Abstract

Several cities in Sweden have been providing book-printing facilities since the 1640s. In our quantitative and explorative analysis of library catalogs from the National Library of Sweden and the National Library of Finland we identify the general trends in publishing, how book-printing has been affected by political events, and how printing developed at different paces in different parts of the realm. We have developed a new method for analyzing the totality of publishing through extensive data harmonization and comprehensive statistical analysis, and by treating library catalogs not as an endpoint of bibliographic research but as an inherently rich source of information. This facilitated the quantitative assessment of printing in the Swedish realm based on the metadata contained in library catalogs. Our data-driven approach to the transformation of public discourse demonstrates that whereas the amount of printed material grew steadily, political ruptures affected the development of printing. We also suggest that the culture of books and printing is best understood through the dynamics of competing intellectual hubs consisting of the university cities and the political center in Stockholm. This perspective further challenges the dominant, nationally delineated approach in book history.

摘要

自1640年代以来，瑞典的几个城市一直在提供书籍印刷设施。在对瑞典国家图书馆和芬兰国家图书馆的图书馆目录进行定量和探索性分析时，我们确定了出版的总体趋势，政治事件如何影响书籍印刷以及不同部分印刷的发展速度领域。我们已经开发了一种通过广泛的数据统一和全面的统计分析来分析出版总体的新方法，并且通过将图书馆目录视为不是书目研究的终点，而是将其视为固有的丰富信息资源。这有助于根据图书馆目录中包含的元数据对瑞典领域的印刷进行定量评估。我们以数据驱动的方式进行公共话语转换的方法表明，尽管印刷材料的数量稳定增长，但政治破裂却影响了印刷的发展。我们还建议，通过大学城和斯德哥尔摩政治中心等竞争性知识中心的动力来最好地理解书籍和印刷文化。这种观点进一步挑战了图书历史上占主导地位的，全国划分的方法。