This thesis set out to analyse the eighteenth-century library of Johanna Paauw. If looking at the books in someone's bookcase offers some insight into who they are, what might one conclude on the...Show moreThis thesis set out to analyse the eighteenth-century library of Johanna Paauw. If looking at the books in someone's bookcase offers some insight into who they are, what might one conclude on the basis of Johanna Paauw's bookshelves?Show less
This thesis presents an edition of a selection of letters written by Jurriaan Eindhoven and his soon to be wife Jacoba Holst. The letters in the collection date from 1934 to 1939 and are preserved...Show moreThis thesis presents an edition of a selection of letters written by Jurriaan Eindhoven and his soon to be wife Jacoba Holst. The letters in the collection date from 1934 to 1939 and are preserved by the Dutch National Dairy Archive. They started writing each other letters because Jurriaan joined the navy and went away for naval training in Vlissingen, while Jacoba lived in Amsterdam. After Jurriaan finished his training, he was sent to the Dutch-Indies. They stopped writing each other in 1939 because Jurriaan missed Jacoba too much and he returned to Amsterdam. This edition contains: an introduction to the collection, a description of the historical context of the letters, a description of the events that happened after they stopped writing, an insight in the personal lives of Jurriaan and Jacoba, a digital analysis of the letters and a transcription of a selection of the letters.Show less
In the seventeenth century ‘books of secrets’ became increasingly popular. This thesis discusses the origin of the 'books of secrets', their presence in Europe and in the Northern Netherlands...Show moreIn the seventeenth century ‘books of secrets’ became increasingly popular. This thesis discusses the origin of the 'books of secrets', their presence in Europe and in the Northern Netherlands specifically. These books, most popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contain many recipes. Some are leaning more towards early-modern science, while others are clearly connected to magic. The books of secrets that were present in the Netherlands are both translations of works written elsewhere, as works created by Dutch authors.Show less
This research aimed to study the effects of the Second World War on the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. The effects of the cultural politics imposed by the Nazis were considered, including censorship for...Show moreThis research aimed to study the effects of the Second World War on the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. The effects of the cultural politics imposed by the Nazis were considered, including censorship for libraries. In addition, the effects of the threat of air raids were examined, such as the measures the library took to safeguard their collection. Finally, the many effects of the war on the functioning of library services and activities are analysed in this study.Show less
Never before were there so many people that can read and have access to reading material on demand. This is a time of great technological innovation, and carrying a small computer in the back...Show moreNever before were there so many people that can read and have access to reading material on demand. This is a time of great technological innovation, and carrying a small computer in the back pocket of your jeans has become a normality, and often even a necessity. An increasing number of people relies on the ability to read, and current literacy numbers are exceptionally high, with a vast majority of the world population being literate. Reading is done on a large scale by a staggering number of people, yet reading enthusiasm and the number of people who read as a leisure activity in its own right is declining. This results in a decline in the number of people able to read a long-form text in the deep reading mode, and this poses a problem. Reading long-form texts in a deep reading mode trains the reading comprehension ability and general reading skill, if these skills are not regularly trained there is a risk of becoming low-literate, which impedes someone to fully participate in society. Being low-literate decreases the chances of being able to think critically, differentiate between real and fake news, understand political party programmes, or the information attached to drugs. The increase of people at risk of becoming low-literate is connected to heavy screen use. Screen reading does not train the deep reading mode, but rather the skimming reading mode. Being well trained to read in the skimming reading mode has made it extremely difficult for people to be able to read long-form texts. In this thesis I address this problem and argue that reading graphic narratives can be a stepping stone to acquiring and improving general comprehensive reading skills and reading enthusiasm for non-graphic text. I support my argument by indicating the characteristics of the graphic narrative and how these enable the reluctant reader to read a graphic narrative in a way that resembles the skimming reading mode, while still being able to read deeply. Additionally I review several research studies that have found the graphic narrative to provide a positive learning experience for students, in the fields of second language acquisition, and reading comprehension ability.Show less
Delft, as an important town in the Dutch Republic, played an interesting role in the world of the book in the seventeenth century. This thesis focusses on the local influences on the printing...Show moreDelft, as an important town in the Dutch Republic, played an interesting role in the world of the book in the seventeenth century. This thesis focusses on the local influences on the printing industry in seventeenth-century Delft as demonstrated by the printer Jan Pietersz. Waelpot. By looking at the history of printing in Delft, the personal life and business of Jan Pietersz. Waelpot and his publications, the way local institutions, authors and interests influenced his business becomes clear.Show less
Just as many other towns in the Dutch Republic, Leiden had a flourishing book industry during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Of a few of the Leiden printers, active in these centuries,...Show moreJust as many other towns in the Dutch Republic, Leiden had a flourishing book industry during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Of a few of the Leiden printers, active in these centuries, inventories of their printing offices have survived, mainly as notarial documents. In this thesis, the different type faces and sizes of fourteen Leiden printing offices in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are analysed to give a better view of the Leiden book industry in this time.Show less
We examine in detail the FAIR Guiding Principles, what they are, why they were created, as well as highlight the difference between Linked Open Data and FAIR. We then give an overview of the...Show moreWe examine in detail the FAIR Guiding Principles, what they are, why they were created, as well as highlight the difference between Linked Open Data and FAIR. We then give an overview of the current environment of humanities scholarship, paying particular attention to the Digital Humanities and book history. We explore some of the reasons that the implementation of FAIR is significantly slower in the Humanities compared to the Sciences or Social Sciences by highlighting some of the challenges faced by humanities scholars in terms of producing and quantifying digital research data that is also easily findable and reusable, while taking time to discuss issues found in all disciplines such as IP, copyright, and privacy laws, as well as issues concerning authenticity, authority, trust, verification, and uncertainty relevant to open-source platforms and digital assets. A case study is then presented using a database that was created using information from the original book catalogue and cashbooks from the Bibliotheca Thysiana, a seventeenth-century library located in Leiden, The Netherlands. After analyzing the quality of the data from the Thysiana based on the requirements of the FAIR Principles, we then utilize the steps in the FAIRification Process by applying each to the database one at a time, highlighting any challenges along the way. Finally, we conclude with thoughts and criticisms on the feasibility of the application of FAIR onto a humanities database, suggesting that it is indeed a guide that can be implemented practically in the field of book history, yet not without some challenges and forethought.Show less
The Digital Age, or the Age of Information, has made university presses and their mission to produce top quality scholarship more important than ever before. Knowledge is at everyone’s fingertips,...Show moreThe Digital Age, or the Age of Information, has made university presses and their mission to produce top quality scholarship more important than ever before. Knowledge is at everyone’s fingertips, it is as easy as pressing a few buttons on your computer, but this ease is not unilaterally aligned with reliability. This is why university content is becoming increasingly more vital. However, limited budgets, changing markets, and a reluctance to embrace digital technologies have resulted in many university presses struggling to stay in operation. The monograph in particular is struggling to turn profits and is beginning to be viewed by portions of the academic community as outdated and a monetary burden for universities. This thesis looks at how university press monographs can survive in this changing climate, in particular by employing digital marketing strategies. It examines three major developing areas of digital marketing (big data, social media use by the press and social media use by the author). It draws on UP case studies to illustrate digital marketing engagement.Show less
A study published in 2017 about leisure time use of average American citizens depicted the percentage of time Americans read, played video games or did other leisure activities on the computer. On...Show moreA study published in 2017 about leisure time use of average American citizens depicted the percentage of time Americans read, played video games or did other leisure activities on the computer. On an average day, only 21% of respondents in 2015 would read as a pastime, a decrease from the 27% of respondents that would read for pleasure in 2005. As opposed to this, the playing of video games as a pastime increased by 38%. With the preference of time use leaning towards gaming as well as the increasing popularity of smartphones and online devices, most people tend to spend more time reading from a screen rather than from print with the average adult spending around nine hours per day reading, swiping and listening to media. This, however, is claimed to crucially affect our level of text comprehension. Experts on study and learning claim that people remember less when reading something from a screen because of a multitude of factors. It has been argued, for instance, that texts are taken less seriously due to the loss of physical location, as explored in Jabr’s article “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens”, which will be researched in more detail further on in this thesis, and that the loss of physical characteristics, such as pages put up barriers for comprehension and for memorization.Reading from electronic devices such as laptops or tablets can also affect the degree of concentration a reader experiences because of the constant presence of distractions.4 Various scholars have found that readers cannot be immersed as easily in digital texts. The notion of immersion is defined in this thesis as “the feeling of being lost in a story”; one loses track of their surroundings and devotes their full concentration of the story. But to what degree can readers feel immersed in texts that are read in video games? Many video games contain texts as well, next to still and moving images. This thesis concentrates on text-rich video games, which are video games of any genre whose most important feature is text; although text rich video games can be beautifully designed, the reader/player needs to read the text to proceed in the game. Playing a text-rich video game can be considered a hybrid genre, as it entails reading and playing video games simultaneously. It offers individuals the opportunity to do both at once meaning they will not have to choose one of the activities over the other. When considering immersion in text-rich games, Madigan believes that one of the central characteristics of an immersive game is “a strong and interesting narrative, plot, or story”. This statement, as well as research into text rich video games by Catherine Beavis, have spurred my interest in this subject. This thesis will consist of two parts. One part describes the theory behind text rich games. Among other information, this theoretical section will include a clear definition and delineation of the term ‘text rich games’. Furthermore, this part of this thesis will touch upon theories of navigability, reading comprehension, immersion, narrative, and medium to determine whether reading video game text is feasible, desirable and similar to reading from print. The second part discusses research into reading culture and immersion, based on a case study which compares experiences of a printed version of The Shamutanti Hills by Steve Jackson and the video game adaptation of the same book. The concepts that have been researched in the theoretical section will be put to the test in this section of the thesis. The main aim of the case study is to examine whether the act of reading a text in video game format can genuinely be seen as (deep) reading. Alternatively, should this solely be considered playing a video game? The hypothesis is that the degree of immersion in the text of the video game will be similar to the text of the gamebook, this due to the similarity in non-linear form of the video game and the gamebook. A gamebook is a genre of printed book that combines elements of traditional text with elements of games in which readers choose their own stories; by flipping through the pages and following clues in the numbered paragraphs, readers find out what their choices entail. Since the game primarily works with clicks and reading, the distractions are expected to be minimal. Considering reading comprehension, the hypothesis is that participants should read about the same amount of text with similar results for reading comprehension, due to the non-conventional format of the texts, and the visual cues both texts provide.Show less
Lebanon's religious institutions have been preserving the country's religious and cultural heritage since they were established several centuries ago. Digitisation is the latest tool in the...Show moreLebanon's religious institutions have been preserving the country's religious and cultural heritage since they were established several centuries ago. Digitisation is the latest tool in the preservation efforts by the country's academic institutions, some established by religious orders initially, though secular now. They are building on a well-established tradition of scholarship and research. The efforts by the country's academic institutions, who have acted as safeguards of their own religious and cultural heritage, are a recognition of the need to preserve that legacy for future generations. These academic institutions have taken up this responsibility in the absence of state efforts to do so, due to wars over the centuries and changes in ruling powers, and a lack of strong government institutions to lead on that front. Digitisation has already brought down barriers and will help the country build digital scholarship and ensure its wealth of cultural heritage is safeguarded as well as shared beyond its borders.Show less
