This project is an initiative to create an advanced research tool for the history of reading in the Netherlands from the late Middle Ages until the 1980s. Thanks to online access to a large, fully searchable Dutch Reading Experience Database (NL RED), the systematic study of individual reading experiences will become possible for the first time. This database will be part of an international network of databases, thanks to close collaboration with the English Reading Experience Database (RED: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK_RED/index.php), which was launched in 1996 (see also WORLD RED: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/World_RED/).
Reading experiences are defined in this project (and in RED) as ‘recorded engagements with a written or printed text, by an identifiable reader, beyond the mere fact of possession’. They are to be found in a wide range of sources, in particular in written sources such as egodocuments and private correspondences, but also in fictional sources such as novels. Also visual sources will be included.
With the NL RED researchers will for the first time be able to answer two main questions in the history of reading: How did people reflect on reading? How did reading practices change over time and what are the factors that influenced these changes? On a methodological level this database will stimulate and bridge the interplay between different disciplines such as history of the book, the history of science, media history, literary studies, the history of education and art history. The NL RED database will build on the English RED, and at the same time will add some innovative aspects to the English database. It increases the scope of the database (beyond 1945), it will create bilingual tools, it will add new advanced geographical and statistical presentations of search queries and it will link the experiences to standardized information about authors and titles.
| The Project Committee consists of seven Dutch scholars:Prof dr. A. Baggerman (Erasmus University Rotterdam)Drs. M. van Delft (National Library The Hague)
Dr. L. Duyvendak (Open University Heerlen) Dr. S. van Dijk (Huygens ING The Hague) Prof dr P. Hoftijzer (Leiden University) Dr. J. Salman (Utrecht University) Drs. J. van Zundert (Huygens ING The Hague) |
For further information about this project please contact:
Suzan van Dijk suzan.van.dijk@huygensinstituut.knaw.nl
or
Jeroen Salman j.salman@uu.nl
dd. 9-12-2010