The whole task had made me more familiar with the research methods for old books. It also made me familiar with searching tools, online libraries and OCR. Especially the first task showed me once more how much there is in the internet is and what can be found out about a book with internet research.
About the second task I was very disappointed at the beginning, firstly because it was in a busy time and secondly the reservation of the book in the ETH library was quite disorganized. I reserved the book in the ETH library website and received the SMS that the book was ready to look at. When I arrived and showed them the SMS, the employees Sayed that this reservation is not valid and the reservation would only be possible with a personal email and I was sent away. After sending the mail in the library I had to wait luckily shorter than the employees said it would take to prepare the book. The whole situation was quite disappointing because of the bureaucracy and arrogance of the employees but also because of the fact that the reservation with an email was not communicated with us during the exercise lecture. Looking at the old book was quite interesting, especially because I am interested in engravings and bookbinding (and making this from time to time too I once made a metal engraving too) and know how long it takes to make and print even one engraving. This showed me the enormous amount of time which was necessary to make a book like that. Also seeing and feeling the old paper was quite cool.
About the third task I was first confused that there are no newer editions of my book. But as it resulted it can be possible that there are no other editions.
OCR part was in a way quite cool, because seeing and working with an OCR programme (which I have not used before). However the program had quite big problems recognizing the letters and words of my book and mixed up lines and letters. Therefore I had to overwork the OCR text with my eyes and rewriting a big part of it by hand. As it resulted in the following exercise lecture this had not been necessary. So it would have been helpful if that had been discussed before in the exercise lecture.
The last exercise is interesting because of hearing from others what kind of book they have and the things that it discusses.
In conclusion it was really fascinating to see and feel an old book. Especially the craftsmanship and time which was invested in a single book. It was also fascinating to see the old prints and paper. My book was about the traians column and the story engraved on it. The fact that there were books about the ornaments on a column in that time surprised me. During the correcting of the OCR text I also learned the difference between f and s in the earlier times. However there are some points e.g. the library part which should be discussed before in the exercise lecture.