Survival of the Weakest: Preserving and Analysing Born-Digital Records to Understand How Small Poetry Publishers Survive in the Global Marketplace

利用以前无法获取的原生数字记录，该项目试图了解小型诗歌出版商如何在由大型跨国出版公司主导的全球市场中生存。它侧重于国际公认的诗歌出版商Carcanet Press的具体案例。1999年3月，Carcanet买下了牛津大学出版社诗歌目录的核心部分。随着牛津大学彻底放弃这一领域，一家小的省级出版社变成了世界领先的诗歌出版商。但这种进化不是一夜之间发生的。1969年，迈克尔·施密特和彼得·琼斯创立了Carcanet， 1972年从牛津搬到了曼彻斯特。新闻界继续建立了一个多样化的名单，包括翻译的诗歌和被忽视的女诗人的诗歌。与Carcanet有关的杰出作家包括Elizabeth Jennings， Ted Hughes和其他许多人。该项目的核心论点是，Carcanet成功地瞄准了对整体艺术体验感兴趣的诗歌“用户”，而不仅仅是单独阅读。从一开始，Carcanet就在文学节和其他活动中积极推广自己的名单，然后利用技术革命吸引新的受众。Carcanet品牌是“颠覆性创新”（用哈佛商学院教授克莱顿•克里斯滕森提出的一个有影响力的概念来说）的一个很好的例子。当其他公司依靠诗歌在传统文学中心的声望时，Carcanet已经从曼彻斯特的基地创造了新的市场。简而言之，Carcanet找到了一种方法，将非诗歌消费者转变为新的诗歌消费者——他们在平板电脑或手机上读诗，听播客，看诗歌表演视频。尽管Carcanet在文学界占有重要地位，但它几乎没有引起学术界的关注，部分原因是它的大部分档案不对研究人员开放。这个档案，包括原生数字和模拟记录，保存在约翰·里兰兹图书馆（曼彻斯特）。该项目将保存纸质馆藏和数字馆藏（目前由于数据保护问题而关闭）中未编目部分的具有国际意义的档案材料，并使其可访问。丰富的档案资料的开放将导致小型诗歌出版商和整个数字记录问题的新知识的产生。恰逢Carcanet成立五十周年，该项目将为当代文学景观中心的出版社提供独特的见解。它还将提供一种模式来保存和使研究人员更容易获得原生数字记录，从而产生新的知识。虽然我们仍然保存着过去几个世纪的信件、手稿和其他实物文件，但我们正面临着失去过去十年中创建的数字文件的危险。通过促进学者和档案工作者之间的密切合作，该项目旨在回答人文和社会科学中最紧迫的挑战之一：从印刷到数字的过渡。我的专著将是Carcanet Press的第一部历史，从1969年不起眼的开始到目前的世界领先地位。该项目的数字资源将包括与泰德·休斯和伊丽莎白·詹宁斯有关的新编目的档案材料，与Carcanet有关的关键人物的口述历史访谈，媒体制作的精选电子邮件，以及基于该数字档案的数据可视化。博物馆将举办展览，包括重要的档案发现和文物，以及一个“记忆摊位”，让参观者分享他们对Carcanet的记忆。一个为期一天的研讨会和国际会议将把档案工作者和学者聚集在一起，寻找解决文学和出版商档案中原生数字记录问题的办法。然后，主要的贡献将发表在一个主要期刊的特刊上。

Drawing on previously inaccessible born-digital records, this project seeks to understand how small poetry publishers survive in a global marketplace dominated by large, multinational publishing firms. It focuses on the specific case of Carcanet Press, an internationally-recognised poetry publisher. In March 1999, Carcanet bought the core of the poetry list of Oxford University Press. With Oxford's complete abandonment of the field, a small provincial press had become a world-leading publisher of poetry. But this evolution did not happen overnight. Founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt and Peter Jones, Carcanet moved from Oxford to Manchester in 1972. The press went on to build a diverse list, including poetry in translation and by neglected women poets. Among the distinguished writers associated with Carcanet are Elizabeth Jennings, Ted Hughes and many others. The central argument of the project is that Carcanet has successfully targeted niches of poetry "users" interested in a total artistic experience not limited to solitary reading. From its origins, Carcanet actively promoted its list in literary festivals and other events, before leveraging the technological revolution to engage with new audiences. The Carcanet brand is a good example of "disruptive innovation" (to use an influential concept developed by the Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen). While other firms relied on the prestige of poetry in traditional literary centres, Carcanet has created new markets from its base in Manchester. In short, Carcanet has found a way to turn non-consumers into new consumers of poetry - who read poems on their tablets or phones, listen to podcasts and watch videos of poetry performances. Despite its importance in the literary landscape, Carcanet has attracted little scholarly attention - in part because the largest part of its archive is closed to researchers. This archive, which comprises born-digital as well as analogue records, is held at the John Rylands Library (Manchester). The project will preserve and make accessible internationally-significant archival materials held in the uncatalogued part of the paper collection and in the digital collection (currently closed due to data protection issues). The opening of rich archival materials will lead to the production of new knowledge on small poetry publishers and on the overall issue of born-digital records. Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of Carcanet, the project will offer unique insight into a publishing house central to the contemporary literary landscape. It will also provide a model to preserve and make born-digital records more accessible to researchers, in order to produce new knowledge. While we still have letters, manuscripts and other physical documents from the past centuries, we are in danger of losing digital documents created in the last decade. By fostering close collaborations between scholars and archivists, the project seeks to answer one of the most pressing challenge in the humanities and social sciences: the transition from print to digital. Outputs:_My monograph will be the first history of Carcanet Press, from its humble beginnings in 1969 to its current world-leading position._The project's digital resource will incorporate newly catalogued archival materials related to Ted Hughes and Elizabeth Jennings, oral history interviews of key figures associated with Carcanet, selected emails produced by the press, as well as data visualisations based on this digital archive._An exhibition/ display at the JRL will include key archival findings and artefacts as well as a "memory booth" to allow visitors to share their memories of Carcanet._A one-day workshop and international conference will bring together archivists and scholars to find solutions to the problem of born-digital records in literary and publishers' archives. Major contributions will then be published in a special issue of a leading journal.