How to fix a leaky faucet – isn’t it the case that as soon as you hear that sentence, the problem has disappeared? Of course, you may wonder why the world is not designed so that taps never drip. But in the ‘best of all possible worlds’ (G. W. Leibniz), it is apparently so, the Supreme Being is perfect only because it has created functioning how-tos as well. What does ‘how-to’ actually mean? Essentially a practical guide or step-by-step explanation of how to perform a particular task or activity. The reader or user is instructed on how to do something or achieve a goal; this could be a cake you want to bake or balancing on two wheels if you want to master cycling or make it to the highest room in Glasgow on time. The very fact that our avant-garde of seven had come from different directions of the world to the Henry Heaney Room, floor 12, Glasgow University Library, was a powerful testament to the concept we were about to discuss – under the auspices of super-host Billy Grove by the way.

Travel, after all, is a quintessential how-to process. Think about it: packing bags, reading timetables, booking trains, navigating airports, following the hand luggage rules and listenting to survival rules on planes, etc. All of these actions come so naturally to us that we don’t even stop to think about how we do them. Isn’t this a telling demonstration of implicit knowledge at work? Our prospective How-to-ers from Cambridge, Warwick, London, Utrecht, Hamburg, Berlin, Giessen and Wolfenbüttel have certainly made a second nature of how-to-travelling. By the way: When travelling by train and car, the distance from Wolfenbüttel to Glasgow is extended by 500, from 1,000 to 1,500 kilometres.

During the workshop, asking how-to questions turned out to be a fascinating way of broadening our horizons – from embroidery techniques (Sabine Wieber) and Jewish Kabbalah (Agata Paluch) to books of spells or grimoires (Sergei Zotov).




Georg Agricolas’s book about mining, a classic of 16th-century practical knowledge, is teeming with how-to components (Thomas Gloning). How-to does not only describe sober realities, but also has its place in fiction, like in Don Quijote (Vicente Perez de Leon).


Since our project is inherently connected to the medium of the book, often to the unassuming booklet, one question was how the content was being internalised, for instance, through reading aloud to others or, rather, through silent reading (Joe Sutliff Sanders). In this context, it also was interesting to ask who these types of books were aimed at, since their audience might have even included younger people (Andrea van Leerdam).


It cannot be emphasised enough: When we as a team from Scotland and Lower Saxony dive into how-to books of the past, we’re not just uncovering all the amazing variety they have to offer. We’re also sparking a collaboration between two research institutions from two quite different worlds. It’s about figuring out how these libraries run, what the University of Glasgow Library and the Herzog August Libary Wolfenbüttel can learn from each other, and how they make how-to-books easy to access for everyone – researchers and the public alike. So far, it looks like the two libraries are a great match and really complement each other.
A lovingly curated pop-up exhibition by Robert Maclean introduced us to several intriguing items from the Fergsuon collection during our little conference. And Hartmut Beyer suggested what expertise Wolfenbüttel has to offer in the field of library science and gave us insight into some of its holdings.


And today: Online resources aim to make knowledge and skills accessible and shareable. And the ‘how-to’ format offers a low-threshold way of imparting knowledge in the tailwind of digitisation. Platforms such as YouTube, Wikihow and blogs offer ‘how-to’ instructions on an enormous variety of topics. Serious research cannot stop at the usual communication formats, but has to try out new ways, such as an interactive web blog, a how-to case as well, as Alina Lange showed, but easier to implement than expected.

It seems as if we are dealing with a magical formula that is not only ubiquitous today, but was already widespread in the 17th century, as lots of `How-tos´ in the table of contents of one of our most beloved books show: it’s a typical Book of Secrets.

Repeatedly reprinted by the printer John White, about whom we know little, it contains an entertaining mixture of life-enhancing measures that anyone can implement, as well as curiosities that have obviously been put together for entertainment. Whether in the 17th or 21st century: Knowledge is only relevant and interesting if it can be put into practice. It is always about ingraining a set of learned practices so that they no longer require conscious thought. In the Early Modern period the knowledge is often set down in inconspicuous books, in Tracts of Action, the title of the volume that emerged from a conference in the pilot year, which was published by Brill a few months ago and has now been presented at the workshop in Glasgow.

At the end of this process, they turned a set of instructions or a learned procedure into an instinct. Let’s uncover this instinct, dissect it!
‘How-to’ has now become a familiar term that does not need to be translated, a universally understandable, compelling short formula making life noticably easier, even sometimes changing life. The phenomenon of how-to has not yet been fully grasped in terms of its historical depth and contemporary relevance. How-to is so enigmatic and flexible that any historical examination is thwarted or rather enriched by a meta-dimension.

Whether it is a matter of how to merge two libraries from different origins or how to organise a conference, the how-to follows us everywhere – not only as a historical phenomenon but a contemporary challenge as well.
The practices of how-to travelling that brought us together are a microcosm of the larger and deeper questions that we will be exploring in the next years. This event in Glasgow is the starting point for forming a network to exchange ideas. How do you learn practical skills from a book? Why were these books so popular; who used them and how; are they even a clearly defined genre, etc.? – These are the questions that our team in Glasgow and Wolfenbüttel will be addressing again and again. And more! How does knowing how to do something shape our understanding of the world? How has it developed throughout history and across cultures? And how does it influence our ability to act, create and engage with others? From the idyllic town of Wolfenbüttel to the vibrant streets of Glasgow, our journey together mirrors the wider journey we will take over the course of this workshop and the next ones: one of inquiry, exchange and collective discovery.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Stefan Laube (October 7, 2024). University of Glasgow is Calling `How-to’. How-to. Retrieved July 8, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/12q0f