What I do
bibliographer, n.
A person who writes about books, describing their authorship, printing, publication, etc.
My work and scholarship have evolved out of the institutional and private collections I have worked with (including my own modest library) and taken a variety of forms, including publications for popular audiences.
Since 2018 I have worked as the Executive Director of the Bibliographical Society of America, the oldest scholarly society in North America dedicated to the study of books and manuscripts as physical objects. I collaborate with BSA leadership to expand and diversify membership and programs, enhance programing, create a more robust communications profile, and forge new partnerships with other scholarly organizations and societies. I also work with BSA leadership on major issues of planning, finance, fundraising and development, and the general business of the Society. If we met before October of 2020 you knew me as Erin Schreiner; I took my husband's last name when we married and I am now Erin McGuirl.
My research focuses on the printerly labor of the secretaries and typists who produced screenplays in 20th century Hollywood movie studios. I also collect Whole Earth Catalogs and what I call its "offspring" – books put together following instructions printed in the last Catalog, or otherwise published by and for people living in rural areas and on communes in the latter half of the 20th century.
I graduated from Middlebury College with a BA in the History of Art and Architecture in 2007, and hold an MLIS from the Palmer School of Information Science with a concentration in rare book librarianship. From 2008 to 2016 I worked at Columbia University's Avery Art & Architectural Library's Classics Collection and then at the New York Society Library (NYSL) as Special Collections Librarian. At the NYSL I lead a project to redesign and launch City Readers, a digital humanities tool for the study of reading and readers at the Library, New York City's oldest cultural institution founded in 1754.
In 2016 I started my own business as an independent consultant to institutional and private collections. I am no longer taking new clients, but I continue to work exclusively with Robert M. Rubin's collection of screenplays and other cinematic "exformation".
I have been awarded fellowships by the Bibliographical Society (UK), Rare Book School, and the Harry Ransom Center. I have also taught at Rare Book School and guest lectured at the Pratt Institute's Information School.
Please see my LinkedIn profile and my CV for more information about my professional experience.

Publications & Presentations
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"Practices of moving texts: a roundtable on the history of information," roundtable panelist for the SHARP 2021 Conference, Moving Texts.
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"From Screenplay to Screen: Collecting Hollywood's Paper Underpinnings," a virtual lecture with Robert M. Rubin for the Grolier Club. May 20, 2021.
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"Movie Materiality: A Bibliographical Analysis of Two Modern Theatrical Texts," a talk for the Penn Workshop in the History of Material Texts. April 5, 2021.
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"The Women Who Made Selznick's Screenplays" in the Ransom Center Magazine, first published online 5 February 2021.
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"Professionalization in the Field of Bibliography, Book History, & Textual Editing: Entering the Field Without Formal Training"
Panelist, MLA 2021 Bibliography & Textual Editing Roundtable
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The Screenplay as Material Text, webinar for the Bibliographical Society of America. Now available as a video recording on YouTube.
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"Bright Young Librarians" interview in Fine Books & Collections (September 2020)
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"Modern Sales Catalogs" and "Office Practices" in Information: A Historical Companion, eds. Ann Blair, Paul Duguid, Anja-Silvia Goeing, and Anthony Grafton. Princeton University Press (2021)
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The Celluloid Paper Trail: Seminar for ABAA Southern California Chapter Members at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library
Featured Panelist, October 26, 2019
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"Materiality, Portability, and the Making of the Whole Earth Catalogue"
SHARP 2019: Indigeneity, Nationhood, and Migrations of the Book
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Letter to the Editor re: Sam Knight's "Hidden Traces"
The New Yorker, December 17, 2018
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"Printing the Screenplay in Hollywood & Beyond" in Printing History (New Series no. 24, Summer 2018)
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"A Peek at Famous Readers' Borrowing Records at a Private Library in New York"
Atlas Obscura, February 5, 2018
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[Review] The Whole Earth Field Guide (MIT Press, 2016)
SHARP News, 1 January 2018
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"The Small Script Copying Service that Powered NYC Entertainment for Decades"
Atlas Obscura, October 11, 2017
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"The New York Antiquarian Book Fair Enters the 21st Century At Last"
LitHub, March 11, 2017
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City Readers at the New York Society Library
Workshop at Rare Book School, 27 July 2017
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Digital Approaches to Library History: The City Readers Project at the New York Society Library
The Community Libraries Network Conference, 2014
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Contributions to JHI Blog as Contributing or Managing Editor, 2015-2017. These are the best of them:
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Contributions to the New York Society Library's Blog & Newsletter as Special Collections Librarian. These are the best of them:
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New York Needs a History of Reading (announcing the launch of the City Readers digital humanities research portal)
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“Illustration, Ornament, and Printing Processes in Joseph Boillot’s Nouveaux Pourtraitz et Figures des Termes pour user en l’Architecture (1592)”
The Columbia Book History Colloquium, March 22, 2011