The Book Cover Project

PLO 8: Research

Students will be able to individually and collaboratively evaluate published research in library and information studies (LIS) and other fields of knowledge and apply basic principles and techniques of research in LIS with an understanding of the relationship between LIS and other disciplines.

An opportunity to explore not only published academic research but also primary sources as well as other more mainstream discussion and debate, The Book Cover Project is an example in particular of individual evaluation and application of “published research in library and information studies (LIS) and other fields of knowledge” such as marketing, design, and psychology.

This project was an excellent opportunity to dig into the research on a specific element of the publishing industry, and apply that knowledge to the analysis of several examples of how book cover design plays a role in the marketing and sale of books.

A study of the underlying principles and theories combined with several case study examples, and presented as a publicly-accessible web-based resource, The Book Cover Project comes out of LIS 591 Publishing as a research project that also serves to showcase PLO 6: Production of Knowledge.

The project also included an accompanying video introduction.