Monthly Archives: July 2014

Employ.Ed Hidden Collections Intern – Weeks 7 to 8

It is all over now! Or at least, very soon now. The 8 weeks flew past, my internship is nearly over and now all that is left is to take a look at what has and has not been done in the meantime.

What is done is a very nearly complete listing of the New Zealand House collection that has already started making its way into the catalogue (although it will take a while), but the process has now been set in motion; here is a sample:

Report by the Right Hon. the Earl of Jersey, G.C.M.G., on the Colonial Conference at Ottawa

A list of House of Lords items to assist an NLS digitisation project and a stock-check of Special collections material are also things that are done. However there are still lots of highlights of the internship that I haven’t had the chance to share.

My little side project, Oroboros the Caterpillar had a sudden metamorphosis – not into a butterfly but into this:

Oroboros the Caterpillar metamorphosises into a beautiful... Viking longboat

Oroboros the Caterpillar metamorphosises into a beautiful… Viking longboat

By the way I still don’t know who added the mast, and wouldn’t mind finding out (but good job whoever!)

Also, amusing old advertisements:

The Central Hotel and its hydraulic passenger lift

The Central Hotel and its hydraulic passenger lift

…and oh, so wrong slightly more current ones:

New Zealand: not all about trout fishing

New Zealand: not all about trout fishing

Pretty pictures of New Zealand from a booklet on the 1907 international exhibition:

Images from the New Zealand Collection: Milford Sound and Mount Cook

Images from the New Zealand Collection: Milford Sound and Mount Cook

So much more I want to share, but better be reasonable and stop.Jackass Penguin

These past eight weeks were lovely, and who knows what comes next?

In any case: farewell from me, at least for now.

Nik Slavov, Hidden Collections intern

Centre for the Study of World Christianity Update

With the print collections of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity (CSWC) Library, set up by Professor Andrew F. Walls, now having been in our care at the Annexe for a year, the time to say goodbye again is approaching.

Over his long career spanning over 50 years Professor Walls has held posts (among others) at the UK universities of Aberdeen, Liverpool Hope and, of course, Edinburgh. The scope and nature of his research led the magazine Christianity Today to describe him in 2007 as ‘a historian ahead of his time’ and ‘the most important person you don’t know’.

Professor Andrew F. Walls

Professor Andrew F. Walls set up the Centre for the Study of World Christianity at Edinburgh

As the topic of the influence exercised by different religious groups within British society is at the forefront of the public interest the moment, Professor Walls’s outlook on the way Christianity has moved and developed over the years is certainly pertinent. And his unique outlook is reflected in this collection that he gradually built up over the years of his career as a missionary and academic. Apart from Professor Walls’s main interest in the development on Christianity and Christian mission in Africa (which he saw as a reflection of the future of Christianity as a whole), the collection contains material that illuminates the way that the Western world has viewed eastern religions and vice versa. The CSWC collection is a unique resource on the topic. However, previous access to this collection was irregular.

When the collection was added to the fold at the Annexe, it was partially to make it accessible on a wider basis (via intra-library loans available to all users), but also to allow work to be performed on this diverse collection. Indeed, over the past year requests for CSWC items became a regular part of our workflow at the Annexe. As the collection has gradually grown over the years since its donation to the New College library by Professor Walls, now was an opportunity to streamline it and make easier to both access and manage.

To this end, here at the Annexe we have used our time with the World Christianity collection, in collaboration with colleagues throughout Information Services, in order to carefully work through the 11,000 items contained in it. A number of projects were set up to ensure that the material is consolidated, itemised, and re-classified. Each item (books and pamphlets) will be individually processed and the collection streamlined, ready for its re-integration to the Library of Congress stock at New College library later this summer. As an off-shoot of this process, a small part of the collection will be divided and sent to complement the Andrew Walls Collection currently held at Liverpool Hope University, forging a strong collaborative link.

Iraklis Pantopoulos, Library Annexe Assistant

[Article] Christianity Today: Historian Ahead of His Time

[Blog] The AnneXe Factor: Library of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity now at the Annexe

About the Centre for the Study of World Christianity

About New College Library

Overview of the Andrew F. Walls Centre, Liverpool Hope

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Employ.Ed Hidden Collections Intern – Weeks 5 to 6

Three quarters of the internship now behind me, I have decided to focus on actually finishing off projects that I have been working on – and that means the New Zealand House periodicals collection first and foremost. That is now almost entirely listed, and should hopefully start appearing on the catalogue in the foreseeable future (and a few things are already available under an NZSC Per. Shelfmark). The list currently contains 125 series, some of which are unique in the UK, ranging from art magazines, through government journals and statistics, to environmental agencies’ reports.

On a more serendipitous note, I stumbled across a collection of works of the hitherto unknown to me Ukrainian poetess Lesya Ukrainka, and found really good poem about… Robert Bruce. The poem was written in 1893, when Ukraine was within the borders of the Russian Empire, and played its part in the national resurrection and independence movements of the Ukrainian people. For all the differences between the circumstances they are in, with one country considering independence and the other at risk of losing it yet again, the history of both Ukraine and Scotland is currently being written, and in that context this poem sounds very relevant and appropriate.*

*We only have the book in Ukrainian; I am afraid that the full text of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland is not available in English online or at Edinburgh University Library, but here is a link to the UK holdings of her collected works in English translation:

COPAC holdings for Lesya Ukrainka

Nik Slavov, Hidden Collections intern

Request Lesya Ukrainka books and other authors through Inter-Library Loans

Not available at University of Edinburgh? Recommend a book

Find New Zealand House periodicals on the online catalogue

 

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