Initiative launch

In our first year, RIB hosted inaugural lectures by Isabel Hofmeyr and Jill Lepore, co-organized a transcribe-a-thon  with the Colored Conventions Project and Alexander Library, sponsored graduate student field trips to area libraries and letterpresses, selected graduate students to receive fellowships at Rare Book School, and sponsored an undergraduate class in bookmaking, based at the Honors College Makerspace.  In summer 2021, Rutgers University Press and Princeton University Press hosted graduate interns from the Book Initiative to explore alt-ac careers.  We plan to expand the program to include special-collections libraries and booksellers. Once social distancing permits, our new table-top press will come out of storage to print student projects, dissertation and honors thesis title-pages, protest posters – let us know your ideas.  Mentions of the Initiative in the New Yorker and Washington Post have sparked donations of books, expertise, and funds — please email if you’d like to become involved.