Books Unchained

A History

At the 2009 Bookcrossing Convention Christchurch, New Zealand, I gave a talk about the history of books: from being bound, chained, and locked away; to being released 'on parole' through libraries and bookmobiles; to being made truly via online ventures such as Project Gutenberg and Bookcrossing.

Slides, links and credits are below.

Sources and links

Most of my information and photos on the medieval history of books came from The Care of Books.

I've collected a long list of websites about bookmobiles and related library services.

I found good lists of links to e-book websites at The Online Books Page and e-book.com.au. In my talk I mentioned:

Image credits

Most images are in the public domain from Western Maryland Historical Library, Wikimedia Commons, and the Flickr Free Use Pool. Attribution for Creative Commons-licensed images is at:

Slide 18 (book mobile)
Slide 19 (book ship Epos)
Slide 20 (Biblioburro)
Slide 21 (MIT Bookmobile)
Slide 22 (Book vending machine)
Slide 23 (Library in French metro station)