Join CILIP East and ARLG Eastern for an afternoon sharing ideas and learning from colleagues across the region.

It's open to anyone interested in teaching and technology in libraries and is completely free, including tea and coffee and an optional tour of the Chelmsford Campus library at Anglia Ruskin University.  You don't have to be a member of CILIP or ARLG to attend.

Registration is now open.

Come along as an observer to network and share ideas with colleagues from across the region. You can also sign up to give a 3 minute nanopresentation or 10 minute micropresentation to share your teaching tips and/or suggestions of tools/technology you've found useful in your work. We have plenty of room for break-out groups if you would rather speak to a smaller group or break off for a chat and a coffee during the day.

New to Librarian TeachMeet? The combination of short talks and unconference style creates a relaxed, fun and supportive atmosphere making Librarian TeachMeets ideal events for first time speakers or those looking to gain more experience in presenting.  So, don't be shy, sign up and get involved!

Not sure what to talk about? That’s OK, you can start a discussion on a topic or play a game you have come across. There are no set rules for how you should use your time.

School Libraries Group regional event in Lancaster.  See flyer and booking form for full details of programme and how to book.

The Library of the Grey Coat School is happy to host a visit of up to twelve members of the Cataloguing and Indexing Group and others interested in cataloguing to see highlights of their collection, which dates back to 1700 (although the oldest book was published in 1613) and includes current resources for a modern school. Lucy Saint-Smith will give us an overview of cataloguing practices for materials for students and also a recent project to document their special collections.

This is an opportunity to see behind the scenes in a working school in an historic setting, and may appeal especially to those with an interest in services to young people and / or special collections but also to those working in other sectors. 

You can find out more about the Library here: www.gch.org.uk/Library and book a free ticket to attend here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cataloguing-and-indexing-group-visit-to-the-grey-coat-hospital-school-tickets-26017562229 

If you have any queries, please contact CIG committee member Anne Welsh, a.welsh@ucl.ac.uk

N.B. Although the Library is wheelchair accessible, it will be helpful to know in advance if you have mobility issues so that Lucy can organise the rare books display in an accessible room (the rare books room is up flight of stairs), and so that we can arrange to meet her at the correct (accessible) entrance.
 

Booking is now open.

Craig Menzies reports on how Macmillan Cancer Support has been working with Glasgow’s library service to provide practical and emotional support and access to quality information to those living with cancer.

No one in Glasgow should face cancer alone. An easy statement to make. Yet, across the city of Glasgow our team of more than 110 volunteers regularly hear of individuals facing the devastating ­side-effects of cancer – feeling isolated, alone and, crucially, unable to access the right information and support at the right time. 

We know that the issues of importance to people affected by cancer are much wider than the clinical management of the ­disease. A cancer diagnosis can evoke a huge range of emotional, financial and practical support needs, and these cannot always be addressed by our already stretched National Health Service. Whilst many health professionals go above and beyond to ensure that individuals are aware of local support services, the lack of a coherent referral pathway means that an individual’s non-clinical needs very often go unmet.

Throughout years of research and discussion with people affected by cancer, Macmillan Cancer Support has identified the huge importance that additional non-clinical services can have in addressing the practical and emotional needs of those living with and beyond cancer, and their friends, families and colleagues. 

An excellent example of how Macmillan has utilised this knowledge and experience is displayed in its work with Glasgow’s library service. The partnership provides practical and emotional support for those living with and beyond cancer in the city’s 33 libraries, to ensure that everyone affected by cancer has access to quality information on their doorstep.

Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for people to get the support they need, because we believe that no-one in Glasgow should face cancer alone.

A simple yet innovative idea

Back in 2009, a pilot scheme was developed at Easterhouse Library (now Library at the Bridge) to test the benefits of using a local community library for individuals affected by cancer to drop by for a coffee and a chat. This simple yet innovative development offered the local community the opportunity to speak confidentially to someone who was not their doctor, family member or friend, about any concerns or worries they may have in a safe, welcoming environment. 

Feedback received overwhelmingly promoted the potential role that libraries as hubs of the community can play, and indicated the potential for the scheme to be rolled out on a wider scale.
Today, Glasgow is home to 33 ­library-based Macmillan Cancer Information & Support Services, with a team of volunteers providing their time, experience and knowledge to offer practical and emotional support to individuals affected by cancer.

To date, we have witnessed over 8,000 attendances at Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries drop-in centres and feel we are making significant inroads in supporting individuals to access the support and information they need on their doorstep. 

By utilising the public library service, ­individuals affected by cancer in Glasgow are now no further than one mile away from the non-clinical support they require.

Partnerships provide support

We are very fortunate that the funding provided by Macmillan Cancer Support enables us to work in partnership with other organisations across the city. Eight complementary services now operate in conjunction with Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries, providing a range of services including holistic needs assessments, benefits and financial support, physical activity programmes, clothing and wig services, complementary therapies and counselling (in partnership with Cancer Support Scotland).

Together, we are transforming the cancer landscape in Glasgow, creating a truly comprehensive service offer to address the vast array of non-clinical needs associated with a cancer diagnosis.

Friendly, welcoming environment

Utilising library space to support people living with cancer is not restricted to the city of Glasgow. Over the past few years, there have been a growing number of similar models deployed throughout the UK. Research and evaluation into these projects continues to strengthen the concept that libraries can play an important role, as a local, non-clinical source of health-based support and information. 
The results and feedback attained to date overwhelmingly promote the friendly, welcoming library environment as an ideal location for individuals to feel confident that the information and support received is non-judgemental and above all else, from a trusted source.

‘To cheer me up a bit, my husband took me to the café at our local library in Easterhouse. That’s where we saw a stand with Macmillan information. Before I knew it, I was sitting with someone in a quiet corner, pouring my heart out. Since then, whenever I’ve had questions or worries, they’ve been there to put my mind at rest and give me the ­information and support I’ve needed. I never thought that a library, a kettle and comfy sofa would play such a vital part in my cancer treatment, but they have.’ 
– Service User, Glasgow Libraries

Motivated team of volunteers

The Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries volunteers are a force for change in the city of Glasgow, and are absolutely crucial to the delivery of this comprehensive service. Since its inception in 2012, more than 200 Glaswegians, passionate about improving the lives of others have joined the volunteer team, donating their time, and skills to establish the programme, and ensure its long-term success. 
Aged 18-75, the volunteers come from a wide range of backgrounds and areas of the city; some are out of employment and seeking work, others are retired, some are students and others are cancer survivors keen to give something back to the charity that supported them through their illness.

Despite their varying motivations, the volunteer team are united by a common goal: the drive to provide vital cancer support and information to local people who at times have nowhere else to turn.

Each volunteer provides an average of 2.5 hours per week. Between them they have donated a staggering 22,000 hours of their time, supporting over 8,000 affected by cancer in the past three years.

One such volunteer is 32 year old Alicja Kochanska, originally from Poland but now living in Dennistoun, who scooped the Emerging Talent Award at the recent Scottish Public Service awards (7 December), in recognition of her dedication to working with people affected by cancer.

Alicja began volunteering at Dennistoun Library’s Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries Information and Support service in 2013, after hearing about the initiative through her partner:

‘I was really keen to take part in a volunteering programme, and Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries was so easy to get involved with.’ Alicja said. ‘I felt that I was really able to make a difference to the people I was working with, and I was also able to use my translation and interpreting skills to benefit people in my local community in Dennistoun, supporting Polish people to engage with our services.’

Alicja recognised that there was a gap within the service provision in her local area due to the growing Polish community. She pro-actively created content in Polish, and then sought to find materials in other languages too, to ensure relevant literature on cancer was available to all who needed it.

‘One Polish man who visited the library was sadly terminally ill, but he and his partner of 20 years wanted to marry before he passed away,’ Alicja said. ‘I worked closely with the couple, along with our partner service, the Macmillan Improving Cancer Journey, providing emotional and practical support and translated all of the paperwork they needed to submit in order to marry; he sadly passed away three weeks after they married but I was so glad that I was able to help him fulfil his final wish.’

Training and inspiring others

After volunteering for over a year, Alicja became a full-time member of staff and in September 2015 was promoted to Macmillan Services & Volunteering Officer. Using her own knowledge of volunteering, she now trains and supports the new volunteers in their roles.

‘When I first began volunteering in Dennistoun, I thought how wonderful it would be to be able to inspire other people to volunteer and see for themselves how rewarding it can be – and now that’s my job.’ Alicja added: ‘Volunteering is really surprising, and it teaches you a lot about yourself. I’d encourage people to get involved with the Macmillan @Glasgow Libraries programme, it’s hugely rewarding and you get to meet some truly fantastic people.’

Robust support network

In terms of the wider agenda around the deployment of volunteers across libraries, it is important to note that volunteer roles are solely created and supported to provide added value to the core library service, and not to replace roles previously delivered by paid library staff. By creating a robust support network within libraries, we aim to provide the right knowledge, skills and confidence to allow volunteers to feel part of the team, and to work closely with the library staff team to enhance the services delivered across Glasgow Libraries.

This culture and ethos around the deployment of volunteers within library-based services was recognised in the June 2015 National Strategy for Public Libraries in Scotland. In particular, this paper advocates the development of volunteering and the delivery of health information through the libraries networks as key to the future of the public libraries service in Scotland.

‘I really did feel like I had no-one to talk to. At the hospital all of the focus was on tests after tests, before results after results. What I really needed was just some time to sit and talk about how I was feeling. The volunteer gave me that time. Asked me how I was feeling, and if there was anything she could do to help.’ 
– Service User, Glasgow Libraries

Extending the model

Having confidently demonstrated the positive outcomes that Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries can deliver in meeting the emotional and information needs of individual’s affected by cancer; the programme plans to explore the potential for replication, or extension of the model to supporting individuals with other long term conditions. 

We know that Glasgow’s library service offers Glaswegians a welcoming hub at the heart of the community. Through the new Vision for Glasgow Libraries, developed in consultation with over 3,000 local residents, the city library service has committed to providing a one-stop-shop for residents’ key social, economic, cultural and educational needs. 

We believe that the delivery of health information can complement the wider libraries offer, and in the coming months, we shall be scouring the country to investigate the role that libraries in other local authorities are 
currently playing to meet health information and support needs for all our citizens.

We would be interested to speak to any library services that currently utilises their venues to deliver health information and 
support services. 

To help us explore how to meet health and information support needs, or to find out more about Macmillan @ Glasgow Libraries, please contact Craig Menzies: craig.menzies@glasgowlife.org.uk or visit:  www.glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/macmillan-at-glasgow-libraries/ 

Update Magazine

This article was originally published in CILIP Update Magazine, May 2016.

There are lots of ways for CILIP members to access the full range of articles published in Update, including

• A monthly print version of the magazine
• A digital version of each new publication
• The full archive of previous editions
• Downloading the Update app on Android or Apple.

Non-CILIP members can subscribe to the digital version of the magazine or join CILIP to get access to the full range of benefits.

Read Update Magazine

Booking is now open for the MmIT Conference 2016 - Digital Citizenship: What is the library's role?

Monday 12 & Tuesday 13 September 2016

The Edge Conference Centre, University of Sheffield

A conference which explores and discusses several digital citizenship themes and the role and responsibility of the library and the librarian in supporting citizenry in the digital world.

Visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mmit-2016-conference-digital-citizenship-what-is-the-librarys-role-tickets-18734070108 now to book your place!

The new issue of our open access Journal of Information Literacy has just been published. Access the latest in IL research, plus conference reports and book reviews at http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL

Facet Publishing have announced the release of the 3rd edition of the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

The Directory is the only publication to bring together rare book and special collections from all kinds of libraries across the UK and Ireland and is an essential research tool for researchers and librarians throughout the world.
 
Fully updated since the second edition was published in 1997, this comprehensive and up-to-date guide encompasses collections held in national libraries, academic libraries,  public libraries, subscription libraries, clergy libraries, libraries for other professions, school libraries, companies, London clubs, museums and archives, and libraries in stately homes. 

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian at the University of Oxford said,

"The new edition is a long-awaited reference work which will help researchers identify the UK and Republic of Ireland’s great collections of research materials. It provides detailed and authoritative information and is a must for all serious researchers."

Edited by Karen Attar, Curator of Rare Books and University Art at Senate House Library, The Directory:

• contains a national, cross-sectoral overview of rare book and special collections 
• offers full contact details, and descriptions of rare book and named special collections including quantities and particular subject and language strengths
• provides a quick and easy summary of individual libraries’ holdings
• directs researchers to the libraries most relevant for them
• assists libraries to evaluate their special collections according to a ‘unique and distinctive’ model
• enables libraries to make informed decisions about acquisition and collaboration
• helps booksellers and donors to target offers.  

David Prosser, Executive Director of Research Libraries UK said,

"Together, institutions in the UK and Ireland hold unrivalled special collections.  From our great National Libraries, through university collections to the smaller collections of specialist societies, cathedrals, historic homes, and museums we have a centuries-old tradition of collecting, preserving and giving access.  Scholars from around the world and across disciplinary differences rely on the treasures held by libraries listed in the Directory to pursue their research and help us make sense of the world in which we live."

-ends

Press and review copies contact:

James Williams, Marketing Manager, Facet Publishing

Tel: +44 (0)20 7255 0597
Email: james.williams@facetpublishing.co.uk

Notes:

Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland, 3rd edition | May 2016 | 752pp | Hardback | 9781783300167 | Price: £175.00 | CILIP members price: £140.00

About the editor:

Karen Attar is Curator of Rare Books and University Art at Senate House Library and a Research Fellow of the Institute of English Studies, both of the University of London. She has published widely on library history and aspects of special collections, is the reviews editor for Library & Information History, and in 2012 edited the treasures volume Senate House Library, University of London.

Karen has written a blogpost about some of the most interesting collections contained in the Directory.

The book is published by Facet Publishing and is available from Bookpoint Ltd | Tel: +44 (0)1235 827702 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 827703 | Email: facet@bookpoint.co.uk | Web: www.facetpublishing.co.uk. | Mailing Address: Mail Order Dept, 39 Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4TD. It is available in North America from the American Library Association.

The National Theatre Archive is a treasure trove of material, encompassing all of the creative, technical and administrative records of the National Theatre.

Formed in 1933, The Wiener Library houses a unique collection of over one million items includes published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs and eyewitness testimony on the Holocaust and Nazi era.

Find out what makes these Royal Botanic Gardens whose history dates back to 1852, one of the most important botanical reference sources in the world.

Visit includes complementary entrance to Kew Gardens, open until 9pm on the day.

Supreme Courts Library - Edinburgh

The Cataloguing & Indexing Group in Scotland warmly invites you to its 2016 Annual General Meeting, which will take place at Glasgow Colleges Riverside Campus on Friday 22nd July.

If you are interested in joining the committee, or wish to raise items for the agenda, please contact CIGS Secretary, Paul Cunnea, at cigscot@gmail.com

Post AGM seminar: Metadata for putting historical maps online - a look behind the scenes at maps.nls.uk

We are delighted to welcome Chris Fleet from the National Library of Scotland to talk at this year’s AGM. Chris will talk about putting the Library’s historical maps online.

The National Library of Scotland’s Map Images website currently makes available 150,000 maps, with around 5,000 visitors, and 30,000 page views every day. This talk will look at the metadata and technologies that make this possible, particularly the central role of geographical coordinates in finding maps, as well as the growing value of open standards and web services in presenting maps. What are the main ways that people use to find maps online, how are these relevant to finding and presenting other content based on place or geography, and what is georefencing?

Chris is Map Curator at the National Library of Scotland where he has worked since 1994, with a focus on digital mapping and on making available historical maps online.

Registration
Both the AGM and seminar are free and open to members and non-members, but registration is required. You can register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cig-scotland-agm-post-agm-talk-tickets-25865665903 

Further details
Date: Friday 22nd July
Time: AGM starts at 1.30pm; post AGM talk starts at 2pm
Venue: Glasgow Colleges Riverside Campus, 21 Thistle Street, Glasgow, G5 9XB

Refreshments will be available.

Directions are available at http://www.disabledgo.com/access-guide/city-of-glasgow-college/main-teaching-tower-building

We look forward to seeing you at this year’s AGM.

With thousands of special collections around in the British Isles covering 550 years and a vast range of topics, how does one choose one’s favourites? Ultimately there are no ‘best’ collections, and it comes down entirely to personal predilection. Here, based on the third edition of the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, are my super seven:

The Miss Great Britain collection

The Miss Great Britain collection at Morecambe Library, part of Lancashire Library Service. While the Directory has many collections on unexpected subjects, this is the one that jumped out at me as the most unusual. It comprises over 1,000 images and ephemera from the Miss Great Britain competition from about 1950 to 1980. It is an excellent example of the value of collection-level descriptions: one suspects that the collection as a collection amounts to more than the sum of  the individual parts. 

The Wizard of Oz collection

The Wizard of Oz collection at Reading University. I have a fascination with single-author collections, which can easily be among the most unique and distinctive in the country (what library in the British Isles would set out to buy editions of a popular English or American author in Chinese or Russian?), and the single-book collection is an extension of that. There are two Alice in Wonderland collections in England, but this is the only Wizard of Oz collection – and one of few collections devoted to an American writer. The collection consists of about 800 volumes including many editions and translations of The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), and associated items. It includes sequels by other authors, and other books by Baum, including those written pseudonymously. 

The Nineteenth-Century Novels collection

Source: The Nineteenth-Century Novels collection at Newcastle University / original cropped and resized

The Nineteenth-Century Novels collection at Newcastle University. This contains some 1,500 nineteenth-century novels, almost entirely by lesser-known writers, such as Rosa Carey, Emma Jane Worboise and Alexander Grant. This is the only collection in the Directory to mention Emma Jane Worboise (1825-1887), a writer of decided views and strongly evangelical family fiction whose works I am in the process of collecting. Hence my fascination! Extremely popular in their time, the novels are scarce now. 

The St George’s Lutheran Church Library

The St George’s Lutheran Church Library (Whitechapel) at the British Library. The Directory contains numerous English parish libraries but very few libraries of foreign-language churches in England. Receiving the entry for the St George’s library was a major triumph, as I had despaired of tracing it from the starting-point of the 1997 Directory: ministers of the German churches in London had been unable to answer my questions about it. This is a library of 600 volumes originally in the parish library of St George's Lutheran Church in Alie Street, Whitechapel, London, purchased by the British Library in 1997 (and far more easily accessible there). The contents are mostly eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German works on theology, including some rare London German imprints. 

Collections pertaining to food, wine and cookery

Caption: Mrs Agnes Marshall’s The Book of Ices (1885). Source: AS 883 from the Andre Simon Collection (Wine and Food Society) / original cropped and resized

Collections pertaining to food, wine and cookery at the Guildhall, City of London. The Directory includes many special collections of local relevance (take, for example, a golf collection at St Andrews University) and the printed connection of food with the City of London feels like an extension of this, given that banquets in the City can make news headlines. London’s Guildhall has several collections on matters appealing to the palate with getting on for 7,000 books and pamphlets between them, mostly focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The largest are the libraries of the International Wine and Food Society (3,000 items) and the Institute of Masters of Wine Library (2,100 items from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, including auction catalogues). Others stem from the libraries of the cookery writer Elizabeth David and the food writer and potter Mary Wondrausch, from the Guild of Food Writers; and from the Hallgarten family of Hallgarten, Druitt & Novum Wines.

The Pressler Kahan Tauchnitz collection

The Pressler Kahan Tauchnitz collection at the National Library of Scotland. This is an almost complete set (about 8,000 volumes) of the collection of British (and American) Authors series published by the German firm of Bernhard Tauchnitz of Leipzig, 1841-1943, and later Tauchnitz editions published in Germany in the 1940s-50s. Collections based around publishers abound in the Directory, from the Aldines in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries onwards. The Pressler Kahan Tauchnitz collection is the largest of three Tauchnitz collections in the United Kingdom. It has not yet been catalogued, and what I really like is the demonstration of the value of the collection-level description: the researcher wanting Tauchnitz books can easily ascertain the value of visiting Edinburgh without the help of individual catalogue records.

Cardiff Rare Books collection: Incunabula

Caption: Salvator Mundi from Rolevinck’s “Fasciculus temporum” (1474), with manuscript annotations. Source: Cardiff Rare Books collection: Incunabula / original cropped and resized

Cardiff Rare Books collection: Incunabula at Cardiff University Library. These 180 incunabula represent a cross-section of book publishing in Continental Europe from 1470 to 1500. They are among the books that came to Cardiff University from Cardiff Public Libraries last decade. Of course there are many larger collections of incunabula in the British Isles, with those at Glasgow and Cambridge Universities standing out for recent cataloguing projects and resulting treasures volumes. But an accession of 180 incunabula in one go is to be despised by nobody. These books would have more than doubled the fifteenth-century holdings at my own institution, so that the reason this collection jumped out at me was sheer envy!

These are a selection of my favourite special collections. Share yours in the comments below.

About the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections

The Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland, 3rd edition is edited by Karen Attar.

It is the only publication to bring together rare book and special collections from all kinds of libraries across the British Isles and is an essential research tool for researchers and librarians throughout the world.

Fully updated since the second edition was published in 1997, this comprehensive and up-to-date guide encompasses collections held in national libraries, academic libraries,  public libraries, subscription libraries, clergy libraries, libraries for other professions, school libraries, companies, London clubs, museums and archives, and libraries in stately homes. 

With thousands of special collections around in the British Isles covering 550 years and a vast range of topics, how does one choose one’s favourites? Ultimately there are no ‘best’ collections, and it comes down entirely to personal predilection. Here, based on the third edition of the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, are my super seven:

The Miss Great Britain collection

The Miss Great Britain collection at Morecambe Library, part of Lancashire Library Service. While the Directory has many collections on unexpected subjects, this is the one that jumped out at me as the most unusual. It comprises over 1,000 images and ephemera from the Miss Great Britain competition from about 1950 to 1980. It is an excellent example of the value of collection-level descriptions: one suspects that the collection as a collection amounts to more than the sum of  the individual parts. 

The Wizard of Oz collection

The Wizard of Oz collection at Reading University. I have a fascination with single-author collections, which can easily be among the most unique and distinctive in the country (what library in the British Isles would set out to buy editions of a popular English or American author in Chinese or Russian?), and the single-book collection is an extension of that. There are two Alice in Wonderland collections in England, but this is the only Wizard of Oz collection – and one of few collections devoted to an American writer. The collection consists of about 800 volumes including many editions and translations of The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1856-1919), and associated items. It includes sequels by other authors, and other books by Baum, including those written pseudonymously. 

The Nineteenth-Century Novels collection

Source: The Nineteenth-Century Novels collection at Newcastle University / original cropped and resized

The Nineteenth-Century Novels collection at Newcastle University. This contains some 1,500 nineteenth-century novels, almost entirely by lesser-known writers, such as Rosa Carey, Emma Jane Worboise and Alexander Grant. This is the only collection in the Directory to mention Emma Jane Worboise (1825-1887), a writer of decided views and strongly evangelical family fiction whose works I am in the process of collecting. Hence my fascination! Extremely popular in their time, the novels are scarce now. 

The St George’s Lutheran Church Library

The St George’s Lutheran Church Library (Whitechapel) at the British Library. The Directory contains numerous English parish libraries but very few libraries of foreign-language churches in England. Receiving the entry for the St George’s library was a major triumph, as I had despaired of tracing it from the starting-point of the 1997 Directory: ministers of the German churches in London had been unable to answer my questions about it. This is a library of 600 volumes originally in the parish library of St George's Lutheran Church in Alie Street, Whitechapel, London, purchased by the British Library in 1997 (and far more easily accessible there). The contents are mostly eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German works on theology, including some rare London German imprints. 

Collections pertaining to food, wine and cookery

Caption: Mrs Agnes Marshall’s The Book of Ices (1885). Source: AS 883 from the Andre Simon Collection (Wine and Food Society) / original cropped and resized

Collections pertaining to food, wine and cookery at the Guildhall, City of London. The Directory includes many special collections of local relevance (take, for example, a golf collection at St Andrews University) and the printed connection of food with the City of London feels like an extension of this, given that banquets in the City can make news headlines. London’s Guildhall has several collections on matters appealing to the palate with getting on for 7,000 books and pamphlets between them, mostly focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The largest are the libraries of the International Wine and Food Society (3,000 items) and the Institute of Masters of Wine Library (2,100 items from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, including auction catalogues). Others stem from the libraries of the cookery writer Elizabeth David and the food writer and potter Mary Wondrausch, from the Guild of Food Writers; and from the Hallgarten family of Hallgarten, Druitt & Novum Wines.

The Pressler Kahan Tauchnitz collection

The Pressler Kahan Tauchnitz collection at the National Library of Scotland. This is an almost complete set (about 8,000 volumes) of the collection of British (and American) Authors series published by the German firm of Bernhard Tauchnitz of Leipzig, 1841-1943, and later Tauchnitz editions published in Germany in the 1940s-50s. Collections based around publishers abound in the Directory, from the Aldines in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries onwards. The Pressler Kahan Tauchnitz collection is the largest of three Tauchnitz collections in the United Kingdom. It has not yet been catalogued, and what I really like is the demonstration of the value of the collection-level description: the researcher wanting Tauchnitz books can easily ascertain the value of visiting Edinburgh without the help of individual catalogue records.

Cardiff Rare Books collection: Incunabula

Caption: Salvator Mundi from Rolevinck’s “Fasciculus temporum” (1474), with manuscript annotations. Source: Cardiff Rare Books collection: Incunabula / original cropped and resized

Cardiff Rare Books collection: Incunabula at Cardiff University Library. These 180 incunabula represent a cross-section of book publishing in Continental Europe from 1470 to 1500. They are among the books that came to Cardiff University from Cardiff Public Libraries last decade. Of course there are many larger collections of incunabula in the British Isles, with those at Glasgow and Cambridge Universities standing out for recent cataloguing projects and resulting treasures volumes. But an accession of 180 incunabula in one go is to be despised by nobody. These books would have more than doubled the fifteenth-century holdings at my own institution, so that the reason this collection jumped out at me was sheer envy!

These are a selection of my favourite special collections. Share yours in the comments below.

About the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections

The Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland, 3rd edition is edited by Karen Attar.

It is the only publication to bring together rare book and special collections from all kinds of libraries across the British Isles and is an essential research tool for researchers and librarians throughout the world.

Fully updated since the second edition was published in 1997, this comprehensive and up-to-date guide encompasses collections held in national libraries, academic libraries,  public libraries, subscription libraries, clergy libraries, libraries for other professions, school libraries, companies, London clubs, museums and archives, and libraries in stately homes. 

We will meet in the Illustrious Room, at Wallsend Library & Customer First Centre, 16 The Forum, Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne NE28 8JR, which has good disabled access and facilities.

There are good public transport (Metro) links from the centre of Newcastle to Wallsend and there is free parking available alongside the Library.  We hope to convene at 1.30 p.m. but exact time is still to be confirmed.

Please email paula.wride@sevenstories.org.uk to register your attendance and for further information.

The Summer 2016 Newsletter is now available online and can be downloaded as a pdf.

The Crane Court Library (established in 1742) operated in London for over twenty years and was run by Samuel Fancourt, a Trinitarian minister. It was a proprietary subscription library open to the public and can be described as the first such library in England and as an early example of a 'community' library influenced by ideas of mutual improvement.

Keith Manley is Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, where he was Assistant Librarian for 29 years. He is joint convenor of the Seminar in the History of Libraries held jointly at the Institute of English Studies, Institute of Historial Research, and the Warburg Institute, and edited the journal, Library History.

Looking to celebrate the great work done by some of the unsung heroes of the library and information profession, the CILIP Mentor of the Year Award will highlight the dedication of CILIP members who give their time and knowledge to help others develop and grow.

CILIP knows the vital role sage guidance, support and a critical friend can play in a person’s career; from applying for that all-important first job to taking high-level, strategic decisions. As well as a valued source of career advice and support, the CILIP mentoring scheme gives experienced professionals the chance to shape their sector and spread the wisdom of their experience.

CILIP is asking everybody who has a mentor that has helped, inspired, and guided them, and had a positive impact on their personal and professional development to nominate this individual for the award. All nominees must be current CILIP members and registered on the CILIP mentoring scheme.

The winner will be able to evidence the following characteristics of a good mentor:

• Being approachable and accessible, committed to aiding personal development
• Value and respect for their mentees’ professional views
• Willingness to share the breadth of professional knowledge and understanding they have gained from their experiences across the library and information community
• Help to develop confidence to understand and deal with professional challenges

Those wishing to nominate their mentor are asked to write a short submission in 500 words or less describing how their mentor meets the criteria above. Entries must be received no later than Friday 15 July 2016.

Find out more and download a nomination form.

The winner of the CILIP Mentor of the Year Award will be announced at the CILIP AGM in September 2016. 

Members are invited to please complete the UKeiG Membership Survey 2016 by the 30th June 2016. We are keen to get feedback from as many members as possible to allow the UKeiG management committee to make sure that our activities reflect the needs and interests of our membership. We will analyse the data and use it to inform our strategy, training programme, articles in eLucidate and social media presence. Please let us know what is important to you.

The Membership Survey can be found at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk....

The last Membership Survey was conducted in 2013 as a result of that as we told you are the time we would be:

Continuing to offer competitively priced and relevant training courses Scheduling more training courses in venues outside London Offering networking events for members to give you an opportunity to meet face to face Continuing to commission rich content for our website and eLucidate to sustain and improve the quality and range of topics and current awareness information.

What is important to you in 2016? Let us know so we can develop UKeiG for the benefit of it's members. By completing the survey you will also be eligible to enter our prize draw to win a £30 Amazon voucher.

Visit to the Archaeological Collections Store for English Heritage (East) and go behind the scenes with the Collections Archivist. The visit will include a guided tour of the archaeological collections store (led by an EH volunteer) and a discussion (with one of the archivists) about curating the collection, supporting researchers, managing volunteers and other issues.

There is a café and picnic area at Wrest Park.

If you would like to extend your visit, join us on the following options (additional £3 per person plus entry price to Wrest Park – free to English Heritage members)

• Wallpaper Room Tour (allow 30 minutes)
• Guided Garden Tour (allow 2 hours, golf buggy provided)

The visit is limited to 25 places. Cost:  £5 per person (plus any options).

Imagine you find a letter in your library, archive or museum. It is old, really old; an important historic document that has never seen the light of day before. This might include letters written in the First World War, diaries by Suffragettes and even notes from the Easter Uprising and the Battle of Waterloo. 

You would think that you could freely publish it and share its contents with the world. Wrong. 

In the UK, the duration of copyright in certain unpublished works is to the end of the year 2039, regardless of how old the work is. Normally, copyright in text based works lasts for the life time of the author plus a further 70 years. 

This extra long duration of copyright, until 2039, presents severe resource implications for the UK’s cultural heritage sector at a time when it is under unimaginable funding pressures. In addition, the likelihood of rights research and possible licence fees associated with  these works results in an inexcusable double whammy effect of extra costs when resources are so stretched. 

The Free our History Campaign

In 2013, the UK Government passed the Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act (ERRA) which included provisions to reverse this absurd international copyright duration anomaly. In 2014, the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA) supported by CILIP, led a high profile media campaign together with the Imperial War Museums, the National Library of Scotland and Leeds University Archives - "Free Our History" - to raise awareness of this issue and try and influence the Government to see good their commitment in the ERRA. 

With press and media coverage across the world, a petition and public support, the campaign was a success in raising the issue and making the argument that this duration of copyright is considerably more costly and restrictive, than of benefit. Despite this, the UK Government decided that the reduction of term in unpublished text based could be a breach of the Human Rights Act and backtracked.  

What is the impact?

Since the Government chose not to reform the 2039 provisions in unpublished text based works:

1. The centenary of the out break of the First World War, the Easter Up Rising and the bi-centenary of the Battle of Waterloo have been and gone, representing a significant resource impact on UK cultural heritage organisations because of 2039 affected works.
2. The UK is amongst other EU members who recognise that 28 copyright laws across the 28 member states is bad for the Single Digital Market. Harmonisation of copyright duration is a vital component of this work.
3. Imminent anniversaries to commemorate the Battle of the Jutland (May – June 2016) and the first vote for women in the UK in 1918, are continuing to stretch our cultural heritage organisations more than they should because of unnecessary rights research and related costs.
4. Some cultural heritage organisations are choosing not to engage with 2039 works because of the resource implications and therefore contributing to the “black hole” of 19th and 20th century cultural heritage.
5. Hundreds of museums, libraries and archives have shut down across the UK because of a lack of money.
6. The Museum of London Archaeology has just discovered what is believed to be the oldest hand written tablet from the Roman period. Under the 2039 rule, this is now likely to be the oldest in copyright orphan work in the UK, if not in the world.

LACA, supported by CILIP, believes that this is not good enough and the UK Government needs to understand the costs to the sector of the 2039 provisions. This is why LACA is launching a survey to try and cost the impact of these provisions and therefore persuade UK Government that the costs of 2039 outweigh any perceived risks.

Complete the survey

The AGM will be followed by our Annual Planning meeting. This is where we brainstorm ideas and themes for events and visits relevant to further and higher education for the forthcoming academic year. For the first time, we are issuing an open invitation if you would like to stay on after the AGM and join us for this meeting. This is your opportunity to have a say in what continuing professional opportunities we will be providing. Your ideas are very welcome!

Please let Patricia Crosier know by Monday 4th July if you are coming to the AGM and if you’ll be staying for the planning meeting as well.

We look forward to you joining us for this meeting

Location

The meeting will take place in the ‘Elvet’ Room on Level 4 of the Bill Bryson Library on the Mountjoy site off the A177 Stockton Road and the A177 South Road. This is the building formerly known as ‘Main Library’ on what was formerly known as ‘The Science Site’, which some of you may have been to before. The building is clearly labelled at several points on the outside. The location is illustrated well on Google Maps and there are annotated versions available on the University’s page for visitors - https://www.dur.ac.uk/map/

Parking

Lack of spaces and the University’s green travel agenda is making it awkward to get visitor parking permits and visitors are encouraged to use public transport. The Mountjoy site is about 20mins walk from Durham train station and about 15mins from the bus station on North Road. If using the Park & Ride, those who park at Belmont (just off the A1) will need to alight at Milburngate Bridge (immediately after passing by the Price Bishops Shopping Centre). However, the Park & Ride site at Howlands (on South Road) is much closer to us and you can alight directly opposite the Bill Bryson Library at the crossroad featuring the New Inn pub. A Park & Ride ticket costs £2 for a day’s use. There are a limited number of designated visitor parking spaces. If anybody will need to park on-site, please let Richard Holmes know at least ten days in advance and we can apply for a permit.

Access Procedure

Visitors will be met in the foyer between the main entrance (with revolving door) and the access gates. If you wish to find your own way, you should turn left immediately upon entering through the turnstiles, which will take you to the Main Staircase. Climb up to the 4th floor and proceed through the double doors. As you pass through these double doors from the Main Staircase, the Seminar Room is on your right.  If anyone has difficulty with stairs, there is a lift adjacent to the ‘Returns’ area, which is directly ahead as you enter the Library. On exiting the lift on the 4th Floor you will need to bear left and after about thirty paces, with the books still to your left, you should see the Seminar Room up ahead next to the self-issue machine.

Refreshments

We hope to arrange for hot drinks and biscuits and there is a cold water dispenser in the Room. We are not at liberty to provide lunch but if anybody wishes to eat before the meeting there is a café selling sandwiches, [packet] bakes, fruit and snacks immediately inside the library building before you pass through the access control gates. There is also a similar facility in the Calman Learning Centre (the round multi-coloured building visible to your right as you approach the library entrance) and another in the Palatine Centre (the large new building immediately opposite the Library’s East Wing extension) selling a wider range of hot foods. Most of their products can be eaten in or taken away.

Suzie Kitchin
ARLG NE Chair