Bibliographical Society of America (New York, N.Y.)

The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) began as the Bibliographical Society of Chicago (BSC) in 1899. The idea of a national bibliographical society was discussed at the 1901 meeting of the American Library Association (ALA). At the suggestion of the ALA, the BSC appointed a committee and began discussing the possibilities of a national organization. The proceedings of the committee were slow until, in June 1903, it was decided that the time for a national society had come. In 1903 and 1904 membership of the Bibliographical Society of America expanded and increased, and a meeting of the council in October of 1904 marked the true beginning of the BSA.

The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) is the oldest scholarly society in North America dedicated to the study of books and manuscripts as physical objects. It was incorporated in 1927 with the principal objectives of promoting bibliographical research and issuing bibliographical publications through a broad array of activities, including meetings, lectures, and fellowship programs, as well as publishing. The BSA's membership includes bibliographers, librarians, professors, students, booksellers, and collectors worldwide. As an international, interdisciplinary scholarly organization that fosters the study of books and other textual artifacts, the BSA hosts public programs, funds scholarly research, confers awards, issues publications, and collaborates with related organizations to fulfill its mission and achieve its goals.

In 1904-1905, the first volume of the Bibliographical Society of America Proceedings and Papers was published. Since 1907 the BSA has published the quarterly journal Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America (PBSA), which features articles and reviews on a variety of bibliographical and book history topics, including printing, binding, publication, distribution, collecting, and textual analysis.

The BSA holds its annual meeting each January in New York City. The meeting consists of a session of three papers delivered by New Scholars on their current research, a business meeting, an address by an invited speaker, and a reception. The BSA sponsors its own conferences, as well as joint meetings with allied organizations, and panels and speakers at other societies’ conferences, in the United States and abroad. Past conferences include “Poetry and Print in Early America” (Worcester, 2012); “Reading in the White House” (Washington, D.C., 2010); “Book Catalogues: Tomorrow and Beyond” (New York, 2008); and “Roughing It: Printing and the Press in the West” (St. Louis, 2004).