Independent Researcher

About

A former bookseller in New York's Greenwich Village, Dr Nesta's library career has included supervisory positions at major research libraries (New York Public and Columbia), experience in corporate and special libraries, and directorships at academic libraries in New York, London, and Hong Kong. He was University Librarian at Lingnan University in Hong Kong from 2004 to 2011. His research interests are in the history, economics, and marketing of late Victorian novels; the history and culture of the book in China; and the interactions between people and digital and printed texts. He is also the founder and Executive Director of the Centre for the History of the Book in China, Ltd (中國書籍史研究中心公司). Dr. Nesta is currently writing a book on the marketing of the late Victorian novel and editing a reader in Chinese book history.

Publications:
‘Monograph Circulation over a Fifteen-Year Period in a Liberal Arts University’.  [with Sheila Cheung and Terry Chung] Library Management, vol. 32, no.6/ 7, 2011.

‘The Series as Commodity: Marketing Fisher Unwin's Pseudonym and Autonym Library’ in The Culture of the Publisher's Series: Authors, Publishers and the Shaping of Taste. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 171-187.

‘Library 2.0 or Library III: Using Resources to Lead, not Follow’ [with Jia Mi]. Library Management, vol. 32, no.1/ 2, 2011, pp. 85-97.

‘In the Age of Advertisement: George Gissing Advertises Himself’. Paper presented at the Fourth International Gissing Conference, University of York, England, 28-30 March 2011.

‘Reclassification, Milestone or Millstone’ [With Tang Sin Yee and Bill Tang] Paper presented at the Second JULAC Forum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 25 February 2011.

Adopting E-texts: A Hong Kong Perspective. [with Owen Tam and Bill Tang]. New Library World [in press]

'Library 2.0 or Library III: Using Resources to Lead, not Follow'. [with Jia Mi]. Paper presented at Academic Librarian 2: Singing in the Rain Conference towards Future Possibilities, 11-12 March 2010, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

'It takes more than changing the letter from P to E: a Hong Kong Library's perspective in adopting e-books'. [with Owen Tam and Bill Tang]. Paper presented at the World Library and Information Congress: 75th International Federation of Library Associations General Conference and Assembly, Milan, 23-27 August 2009.

'Discovery at Bay: The Missing Component from the Google Book Agreement', invited paper presented at the Digital Humanities in Asia: Global Technologies and Local Knowledge Conference, May 19-22, 2009, City University of Hong Kong.

对网络一族的图书馆服务营销 [with Jia Mi: Chinese translation of "Marketing Library Services for the Net Generation"] 图书馆管理 的特刊中文= Library Management Chinese Special Issue, vol. 29, no. 6/7, 2008 pp. 35-44.

بازاريابي خدمات كتابخانه براي جذب نسلنت [with Jia Mi: Persian translation of "Marketing Library Services for the Net Generation"], Iranian Journal of Information Science and Technology, v. 23, Spring 2008, pp: 119-141.

'E-Texts and E-Books: Misconceptions and Missed Opportunities.' Paper presented at Emerging Paradigms for Academic Library E-Book Acquisition and Use: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities Conference, Chinese University, Hong Kong, 3 June 2008.

Appointed Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London, 2008.

'Building an Information Commons: Lingnan University Library's Experience in Managing Reform and Innovation.' Paper presented at the Joint Conference on Innovation, Development and Transformation in Libraries, October 11-14, 2007, Wuyishan, Fujian Province, China [with Owen Tam and Bill Tang].

Contributor, Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism, London: British Library and Academia Press (entries on Jerome K. Jerome, T.P. O'Connor, Walter Paget, Henry Paget, Sidney Paget, and the journal 'MAP: Mainly About People' [forthcoming, summer 2008].

"The Myth of the Triple-Headed Monster: The Economics of the Three-volume Novel." Publishing History vol.61, 2007 pp. 47-69.

"'A Man of His Day': George Gissing and Victorian Publishing." Paper invited for "Writing Otherness: The Pathways of George Gissing's Imagination", Third International George Gissing Conference, Lille, France, 27-28 March 2008.

"Bentley's Emancipated Profit." Gissing Journal, April 2008, p. 25-28.

"The Series as Commodity: Marketing Fisher Unwin's Pseudonym and Autonym Library." Keynote address invited for 'The Culture of the Publishers' Series', Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 18-19 October 2007.

"The Myth of the Triple-Headed Monster: The Economics of the Three-volume Novel", paper presented at The Birth of the Bestseller Conference, Bibliographical Society of America, New York, 29-31 March 2007.

"Managing Across Cultures: The Experiences of Three Hong Kong Academic Library Directors" [with Anthony W. Ferguson and Colin Storey]. Library Management vol. 28, no. 4/5, 2007 pp. 213-223.

"Marketing Library Services for the Net Generation" [with Jia Mi], Paper presented at the 3rd Shanghai International Library Forum: August 17 to 19, 2006, Shanghai, China.

"Marketing Library Services for the Net Generation" [with Jia Mi]. Library Management vol. 27, no. 6/7, 2006 pp. 411-422.

Encounters in the East: The West and Print Culture in China. Panel convener (members: Zhang Zhiqiang, Director, Institute of Publishing Science, Nanjing University; Michela Bussotti, Ecole Française d'Extrême-orient, Beijing) and paper, Before Gutenberg: A Thousand Years of Printing in China. Presented at the 14th annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), The Hague, 11-15 July 2006.

"Google Your Library's Mission: What Librarians can learn from Google's Corporate Philosophy." Library Journal June (2006): 36-37.

Review of Kai-wing Chow, Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China in Libraries & Culture vol. 41, no. 2, 2006 pp. 266-267.

"Digital Libraries: the Human Dimension."[With Jia Mi]. The International Journal of the Book, vol. 3, no. 2, 2006, pp. 113-117.

"Smith, Elder & Co. and the Realities of New Grub Street." John Hinks & Catherine Amstrong (Eds.), Worlds of Print: Diversity in the Book Trade (pp. 207-219). London: The British Library and Oak Knoll Books, 2006, p. 207-219.

"Digital Libraries: the Human Dimension."[With Jia Mi] Paper presented at The Third International Conference on the Book. Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, 11-13 September 2005.

"The Missing Link: Context Loss in Online Databases." [With Jia Mi]. Journal of Academic Librarianship, vol. 31, no. 6, November 2005. pp. 578-585.

"The Commerce of Literature: George Gissing and His Literary Agents." Paper presented at The City of Literature: The Rise of the Literary Profession in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Edinburgh University School of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures, 4 June 2005.

"George Gissing, International Copyright and Late Victorian Publishing" The Gissing Journal, October 2004. p.13-19.

Smith, Elder & Co. and the Realities of New Grub Street. Paper presented at the twenty-first annual British Book Trade History Conference, Edinburgh, July 2004.

Gissing Abroad and Gissing in Libraries: Panel convener (members Chris Baggs, University of Wales, Aberystwyth and Pierre Coustillas, University of Lille) and paper, International Copyright and George Gissing. Presented at the 12th annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), Lyon, France, July 20-July 24 2004.

"The Thyrza Contract and Two Unpublished Gissing Letters" The Gissing Journal, January 2004. p.35-42.

"Plexus and Nexus, From Ramelli to Zappa and Beyond." in Musings, Meanderings, and Monsters, too: Essays on Academic Librarianship. Edited by Martin Raish, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003. p. 117-123.

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