The fourteenth annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) will be held at the National Library of The Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) in The Hague and in Leiden, The Netherlands, on 11-14 July 2006. The Conference will be organized by the National Library in cooperation with the Universities of Leiden, Utrecht, Nijmegen and Amsterdam.

The conference focus on ‘Trading Books - Trading Ideas’ seeks to highlight the importance of first the European and then the North American heritage for the book and print cultures of the world. Special attention will be paid to the history of the trade in books between Eastern and Western European countries, to mark the occasion of ten new Eastern member states joining the European Union on 1 May 2004. Papers on these specific themes are particularly welcome. In keeping with the inclusive tradition of SHARP conferences, proposals on any other aspects of book history and print culture in any place or period are also welcome.

The conference will be open to both individual papers, combined into sessions by the program committee, and to complete panel sessions of three papers and a chair organized and proposed by members. As is the SHARP custom, each paper will be twenty minutes in length, followed by a discussion. Each panel session will be 90 minutes in duration.

Paper and session proposals (in English) should be submitted by 30 November 2005. Proposals may be submitted either online with the webform provided at http://www.kb.nl/hkc/congressen/sharp2006/callforpapers/guidelines-en.html, or to:

SHARP 2006 Conference
c/o Koninklijke Bibliotheek
Paul van Capelleveen
Postbus 90407
2509 LK Den Haag
The Netherlands
sharp2006@kb.nl

Proposals received after 30 November 2005 will not be considered. Each individual proposal should contain a title, an abstract of no more than 400 words, and brief biographical information about the author(s). Proposals for panel sessions should include a cover sheet explaining the theme and goals, as well as the three individual abstracts. Presenters (at least one author of each paper proposal) must be a member of SHARP or must join SHARP at the time of submission of proposals (for information on membership and dues see SHARPweb). If special audio-visual technology is required, it should be requested when the proposal is submitted.

Among planned pre-conference activities are a book studies masterclass for graduate students, and a graduate student network meeting.

SHARP makes available a small number of travel grants to graduate students and to independent scholars. If you wish to be considered for such a grant, please state this when submitting your proposal.

Please visit the conference webpage at http://www.kb.nl/sharp2006 for further information, and plan on joining us in July 2006 for this exciting conference.

The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing is a dynamic global community that welcomes scholars from all disciplinary perspectives who are working on any aspect of the history of the written or printed word. For more information about SHARP and how to join, visit our website at http://www.sharpweb.org