The Bibliographical Society has just launched a redesigned version of the
London Book Trades Database (https://lbt.bibsoc.org.uk/).

The original LBT database was the work of the late Michael Turner at the
Bodleian Library, assisted by a number of collaborators, drawing
particularly on the archival resources of the Stationers’ Company. A web
version of the database was created in 2009 which eventually ran on servers
at the Bodleian until it was closed down in 2024 as its software was long
past its expiry date.

The Bibliographical Society has taken steps to revive the project, this
time as a read-only MediaWiki resource based on a new extraction of the
data from the original database created by Michael Turner and a radical
redesign of the contents and interface (I led this work). This new version,
known as LBT Version 2, does not yet contain all the original data, but the
people, events, titles, and relationships make it immediately useful. We
envisage two or three updates in the coming months as more contents are
retrieved and restructured. The new web site has explanatory pages with a
full history of the project and its new technical implementation.

In addition to all the famous names of the book trade up to the
mid-nineteenth century, entries offer information for more minor figures
including family members and apprentices. There are entries for nearly
35,000 people, presenting detailed accounts of the person’s interaction
with the Stationers’ Company and data from published sources.

I trust that this is of interest to some of you and that this isn't outside
the scope of Digital Humanities on CODE4LIB.

Regards,

       David Macfarlane, FSA.