Our contemporary media and knowledge society is paying steadily more attention to reading, reading comprehension, and reading competency. Especially since the PISA study in 2000, these issues have been the focus of both political and popular discussion. Reading: A Handbook is based on the latest research findings in neurophysiology, psycholinguistics, education, sociological communications theory, and the book sciences."

The Archiv fur Geschichte des Buchwesenspublishes academic articles and source editions, and covers all subjects connected with books and their history. In addition to reviews, Volume 67 will include amongst others an article about Gustav Freytag and Collecting in Historism and a research report about recent publications about the history of publishing houses."

To date Melusine as an example of a literary book that has over the centuries reached different groups of readers has above all been an object of research for scholars of literary studies.This volume is the first time that the entire history of the transmission of the work from the 15th to the early 19th centuries has been studied from an interdisciplinary approach."

The Archiv fur Geschichte des Buchwesens contains academic articles and source editions, and covers all subjects connected with books and their history."

This volume includes contributions from the conference 'Buch und Bibliothek als WissensrAume', e.g.: Margaret M. Smith: 'From Manuscript to Print: Early Design Changes'; Oliver Duntze: 'Text und Kommentar in juristischen Drucken der FrA1/4hen Neuzeit'; Renate Wittern-Sterzel: 'Die PrAsentation des anatomischen Wissens im Buch des 16. Jahrhunderts'; Ulrich Johannes Schneider: 'Der Ort der BA1/4cher in der Bibliothek und im Katalog am Beispiel von Herzog Augusts WolfenbA1/4tteler BA1/4chersammlung'; Alfredo Serrai: 'Bibliothekarische Kataloge als Spiegel und Instrumente von Wissensordnungen in der FrA1/4hen Neuzeit'. Further: 'Electronic Publishing und E-Commerce im Buchhandel. Ein Forschungsbericht fA1/4r den Publikationszeitraum 1995 bis 2004' (Volker Titel).

The volume is designed as an introduction to scholarly research on the book, approaching it as the basic and leading medium in early-modern and modern communication systems. The various aspects of the book medium are analyzed from a wide range of perspectives - the history of printing, the book and its relation to other media, social and economic factors. A further major concern is to provide an outline of basic approaches to a theory of media as a starting-point for a future theory of the book that has yet to be developed.

The Archive on the History of Books publishes academic articles and source editions, cultivating all subjects connected to the book and its history. Volume 68 includes the following essays, among others: Sandra Oster: Portraits of publishers: The depiction of publishers in images from the Early Modern Era to the 20th century.Wolfgang Schellmann: The accounting ledgers of the Sternsche Press in Luneburg, 1666. Nils Guttler: The female cartographic colorists of the Perthes Press: A historical perspective on society and publishing.Christina Lembrecht: Research report on the academic publishing industry."

This volume presents the findings of research into the book, institutions and associations concerned with expert communication, concepts of teaching in book studies, bibliophile societies and research libraries. Over 40 renowned scholars have collaborated to provide a handbook which will not only appeal to experts in the field, but will also be of interest to the neighbouring disciplines.