Reading Experience Database 1450-1945

Version 3 of the Reading Experience Database (RED) is planned for release in summer 2009.

RED was launched in 1996 at the UK Open University. Its mission is to accumulate as much data as possible about the reading experiences of readers of all nationalities in Britain and those of British subjects abroad from 1450 to 1945.

RED currently contains approximately 17,000 records, the majority of which have been verified, edited and released for searching. More entries are contributed and released every day and thus return visits to the database should yield new results each time.

Anyone can contribute information to the database and help to make this resource usefully and fully searchable by providing details of whatever evidence you have of a relevant Reading Experience.

RED is also looking for volunteers to work their way systematically through such materials in order to record evidence of reading.If you are interested in becoming a volunteer see: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/RED/volunteers.html

What is a ‘reading experience’?
‘Reading’ can mean many things, from reading a book aloud or silently, to the critical ‘reading’ of a text (including dramatic and cinematic texts) in an academic sense, or (metaphorically) ‘reading’ a face, a social situation, or the symbolic value of a text. But in the interests of clarity and manageability the RED has had to exclude certain of these ‘reading experiences’ as outside their remit. For the purposes of the database, a ‘reading experience’ means a recorded engagement with a written or printed text - beyond the mere fact of possession. A database containing as much information as possible about what British people read, where and when they read it and what they thought of it will form an invaluable resource for researchers of book history, cultural studies, sociology and family history, to name but a few.

For more information see: http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/RED/