Tag Archives: Library Annexe

Beautiful Bindings

thesis on rickets 1 thesis on rickets 2

As part of our Thesis Scanning Service, when we come across a request for a thesis that has beautiful binding we make sure to scan and include these images in the digitised content.

A recent example of this is the beautiful golden marble effect shown above on William David Osler’s ‘Thesis on Rickets’ awarded in 1896.

The digitised copy of this thesis is available for download from the Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA), Edinburgh University’s digital repository of original research produced at The University of Edinburgh.

Download and view ‘Thesis on Rickets’ from the ERA archives’.

More information on our digitisation service can be found on our Thesis Scanning service page.

Stephanie Farley (Charlie), Library Annexe Assistant

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Reading Rooms and visiting the Annexe

We run a fast and effective retrieval service for Annexe materials. If you want to consult the whole item we can have it sent to a convenient library location via our twice daily courier deliveries, and if you are wanting a chapter or article we can scan and deliver a digital copy directly to your inbox.

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Reading Room Annexe 1

Occasionally, however, you may want to browse through a larger selection of Annexe materials which include: lesser used books, back issues of journals,reference maps and atlases, newspaper indexes and microfilm.

The Annexe also stores selected material from the Library’s Special Collections, University Archives and Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA).

Perhaps you want to search through part of a journal run for relevant articles or browse the microfilms for a couple of years’ worth of newspapers. If so you’ll find a well-stocked kitchen, friendly staff and plenty of study space to spread out as you work.

The Annexe has two comfortable reading rooms and we can offer visitors use of an open access PC, a microfilm reader and an OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) for searching items in the catalogue.

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Reading Room Annexe 2

To arrange access to items from the Library’s Special Collections, University Archive s and Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA) material stored in the Annexe, contact the CRC to first determine if a visit to the Annexe would be suitable.

To arrange a visit to the Annexe to access any of the other material simply send us an email (library.annexe@ed.ac.uk) or give us a call (0131 651 1523) to discuss a suitable time.

Despite our remote location out in South Gyle we’re relatively easy to get to either by the 2, 22 or 35 buses or by hopping on one of the regular trains that call at Edinburgh Park. You could even sneak in a visit to Krispy Kreme’s over the road while you’re out this way.

Stephanie Farley (Charlie), Library Annexe Assistant

Maria O’Hara, Library Annexe Assistant

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Happy Halloween/Samhuinn from the Annexe

The results of our now annual Annexe pumpkin carving competition.

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Ohh spooky.

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Stephanie Farley (Charlie), Library Annexe Assistant

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Library of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity now at the Annexe

The Library of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non Western World (CSCNWW), which was located in Thomas Chalmers House, adjacent to New College, was moved out to the Annexe over the summer break and is now available to students and staff at all library sites via the Library Annexe retrieval service.

The space in Thomas Chalmers House being previously used to house the library collection was generously loaned by the School of Divinity but is now required for other purposes. Previous access to this collection was haphazard and managed by postgraduate students in the department. Moving the collection out to the Annexe provides regular reliable access to material that was previously available only sporadically.

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Study spaces in the New College Library

Additionally this move is going to allow cataloguers the chance to properly examine and update the collection.  This means a greater wealth of information in regards to what is held in the collection, making location of research and study materials much easier for students, staff, and visiting readers.

As part of an ongoing project, other lesser used materials identified in the New College library will also be moved out to the Library Annexe. This will create space for the more relevant and higher use items in the CSCNWW Collection, as identified via the retrieval service, to be housed at the New College library for easier browsing access.

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Shelving in New College where space will be created to house higher use items from the CSCNWW Collection.

The Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non Western World (CSCNWW) Collection was originally a private donation to the New College library by Professor Andrew Walls. The collection has grown over time via additional donations and acquisitions, and contains a large amount of primary research material in the history of Christian missions in the non-western world.

For more information about the Centre for the Study of World Christianity please click on the link below:

Centre for the Study of World Christianity

Stephanie Farley (Charlie), Library Annexe Assistant

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Requesting Electronic Delivery of Journal Articles and/or Book Chapter Scans from the Annexe

In addition to the item retrieval service for books and journals, we also provide electronic delivery of scanned journal articles and chapters from items held out at the Library Annexe.

There are two starting points from which to make a request for an article or book chapter:

  1. Use the Library Catalogue, and select ‘Library Annexe Scan Request’
  2. If you know the article or chapter you require, log in to ILLiad.

The User Guide provides information on using ILLiad to make a request for the digital delivery of a scan:

You do need to register with ILLiad to receive the requested scans, however registration is free and needs doing only once.

Interesting fact: in the last year the Annexe Team processed a total of one-thousand-and-ninety-seven scan requests for an average of fifty requests per week.

Stephanie Farley (Charlie), Library Annexe Assistant

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Thesis Scanning Service attracts international attention

Given the global impact of research at the University we probably shouldn’t have been surprised when our little Thesis Scanning Service attracted attention around the world – but we were.

To date roughly half of all orders received have come in from outside the UK. Predictably, English speaking countries such as the United States and Australia account for the majority of requests. The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) in Chicago has even become our first repeat customer; ordering four theses scans in as many months. Each thesis scanned for the CRL will eventually be made available to their users via their digital repository. For those unaffiliated with the CRL, however, they will also be available for anyone to download on our own digital repository, ERA.

Not all orders are coming in from the English-speaking world; requests have come in from countries as far afield as Japan, Israel and South Korea. While the majority of requests have been made by academic researchers, some have been for exhibitions or even family history enthusiasts. Currently, requests have been received from 13 different countries and we hope to see this number increase in future.

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Western General Hospital Library and the Annexe

The University of Edinburgh Library operates on a number of sites around the city. One of these is the Western General Hospital Library which holds part of the University’s medicine collections, including literature covering oncology, gastroenterology and neurology.

Brain Model for use by Staff and Students at the Western General Hospital Library

Libraries are not only about books. Staff and students at the Western General Hospital Library can also make use of this Brain Model.

The Western General Hospital Library is open to both staff and students of the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian staff. There are computers connected to both the University’s network and NHS Knowledge Network to provide a great range of information access.

The Library Annexe has been working closely with the Western General Hospital Library to identify duplicate runs of journal series, or gaps in runs held by either the Western General Hospital Library and the Annexe. By identifying where duplicate runs are held and moving an entire run from the Western General Hospital Library to the Library Annexe, or using items held in the Library Annexe to fill gaps in journal runs being held at the Western General Hospital Library we are able to provide a more comprehensive and complete information experience for our readers.

Shelves at the Western General Hospital with gaps from the de-duplication.

Exciting new space on the shelves from de-duplication means more room for additional materials.

Stephanie Farley (Charlie), Library Annexe Assistant

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The new Annexe Thesis Scanning Service proves popular

 

picture of a number of black-bound theses piled up in a cupboard over two shelves

The orders for thesis scans are definitely piling up.

After 9 months and 62 orders the pilot stage of the Thesis Scanning Service is over. When the service started I don’t think any of the team anticipated the impact it would have on our workload. We naively expected to be scanning one thesis a week but, with an average eight scan requests coming in each month, it isn’t unheard of for us to deliver five completed scans in one working week. This far exceeded our expectations and we have been pleasantly surprised by the uptake. In fact, now that the service is up and running, each of us devotes up to half of our working day to digitisation.

The project has highlighted the demand for digital copies of theses. Although only a handful have made their way onto ERA thus far those that have are benefiting from increased visibility and usage. Since being made available on ERA, Lance Whitehead’s 1994 thesis on the Clavichords of Hieronymus and Johann Haas has been viewed over 100 times and downloaded almost 40. On average the theses that have been available via ERA for more than 6 months have been downloaded 23 times each.

As more materials are added to the ERA database, their visibility on search engines such as Google Scholar will only increase, allowing our worldwide audience access to Edinburgh’s Research. Despite some of the interesting moments and challenges along the way, we feel the service has been a great success and all of us on Team Annexe are looking forward to seeing how it develops in the future.

Maria O’Hara, Library Annexe Assistant

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Tom Kibble’s Thesis digitised and made available online

Picture of Tom Kibble

Professor Kibble is currently an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London

During the summer graduations Tom Kibble will receive an Honorary Degree from the School of Physics & Astronomy for this work in Theoretical Physics. An Edinburgh graduate, Kibble contributed to the discovery of both the Higgs mechanism and the Higgs boson.

scanned image of handwritten formulas included in the thesis

All of the formulas in the the thesis were handwritten.

Ahead of the graduation ceremony in July the School requested the digitisation of his 1958 Thesis on Quantum Field Theory. As with all of our thesis scans the digitised copy will shortly be made available on ERA. In the meantime, the School of Physics & Astronomy will be using it for an exhibition on Kibble to coincide with the conferment of his honorary degree.

Maria O’Hara, Library Annexe Assistant

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Edinburgh physician’s thesis digitised for inclusion in Japanese Museum Exhibit

unedited image of a scanned page

The Carbon Pages were so thin a sheet of paper had to be placed behind each page before it was scanned

Earlier this year a digital copy of the 1909 thesis of Scottish born anthropologist and physician Dr Neil Gordon Munro was ordered by a museum in Japan. The digitised work will be included in an exhibition at the Yokohama History Museum in the city where Munro lived and worked as director of the General Hospital for much of his career.

The thesis was challenging to digitise as much of it was typed on thin, see-though carbon paper. Many of the pages had become wrinkled with age and some were handwritten.

As the University of Edinburgh begins exploring distance learning tools and deploying courses via Coursera this thesis, submitted from Japan, demonstrates the Universities rich yet largely invisible history of distance learning.

For a closer look at the completed digital copy on ERA go to: http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/6685

Maria O’Hara, Library Annexe Assistant

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