting
 
Academic research requires citation, and inevitably this means referring
to a quote from a book, located on a particular page. Citation allows
readers to locate the reference efficiently. For this to happen, the
reader must be able to find the text easily by searching for it in a
catalogue system. Often books will include cataloguing information in
the front matter, and for citation purposes this can be retained in a
bootlegged book.
 
Digital files don't always come with text that is suitable for print,
particularly when the text is kerned too tightly or too loosely, or when
bad OCR (Optical Character Recognition) returns characters that are not
actually in the source publication. Sometimes a dark mark on a page will
be interpreted as a character by OCR software. In these cases the text
may need to be set again using a different format, font and page layout.
 
Image: A bootleg copy of *The Open Work* by Umberto Eco. Optical
Character Recognition software has mistakenly rendered the page number
(page 80) as the word "So"
 
rebinding
=========
 
[see also]{.underline} being kind to the reader, cleaning up text,
editing, repaginating, republishing, reprinting, rereferencing
 
A perfect-bound book is typically made with cold glue (such as polyvinyl
acetate), or glue that melts at high temperatures. The benefit of cold
glue is that it allows the book to lie flat when opened, as the spine is
flexible. Cold-glue bound books can be made by hand with quite
rudimentary equipment. All you need is a printed text block and cover, a
press, a piece of gauze or cheesecloth for the spine, and a brush to
apply the glue to it. This takes a lot of time, practice, skill and
patience to do by hand, but machines for cold-glue binding are hard to
find.
 
Hot-glue binding machines can bind a book in less than 3 minutes,
usually. Just be sure to set wider than normal margins before printing
(I usually go for between 8 and 12mm for good measure) and make sure the
book isn't uncomfortably small. The minimum size should be considered in
relation to the reader's hands, how they grip the book and turn the
pages, and how much effort will be needed to hold the book open in order
to read it.
 
Image: A hot-glue bound book held open with one hand
 
digitising/printing
===================
 
[see also]{.underline} understanding texts, reprinting, republishing
 
Most people I know prefer to read off paper. The arguments for the
printed text usually are about exhaustion, e.g. "I get tired reading
from a screen", lack of retention, e.g. "It's proven that people
remember things they read on paper better than on screen", and in the
circles I tend to run in, a sentimentality pervades, nostalgic for the
haptic experience that reading from printed books brings.
 
We expect acceleration from digital technologies. The cultural
significance of new media is bolstered through remediality, which is its
refashioning through the lens of old media\*1. Skeuomorphic design
brings us the texture of paper on a screen. Hayles argues for
intermediality, the interpretations between, and the coexistence of all
media, including printed and digital texts.\*2
 
Digital text is fraught with trauma, underpinned by the possibility of
fragmentation. Text that is to the reader fully searchable and
copy-pasteable is also text that threatens to come apart. Text that is
less of an object, and more a process, often not residing in any one
place in a computer file system, assembled dynamically, "on-the-fly".
Printed text, by contrast, reassures us by way of its indelibility.
 
Image: The physical bootleg library contained in a disused champagne
crate, and the digital bootleg library running from a Raspberry Pi
computer
 
\*1 Bolter, J.D. and Grusin, R. (2003) *Remediation: understanding new
media*. 6. Nachdr. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
 
\*2 Hayles, N.K. (2005) *My mother was a computer: digital subjects and
literary texts*. Chicago London: The University of Chicago Press.
 
producing texts
===============
 
[see also]{.underline} annotating, glossing, understanding texts
 
Historically, the word "text" comes from the Proto-Indo-European word
*teks-*, meaning "to weave, to fabricate, to make; make wicker or wattle
framework". The written word is a text, and so is a conversation, both
represent the exchange of shared concepts woven into the fabric of
communication. There is also an exchange between written and spoken
texts; discussions which influence writing, and writing which sparks
conversations.
 
The digital library creates texts through its catalogue, where the
metadata for each entry comprises a paratext\*1 that not only adds
meaning to the core text, but also influences how a reader will discover
it in the collection by fields such as *tags* and *description*.
Metadata which is downloaded and entered automatically comes from online
commercial sources has a particular promotional tone. Those who write
metadata should do so subjectively; descriptions based on personal
significance represent the text and the readers, equivalently.
 
The library is sustained through producing texts.
 
Image: Papyrus, an early writing surface made from woven reeds
 
\*1 Genette, G. (1997) *Paratexts: thresholds of interpretation*.
Literature, culture, theory 20. Cambridge ; New York, NY, USA: Cambridge
University Press.
 
annotating
==========
 
[see also]{.underline} glossing, producing texts, inter-depending
 
Marks left by readers are at times recognisable as annotation;
underlines, asterisks and notes scribbled in the margins that all add
something to the text. Taken a step further, annotation can include
metadata (information about information), which is most commonly text
that describes the author and subject, and bibliographic details needed
for citation purposes. Collectively, these forms of annotation indicate
the presence of readers, making them visible to each other. Annotation
lives in close proximity to the text. When it is separated from the
text, it becomes unfixed, losing its symbolic power to remind us that
other readers have also been here.
 
Image: Tracing paper bearing carbon-copied annotations from *Marginal
Conversations*, a workshop first held by Simon Browne, Paloma García and
Artemis Gryllaki at Leeszaal West Rotterdam, 20th June 2019
 
glossing
========
 
[see also]{.underline} annotating, multiplying form, producing text,
writing
 
A glossary is a list of terms defined in relation to the specificity of
the text. Glossaries aid reading comprehension, and also establish the
presence of the readers. *Glossing* (from Late Latin glossa \"obsolete
or foreign word\") was a medieval technique of adding commentaries to
the main text of illuminated manuscripts. Glossators would add small
handwritten notes and illustrations in between the lines and in the
margins. Reading between the lines opened the text up for various
interpretations, and illustrations served as mnemonic aids to assist
readers to recall information\*1.
 
The texts written on these cards constitute a glossary which defines the
tasks of the Contingent Librarian.
 
Image: A glossed manuscript of a late-thirteenth-century Latin
translation of a medical work by Hippocrates
 
\*1 Hobart, M.E. and Schiffman, Z.S. (1998) *Information ages: literacy,
numeracy, and the computer revolution*. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
 
understanding texts
===================
 
[see also]{.underline} human writing, machine writing, producing texts,
technologising the word
 
What makes up a text depends on perspective and overlapping dimensions
of text; editorial, technical and social.
 
The *editorial* dimension; a sequence. A line of characters and spaces,
the particular order that the writer sets these in. Text becomes an
object, a carrier of thoughts and feelings, something that can be sent
back and forth between participants in a conversation.
 
The *technical* dimension; a process. Cybertexts and "ergodic
literature" require non-trivial effort to read\*1. Examples of this are
MUDs (multi-user dungeons/domains/dimensions), which are real-time
virtual worlds in which the players construct the story on-the-fly, and
Mark Z. Danielewski's *House of Leaves*\*2, a printed novel that defies
a linear narrative structure through its cybertextual materiality.
 
The *social* dimension; a framework, a network of texts that elicit
further texts.
 
The library is a collection of texts; not just books, but also files,
metadata, scripts and the processes that determine how they are used,
and the readers who use them.
 
Image: A spread from Danielewski's *House of Leaves*
 
\*1 Aarseth, E.J. (1997) *Cybertext: perspectives on ergodic
literature*. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press.
 
\*2 Danielewski, M.Z. (2000) Mark Z. Danielewski's House of leaves. 2nd
ed. New York: Pantheon Books.
 
including/excluding
===================
 
[see also]{.underline} making it public/keeping it private
 
Inclusion and exclusion are not just processes that occur when books
arrive in the library. They are recurring, procedural, practical actions
executed throughout the library's lifetime. It comes down to the issue
of space quite rapidly. With too many books, certain brutal decisions
may have to be made to retain or dispose of the surplus.
 
The results of including and excluding are visible in the catalogue and
classification system adopted by the library, defining the particular
interests of the library.
 
Inclusion also plays a part when considering how public or private the
library is, and how its membership is formed. There are several layers
of privilege (and accompanying responsibilities) that can be given, from
anonymous guest, to registered user, to administrator. Users who have
administrative privileges may add new users and bestow (or revoke)
freedoms and responsibilities.
 
Image: A membership card for the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the national
library of the Netherlands
 
administrating
==============
 
[see also]{.underline} including/excluding, inter-depending,
open-sourcing, trusting
 
An administrator has authority to make modifications to the
infrastructure of the library. Every registered user of the library is
also an "admin". *With this responsibility, comes great power.* An admin
may delete user accounts, or take down the entire library if they wish.
But they can also make registered accounts for other users, and choose
to bestow the same privileges, or not. The library is open.
 
Image: Characters representing read (r), write (w), and execute (x)
permissions in UNIX and UNIX-like systems
 
indexing
========
 
[see also]{.underline} human reading, inter-depending, scanning
 
Most books contain an index. Most books are also indexed in some type of
cataloguing system, to present the collection and inter-relationships
between the texts contained within, and those outside of the library.
This set of cards is an unbound index, which can be reshuffled, added to
and reduced as the reader pleases. Reducing a text to an index opens it
up for the reader to complete it as they read, drawing on what they have
read before and creating a mental network of associations. A book is a
hyper-index, forever pointing outwards to other books, libraries,
readers and writers. *I use my index finger to trace over the text,
moving down the page as my eyes scan for keywords*.
 
Image: Alejandro Cesarsco, *Index*, exhibited at Witte de With
Contemporary, September 2019-January 2020
 
making it public/keeping it private
===================================
 
[see also]{.underline} human reading, inter-depending, scanning
 
The library depends on its public, just as the public depends on the
library. Sharing of texts is the heart of library culture. A completely
private collection lacks sociability. Libraries that operate outside of
the law (shadow/extra-legal/pirate/+++) also depend on tactics to
survive, such as password protection and invite-only systems for
registering new users. In this context, publishing is not broadcasting,
scattering seeds of information widely to encourage maximal
distribution. The public sphere created by the library is limited by
necessary measures designed to sustain it.
 
Image: Chained books at the medieval Hereford Library, an illustration
from Streeter, B. H., (1931) *The Chained Library; A Survey of Four
Centuries in the Evolution of the English Library*, B. Franklin : New
York \[1970\]
 
inviting
========
 
[see also]{.underline} administrating, inter-depending, trusting
 
Invitations to join the library are made through private channels of
communication; direct messages, personal emails with no-one cc'd or
bcc'd, private conversations held in intimate spaces, small printed
cards passed by hand. Everyone is welcome to join, but the library does
not require everyone to be a member in order to operate.
 
Image: A6 cards, invitations to use the bootleg library
 
making public
=============
 
[see also]{.underline} consulting, inter-depending, meeting in small
rooms, in small groups
 
Making something public, and making publics. Matthew Stadler, writer and
co-founder of the federated publishing network Publication Studio, makes
a distinction between publishing and publication. For Stadler,
publication happens not only through sharing texts, but also "setting up
the circumstance through which we can talk and debate them, together".
 
Publishing survives through publication, which is the necessary creation
and maintenance of the space created for a public; to read, to share
texts, to discuss and publish them. Publication continues after the
event of publishing.
 
Image: Still from *What is Publication?*, a talk by Matthew Stadler,
writer and co-founder of the federated publishing network Publication
Studio, available at https://vimeo.com/14888791
 
keeping private
===============
 
[see also]{.underline} trusting, networking
 
All that I did was click a button and switch on the content server. The
library was automatically assigned a dynamic IP address, followed by a
colon and a port: 8080. Type 145.24.131.15:8080 into a browser, and
you'd arrive at the library, no problem. But you had to already be on
the local network; you couldn't access it from the outside. And the IP
address could change without warning, as dynamic IPs often do.
 
A sequence of digits is not nearly as memorable as a domain name. And
paradoxically, we expect stability from a digital environment that is
quite dynamic and in flux. Trust erodes at every extra click, every
retyped URL. Accessibility is tantamount to existence. If you can't
access it, it doesn't exist.
 
8080 is for personally-run web servers. It's called 8080 because it
relates to port 80, the port that HTTP is served over. But ISPs
regularly scan for HTTP requests including port 8080, to see if there is
any illegal traffic occurring over the network, so it's best to set it
to a custom number (there are 65535 potential ports to use).
 
The library is now accessible from the outside over a VPN, and the page
is HTTP password-protected. *On arrival at the URL enter the following
user name and password*.
 
Image: Poster announcing the bootleg library, Piet Zwart Institute, July
2019
 
trusting
========
 
[see also]{.underline} administrating, making public, keeping it private
 
The library operates outside of legal boundaries that see knowledge as
private property. As such, it requires protection from those that wish
it to cease and desist. Invitations to join the library are made through
personal correspondence and printed matter, in the form of A3 sized
posters, and A6 sized cards, like the very one you're reading right now.
Handing a printed card with login details to an interested reader is an
act of trust. The card, a pocket-sized object made with care and
attention which is passed from hand to hand, engenders a certain kind of
intimacy, as opposed to the brute act of spamming a mailinglist.
 
Image: A6 card, obverse and reverse, announcing the first bootleg
library sessions, Piet Zwart Institute, December 2019
 
networking
===========
 
[see also]{.underline} consulting, inter-depending, making public,
meeting in small rooms, in small groups
 
Networking is not a dirty word. I'm not talking about networking as
schmoozing, rubbing elbows with those you wish to impress, handing out
business cards like there's no tomorrow. I mean forming networks of
one's own\*1, within which the library can take shape and survive.
Maintaining these networks ensures that the space for publication is
available.
 
Image: Network topologies, ring, bus and mesh
 
\*1 Constant, *Networks of One's Own*, Available at
https://networksofonesown.constantvzw.org
 
meeting in small rooms, in small groups
=======================================
 
[see also]{.underline} administrating, consulting, making public
 
The library collection is intentionally small; it does not wish to be
everything to everyone. Focused library sessions are held regularly, and
informally, with participants free to come and go as they please. The
sessions do not require registration, and make no demands on
participants. The result is often a small group of session attendees,
who can offer personal insights and opinions in an intimate setting. It
is more beneficial to the library's development to have a conversation
between a small number of participants than to lecture to a crowd.
 
Image: bootleg library session at Varia, A Collective-space for Everyday
Technology, Rotterdam, 26^th^ January, 2020
 
consulting
==========
 
[see also]{.underline} administrating, making public, networking,
uploading
 
The library is for all, and made by all. There is no singular embedded
librarian, because everyone is a librarian, and the library is
everywhere. I'm not interested in developing the "perfect" system in
isolation and then dictating how it should be used, I'm interested in
asking how people want to use systems, and developing them together.
*Technical development is ongoing in line with feedback from bootleg
library sessions*.
 
Image: bootleg library session at Onomatopee Projects, Eindhoven, as
part of *Meeting Grounds*, 6^th^ March, 2020
 
open-sourcing
=============
 
[see also]{.underline} diversifying through use, editing, networking,
multiplying form
 
Open-source means exactly that; the source code is open for anyone to
copy, modify and distribute it. The library is running on the
open-source software Calibre, and is accessed through a browser using
calibre-web, a web-app for ebooks stored in a Calibre database. It's
important that the library software is open-source, as this empowers us
to own and modify it to suit our particular needs and interests.
Technology and culture exist in a dynamic interplay, shaping and being
shaped by each other.\*1
 
The notion of open-source can be extended to books as well; already
there is the "public domain" (works that are outside of the bounds of
copyright law, and therefore fair game) and "fair use", which allows
works to be used without asking for permission from the copyright owner,
for the purposes of commentary, criticism and parody. In addressing the
accessibility needed for a true knowledge commons to be protected,
copyright laws are flawed to begin with as they assume that knowledge is
private property.
 
Image: Screenshot of calibre-web interface
 
\*1 Hobart, M.E. and Schiffman, Z.S. (1998) *Information ages: literacy,
numeracy, and the computer revolution*. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
 
inter-depending
===============
 
[see also]{.underline} diversifying through use, editing, multiplying
form
 
The library is a collection of texts and the readers collected around
them. Nothing comes from nothing, everything comes from somewhere,
something or someone. Authors are dependent on other texts, writers, and
readers. I write this text using borrowed words. As a legal, economic
and institutional construct\*1, authorship is problematic; current
publishing models see texts as the intellectual property of authors
possessed with "originality". This originality is a myth; each text is
layered in dependencies.
 
Image: An author signing a book
 
\*1 Weinmayr, E., 'Confronting Authorship, Constructing Practices (How
Copyright is Destroying Collective Practice)' in Jefferies, J. and
Kember, S. (eds.) (2019) *Whose Book is it Anyway?: A View from
Elsewhere on Publishing, Copyright and Creativity*. Open Book
Publishers.
doi:[[10.11647/OBP.0159]{.underline}](https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0159).
 
proprietorising
===============
 
[see also]{.underline} keeping it private
 
Information, in the form of descriptions that abstract themselves from
the flux of common experience, is owned by private individuals or
companies. Information is property, under the law. But laws should
reflect the interests of the public. The "public interest" for
individuals to profit from their (and other's) labour competes against
another more public, public interest, one which sees information as
common property, or one that rejects any notion of information having
proprietary substance. The word "information" is related to both the
Latin verb *informare* meaning "'to shape', 'to form an idea of', or 'to
describe', and its cognates from the substantive "forma", which was used
meaning 'character', 'form', 'nature', 'kind', and 'manner'"\*1.
 
Description seems to be the primary function of this word "information",
giving shape to experience; the very stuff of language and
communication. Information has a social interest. It follows then that
the most beneficial use of information would be one that serves the
social good. The collective, social act of sharing information should
not be trumped by individual financial interests. Never trust a
corporation to do a librarian's job.
 
Image: Headquarters of The Internet Archive, San Francisco, USA
 
\*1 Hobart, M.E. and Schiffman, Z.S. (1998) *Information ages: literacy,
numeracy, and the computer revolution*. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
 
professionalising
=================
 
[see also]{.underline} administrating, making public
 
In order to give an appraisal of the necessity for professionalism
within librarianship, first the concept of "professional" must be
unpacked. Professional in what sense? The most generic definition of
being able to profess a skill is the first that comes to mind. This
seems hardly a thing to argue against, as the particular skills of
professional librarians are certainly called for in most cases. If we
take another generic assumption that the profession of a librarian
revolves around the mores of making information accessible, then this
invites questions about associations between moral behaviour and
professionalism. All this aside, what I can say is that professional
librarians are not seriously threatened by the amateur librarians,
operating from a distance. The threat comes from much closer for them;
budget cuts that cripple and close their libraries, policies driven by
the encyclopedic expectation that digital volumes of data inspire.\*1
 
Image: A makeshift library checkout card, usually placed in a pocket in
the back of a book
 
\*1 Murray, J.H. (1998) *Hamlet on the holodeck: the future of narrative
in cyberspace*. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
 
amateuring
==========
 
[see also]{.underline} making public, professionalising, republishing
 
Amateur librarianship happens whenever texts are shared informally. An
amateur (from French, meaning "one who loves, lover") acts out of love
(rather than motivated by prestige, or money); there is not often a
conscious decision to be an amateur *anything*. Instead, we often see
the word "amateur" as a negation or lack of professionalism. A rising
imperative emerges, for amateurs to take up the task of librarianship.
The 19th century model of the public library that spread throughout the
U.K. and the U.S.A. was an exemplar of social democratic values. Such
libraries are now under threat. So, sometimes in response, but often
without thought of the legal consequences, amateur librarianship happens
in small, quiet ways that are usually mundane; passing a USB drive
around, emailing a link or a file. *I thought you should read this*.
 
Image: USB drives as libraries
 
reading/writing
===============
 
[see also]{.underline} editing, typing
 
Reading and writing are interdependent; a written text exists to be
read, and is based on a history of reading comprehension and processing,
from the early stages of literacy (developing ability to recognise
separate characters), to reading complex texts that become references
for things we write. In an operational sense, we also read what we
write, as we're writing it. So, the process of writing is combined with
reading, and both gestures can be found in another word that blends the
two acts together: editing.
 
Writing, reading, editing; growing a tree while making a chair from its
wood to sit on.
 
Image: Simon Browne, timed writing/editing experiment using Etherpad,
collaborative text-editing software, 2018. The bars at the top indicate
separate durations of 5-minute writing, and 3-minute editing periods
 
reading
=======
 
[see also]{.underline} technologising the word
 
Although literacy is the ability to read and write, an illiterate person
is often described as not being able to read, rather than write. This is
because the receptive skill of reading precedes the productive skill of
writing. We write in response to the information we receive. Reading
requires a command of the language the text is produced in, as well as a
capacity to store this information in a durable medium; a book, a file,
a tape, and so on.
 
Media theorist Friedrich Kittler said that, historically, reading
functioned as "hallucinating a meaning between the lines"\*1. This
hallucination was exemplified by poetry, whereby the poet intended to
induce in the reader into a state of shock with words. Kittler argued
that the harnessing of electricity was the end of such hallucinations;
as soon as optical and acoustic data could be electronically stored, we
no longer needed our memory, and the realm of the dead was no longer in
written words. The gramophone, typewriter and film produced new ways of
writing and reading texts.
 
Image: Reading-and-writing-at-the-same-time, diagrammed in *The
Principles of Psychology*, William James (1890)
 
\*1 Kittler, F.A. (2012) *Literature, media, information systems:
essays*. Critical voices in art, theory and culture. Johnston, J. (ed.).
London New York: Routledge.
 
skimming/scanning
=================
 
[see also]{.underline} human reading
 
Reading comprehension relies on the twin skills of skimming and
scanning, often done together. Depending on what the function of the
text is, one skill will be used more than the other. It would be foolish
to skim a contract without reading the small print carefully. And if you
don't skim a newspaper article to get the gist of it, scanning for
details is meaningless.
 
Image: A reader highlights text while skim-reading in order to improve
retention and to create a hierarchy in a text, applying a style that can
be efficiently scanned for at a future time
 
human reading
=============
 
[see also]{.underline} technologising the word
 
There are many different reasons why you might read something, but
essentially, reading involves skimming (reading to get the main idea of
a text) or scanning (looking for specific information in details). This
often happens in tandem---skimming the catalogue to see what the
interest of the library is, and then scanning to see if a particular
text has been included---and has relations to other modes of information
retrieval, e.g. browsing/searching.
 
In 1977, while facing a skeptical audience in a Q & A session broadcast
live on Australian television, Marshall McLuhan argued "the word read
means to guess -- look it up in the big dictionary. Reading is an
activity of rapid guessing because any word has so many meanings --
including the word reading -- that to select one in a context of other
words requires very rapid guessing. That's why a good reader tends to be
a very quick decision-maker."\*1 This is very true of human reading,
where multiple interpretations lead to various equivalent understandings
of a text, but false when applied to machine reading, which only
operates with predefined ways of interpreting text.
 
Image: A quote from Marshall McLuhan during a live television broadcast,
1977
 
\*1 McLuhan, M., Available at
[https://mcluhangalaxy.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/acute-abstruse-things-marshall-mcluhan-said-in-australia-in-1977/]{.underline}
 
skimming
========
 
[see also]{.underline} human reading
 
Skimming is reading for the main meaning of a text, reading between the
lines in a semi-distracted state. A way to get the gist of a text
quickly, flipping pages, jumping pages with the spacebar, infinitely
scrolling. Just like skimming stones over water, the eyes jump in
saccades over the surface of the text.
 
Many prefer to read from paper than from a screen. Who hasn't heard
complaints that reading from a screen is tiring, especially when you
just want the gist of a text? Sometimes online articles are accompanied
by information about how long it will take to read them. *Estimated
reading time 6 mins*. *Max word count 400-600 words*.
 
Image: Speed reading
 
machine reading
===============
 
[see also]{.underline} scanning
 
Machines can read text, and process it in complex ways. Code may contain
instructions for a computer to read a file, so that its contents may be
then used as part of a program. An example of this in practice is in the
catalogue details of books in the library (title, author, description,
publisher etc), which can be downloaded rather than manually written.
This involves communication between systems to search their databases;
for example, taking these details from another source, such as
[books.google.com]{.underline}, or
[[goodreads.com]{.underline}](http://www.goodreads.com/).
 
Books can also be checked in and out of libraries by a variety of
machine reading methods such as barcode scanning, or using RFID
(radio-frequency identification) chips inserted into the cover.
 
Image: An RFID tag; an object often contained within the cover of a
public library book to track when it is checked in or out
 
scanning
========
 
[see also]{.underline} human reading, machine reading
 
Scanning is reading for particular details (such as names and numbers)
by running one's eyes over every word in a line. Sometimes I find myself
using my index finger to guide my eyes when scanning a printed text.
With a computer and full-text search capabilities, *control-f* helps
find instances of a particular word or phrase.
 
Scanning is also a way to process printed matter so that it may be
electronically archived, modified and distributed. A bookscanner is the
tool of choice for many archivists. It has two cameras, one to capture
the odd pages, and one for the even pages. Most bookscanners consist of
a system of pulleys which allow the book to be raised to two
perpendicular sheets of glass, laying the pages flat and ensuring the
focus is correct. It's quite a workout, and is usually reserved for
books which are difficult to find in digital format. Essentially the
bookscanner takes two photographs, one each for the even and odd sides
of a spread. So the sequence goes; flip, click click, flip, click click,
and so on, and so on. Next, these images must go through a variety of
processes to produce a digital book; rotating, cropping to the size of
the page, merging into a single PDF. Ultimately, the most useful digital
books include a digital text layer generated by OCR (Optical Character
Recognition) software, making the text searchable and copy/pasteable.
 
Image: An archivist bookscanner
 
writing
=======
 
[see also]{.underline} technologising the word, producing texts
 
Writing is a technology which transforms cultures, particularly from
pre-literate perceptions of memory as a commemorative act bound to the
flux of human experience, to post-literate thinking of it as containers
within which to store information. The invention of the Greek alphabet,
with its introduction of letters representing vowels\*1, connected
speech with a form of its material representation. This technological
development resonates with how we perceive oral communication---thinking
of spoken language through the lens of literacy; as discrete, easily
divisible units, like printed words punctuated by neat spaces. It all
falls apart when speech-to-text transcription software "doesn't work"
(meaning that it works in ways that we do not expect). The result is
that speech, essentially the long continuous sounds that we make with
our mouths, tongues, teeth, lips and throat, comes out as gobbledygook
on the screen.
 
Writing is a fundamental part of the library. Not only in the written
texts it contains, but also in the texts it produces; metadata
(information such as author, title, subject, description, publisher,
etc), annotations made by readers, readers made by readers,
correspondence between the users about the texts, which form a
dialectical synopsis. The library is sustained through producing texts
which argue for its legitimacy by representing the readers who use it.
 
Image: Very early Greek *abecedariums*, inscriptions of the alphabet in
order, typically used as a practice exercise in learning writing, from
Drucker, J. (1999) *The alphabetic labyrinth: the letters in history and
imagination*. London: Thames & Hudson
 
\*1 Hobart, M.E. and Schiffman, Z.S. (1998) *Information ages: literacy,
numeracy, and the computer revolution*. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press.
 
technologising the word
=======================
 
[see also]{.underline} reading/writing, understanding texts
 
According to the philosopher Vilém Flusser, history---in the traditional
sense of a record of events---begins with writing. As such, writing
created a linear, historical consciousness. This allowed us to see
events as part of a process that is manipulable by humans, outside of
divine intervention. Before the technology of writing, a propriocentric
notion of the world dominated human consciousness; perceived through the
senses, immediate and without what we think of as history, which comes
from the ability to store memory in texts. Flusser adds that "Those who
use texts to understand the world, those who 'conceive' it, mean a world
with a linear structure".\*1
 
In pre-literate cultures, such as in Ancient Greece, songs were stitched
together into rhapsodies.\*2 Before literacy, texts existed as
oratories, plays, epics, proclamations and dialogues; mostly oral forms.
The nature of text is to knit together communication. In literate
cultures texts become textiles, tapestries that form cultural
narratives.
 
Image: The Rosetta Stone, a tablet discovered in 1799, inscribed with
three versions of a decree written in Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek
 
\*1 Vilém Flusser 'The Future of Writing', from Flusser, V. and Ströhl,
A. (2002) *Writings*. Electronic mediations v. 6. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
 
\*2 Ong, W.J. and Hartley, J. (2012) *Orality and literacy: the
technologizing of the word*. Orality and literacy. 30th anniversary ed.;
3rd ed. London ; New York: Routledge.
 
human writing
=============
 
[see also]{.underline} typing
 
Writing "by hand" is how we most often think of the act. The hand is
symbolically connected to the act of writing, to the extent that we
still use icons of the hand-held utensils to represent it
graphically---a ballpoint pen, a pencil, even an old-fashioned quill and
nib, all often associated with letter-writing. Slowly, this iconography
is being replaced by another symbol; the keyboard, signalling the
contemporary dominance of typography on writing.
 
Image: 'Proper posture for writing with pen', from Drucker, J. (1999)
*The alphabetic labyrinth: the letters in history and imagination*.
London: Thames & Hudson
 
typing
======
 
[see also]{.underline} machine writing
 
It wasn't handwriting that drove forward the technology of writing into
the modern era, but type. Moveable type expanded the publishing
capabilities of text from a one-to-one to one-to-many model. In the late
19th century hot-typesetting machines melted pieces of aluminium and
cast them into type, in order to be re-used and repeated. Input for
these machines was often entered on a keyboard, which produced a
perforated paper tape, a common early data storage medium. A
distinguishing feature of these early typesetting machines was the
ability to iterate processes by storing information in a reusable
format.
 
For the keyboard, iteration operates at another level, the keys. The
keyboard has its roots in moveable type, which produced "typing", or
using a discrete set of components that could be rearranged in infinite
combinations. From iteration comes automation; "typewriters", which
emerged onto the market around the same time as the phonograph, were
often advertised as a product that enabled "automatic writing".
 
Image: The first commercially-produced typewriter, the Hansen Writing
Ball, from Kittler, F.A. (1990) *Discourse networks 1800/1900*.
Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press
 
machine writing
===============
 
[see also]{.underline} editing
 
This text is being written on a QWERTY keyboard, through a browser,
using a software called "Etherpad" that records every changeset---every
typed key of the characters that are added or deleted. The software is
logging these changes fast enough that it appears to be happening in
real time. I can also go back through every previous changeset to older
versions with the granularity of the individual character. This is the
liminal space between texts; in split-seconds of processing where human
writing is manipulated by machine writing.
 
Image: QWERTY keyboard layout
 
searching/browsing
==================
 
[see also]{.underline} skimming/scanning
 
The difference between these two depends on the interface, and its
seductive (or stoic) effect. The way users are affected also depends on
the hierarchy of information presented, and interfaces that limit how
that information is retrieved. For example, the screen, keyboard, and
mouse make up the interface of the library when viewed on a desktop
computer. On a smartphone, only the screen and keyboard comprise the
interface. Given a mouse, a user may be more liable to pinpoint or
target information. Some features are more conducive to searching, like
a search bar, some more to browsing, like a scroll bar. *The library can
be accessed through a browser, just type hub.xpub.nl/bootleglibrary into
the search bar*.
 
Image: A mouse, keyboard and collaborative text-editing demonstrated in
Douglas Englebart's "Mother of All Demos", 1968

Latest revision as of 16:06, 11 June 2020

Tasks of the Contingent Librarian

The library is closed, the shelves are empty, the librarian has gone. All that is left is a set of index cards contained in a box. At the top of each card is a verb introducing the tasks performed within the space and duration of a particular, situated social infrastructure called the “bootleg library”. The reverse includes references and images that illustrate each task.

This text was written with, by and for readers during library sessions. We wrote on cards by hand, we typed words in a collaborative writing environment. We wrote them together; humans and machines; texts were blended into a mix of keystrokes in changesets too complex, and dependencies too layered to determine singular authorship. These texts were never objects, always processes[1].

Participation from readers became a vital element in the practice of librarianship. The library grew, and we sustained it through conversation and correspondence. We wrote together in threads and strings; and so we created and maintained a space for publication. In the journey from private to public collection, texts were intermingled and rematerialised, gaining provenance and diversification through use. The readers are in the pages of the books, in the metadata of the library and on these cards, where traces of their presence remain.

This text will never be complete. It describes a particular, situated library, one that does not exist anymore, but resembles those that came before it and those that will succeed it. This set of cards is also a library, a collection organised into a structure that directs readers towards the interior, towards the texts it contains. This set is a book, a hyper-index, forever pointing outwards to other books, libraries, readers and writers. Text, library, book and index all come together in this particular material form to comprise a manual, a thing to be manipulated in the hands of readers.

Cards invite shuffling, re-organising, flipping over, distributing, annotating, laying out. An A6 card like the one you’re holding now fits comfortably into the palm of one’s hand, and can be easily turned as it is gripped between the index finger and thumb.

Cards have two sides. Arranged on a table, only one side is visible, and proximity determines connections. Held in the hands and flipped like a book, new relationships between the verso and recto pages emerge. The reader becomes the writer anew, determining what to keep or discard, what to edit or leave as is; the author of the sequence, connections and hierarchy between tasks.

  1. ↑ Barthes, R., ‘From Work to Text’, in Barthes, R. and Heath, S. (1987) Image, music, text. London: Fontana Press.
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