The latter, founded in 1991, provides a forum for international debate on the subject. Over the past 5 years it has expanded its membership to include more than 1000 members in 23 countries. Members of the Scottish Centre for the Book play a major part in the activities of these organisations, giving papers at their annual conferences and being involved in the organisation and running of these societies. He also co-organised the 1995 international conference of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals, and is on its Board of Directors. Elsewhere, centres for the study of the book and print culture have been established at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., at Pennsylvania State University, in Iowa, New York, Texas, and North Carolina.
Similar centres exist in Canada, South Africa, the Netherlands and Australia.
In Britain, the British Library established the Centre for the Book in 1991, working in conjunction with other interested research groups in London. The Scottish Centre for the Book has established close links with several of these centres. The Scottish Centre for the Book has at its disposal an extraordinarily important yet underutilised resource that, properly promoted, would instantly establish it at the forefront of international print culture research. This resource is the Edward Clark Collection, a major collection of rare and valuable works relating to printing, publishing and print media. It is under the joint administration of the Print Media, Publishing and Communication department and the University Library.