Politics, Principles and Plays: Professor Thomas Lockwood on Outlaw Print and Bottom-Feeding Printers.

Professor Lockwood’s interest and curiosity in the subterranean infrastructure of cheap periodical press and the work of its pirate publishers was cultivated during the time spent with the periodicals and journals of the time to research his book Lowlife: Representations of Social Inferiority in Britain, 1660 – 1830. Although there are not many items produced by these pirate printers still extant today, Lockwood believes that a better understanding of their social and cultural influences could shed light onto their contribution to the spread of literature among the lower classes and, additionally, could elucidate references and allusions in contemporary plays and literary works.

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Digitisation: Introduction

This is the first in a series of informative blog posts aimed at illuminating the production and use of digitised materials. The posts are part of a larger project for creating sustainable digital learning materials, supported by EDINA, the Centre for Research Collections and the Centre for the History of the Book.


Nowadays, it is highly unlikely that you will encounter a university student who has never had to deal with digital materials: at the very least, they browsed the online catalogue of the university library to find the physical resources they needed. The digital has entered academia in various forms. Many university libraries now simply subscribe to the online editions of academic journals, rather than accumulate piles of the physical issues. Digital collections are created and presented on the libraries’ websites, allowing ready access for more users regardless of geographical distance. Whole books can be found online or in ebook form. Technically speaking, some students might not even have to set foot in the library. The computer screen can be the window to all the resources they need.

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