New Digital Collections for Divinity in 2016

We’ve been able to purchase several new digital collections to support the School of Divinity in 2016. All of the below are accessible via http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/databases-a-z and via the Divinity subject guide http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/subject-guides-divinity

Brepols Database of Latin Dictionaries

Data­base comprising a large number of Latin dictionaries to assist translation from Latin into modern languages and to provide semantic and etymological explanations.

China, Culture & SocietyChina, Culture & Society

Digital collection of rare pamphlets (c. 1750-1929) from Cornell University Library creating a very rich source for research on China, addressing Chinese history, religion, culture, and everyday life. Continue reading

“Sorry, Foakes Jackson, I am for real”*

Aside

Our colleague, Patrick Murray, has begun work cataloguing the W. F. Jackson collection, initially, as part of the Funk Cataloguing Project. This collection has been at New College for many decades but with the need to fill in accurate data about the material, it was soon apparent that no one knew very much about William Foakes Jackson or W. J. Jackson as he had carefully and clearly inscribed in each book.

The closest match that could be found was a Frederick John Foakes-Jackson, who was an eminent scholar of Judaism, something which connected with the first tranche of books. However, after that the trail went cold and, as the archivist, I was asked if I could give any advice on where to look next.

Away from the office, searches on Google, ScotlandsPeople and Ancestry.co.uk all drew a blank on proffering a sibling or son to Frederick John Foakes Jackson, who might have owned and donated these books.

In the New College Library Archives, there are boxes of library correspondence from throughout the 20th century some of which relate to the deposit of collections (ref. AA.2.1). As these records are in varying states of arrangement I decided to look at some of W. F. Jackson’s books for any other clues before delving into the correspondence.

The first couple of books seemed devoid of any details about the owner but, unexpectedly, out of the fourth book I looked at fell a scrap of an envelope on which was written: ‘[-] F Jackson, Suffolk House, 18 Suffolk Road, Edinburgh’ and postmarked 1929. The key to it all.

Scrap of an envelope found in the W. F. Jackson collection of books.

Scrap of an envelope found in the W. F. Jackson collection of books.

A quick visit to ScotlandsPeople searching for the death certificate for a W. F. Jackson after 1929 and there was William Fulton Jackson, in 1931, passing away at Suffolk House, 18, Suffolk Road, Edinburgh. That narrowed down the correspondence search nicely and quite quickly I found a note from his niece, Janet Cameron, depositing the records at New College Library (ref. AA.2.1.104a).

Suffolk House, 18 Suffolk Road, Edinburgh. 6th June 1934 Dear Dr Mitchell Hunter, It was the desire of my uncle, the late Mr W. F. Jackson, that should I wish to dispose of any of his books, his “Eastern Collection” be gifted to the Library of the Church of Scotland. As I understand these books will be acceptable, I hereby formally make the Gift, and I trust it will be convenient to keep them together as one collection, to be called the “W. F. Jackson” collection, and that they will be found useful by many students of our own Church. I am, Yours faithfully, Janet Inglis Cameron Dr, Mitchell Hunter, Librarian Church of Scotland.

Letter from Janet Inglis Cameron, niece of W. F. Jackson, to Dr Mitchell Hunter, Librarian, New College, making a gift of his “Eastern Collection” of books.

Transcript of letter:

Suffolk House,
18 Suffolk Road,
Edinburgh.

6th June 1934

Dear Dr Mitchell Hunter,
It was the desire of my uncle, the late Mr W. F. Jackson, that should I wish to dispose of any of his books, his “Eastern Collection” be gifted to the Library of the Church of Scotland.

As I understand these books will be acceptable, I hereby formally make the Gift, and I trust it will be convenient to keep them together as one collection, to be called the “W. F. Jackson” collection, and that they will be found useful by many students of our own Church.

I am,
Yours faithfully,
Janet Inglis Cameron

Dr, Mitchell Hunter,
Librarian
Church of Scotland.

To the railway historian, the name William Fulton Jackson will be familiar. He was born in 1855 to John Jackson, a grain merchant, and Mary Fulton, in 73, South Wellington Street, Glasgow. In 1883 he married Maggie McJannet Lattimer, at her home in 14, St James Street, Glasgow. In 1891 he was listed as a railway clerk living in Coltbridge Avenue, Edinburgh and by the 1901 census, he had become the General Manager of the North British Railway Company, living at 24, Royal Terrace, Edinburgh. It appears that Jackson was appointed as General Manager in 1899, after his predecessor, John Conacher, stepped down in the wake of a boardroom scandal.

Further internet searches revealed that some of his photograph albums had been deposited at Glasgow University Archives, and that he was an active member of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA).

The 1911 census provides us with a mystery, outwith our remit, in that on the night the census was taken he and many others were staying in the same place as Arthur Conan Doyle and his family: “Rothsay” in Bournemouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England. Is this a connection or a coincidence?

Whatever the answer, after many years of this valuable collection of books being known as the “Foakes Jackson Collection” and thanks to an envelope scrap, finally we are able to give the real W. F. Jackson – William Fulton Jackson, Esq., the credit he is due.

Kirsty M. Stewart, New College Collections Curator

Notes
As the books in the W.F. Jackson collection are catalogued their entries will become available on the University of Edinburgh’s discovery service: http://discovered.ed.ac.uk

University of Glasgow material:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uofglibrary/sets/72157644176571389/ http://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2007/july/headline_31062_en.html

*With apologies to hip-hop duo, “OutKast”.

New digital access to Divinity theses collection

New College Theses

I’m delighted to announced that nearly two hundred and fifty theses dating from 1921-1950 from the New College Library collection are now available online in the Edinburgh Research Archive, part of the Divinity Dissertation and Thesis Collection. While later theses are held in 2 copies, one at the Main Library, we believe that New College Library holds the only copy of theses from this early period.  The New College Theses collection was catalogued online in 2012 as part of the Funk Projects.

The digitisation project was managed by Gavin Willshaw, Digital Curator in Library & University Collections, who explains : “We worked with the digitisation company Restore to digitise 250 unique theses from New College – these are now available open-access for anyone to download at: https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/133
The theses are fully searchable on the ERA platform but also discoverable via Google, making New College scholarship accessible to a much wider audience.
The collection includes a wide variety of research topics, such as Comparison of Chinese and Hebrew wisdom, as exemplified in the Book of Proverbs … [1933] by Elizabeth G.K. Hewat, or The Christian Inscriptions of North Africa … [1943] by Ian Thomson Gillan. Do you recognise any of the authors? We’d love to know more about what happened next to these Divinity alumni.
  • Gavin Willshaw, Digital Curator
  • Christine Love-Rodgers, Academic Support Librarian – Divinity

Unique New College theses going digital

New College ThesesOver two hundred theses from the New College Library collection will soon be available online. We’ve been successful in a small project bid to digitise 200 theses dating 1921-1950.  While later theses are held in 2 copies, one at the Main Library, we believe that New College Library holds the only copy of theses from this early period. Digitised theses will be uploaded to ERA, and the project is scheduled to be complete by January 2015. The New College Theses collection was catalogued online in 2012 as part of the Funk Projects. Please note that from now until January 2015, these theses will be unavailable to users whilst they are being scanned.

Christine Love-Rodgers – Academic Support Librarian, Divinity

Religion by numbers : looking at census data

World Religion DatabaseWant to find out more about how the religious landscape of Scotland today?

A significant seminar “The Religious Life of Scotland Today: Insights from the 2011 Census” is being held on Thursday 21st November, 12.30 – 2.00 pm, 19 George Square, Room G2.  Organised by Professor Hugh Goddard, Director of the HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World, University of Edinburgh, speakers include Amy Wilson,  Head of Census Statistics at the National Records of Scotland.

In 2013 the Library added The World Religion Database (WRD) to its online resources. It contains detailed statistics on religious affiliation for every country of the world. It provides source material, including censuses and surveys, as well as best estimates for every religion to offer a definitive picture of international religious
demography. The Library also subscribes to its partner database, the World Christian Database, which provides comprehensive statistical information on Christian denominations worldwide. Extensive data are available on 9,000 Christian denominations, 13,000 ethnolinguistic peoples, as well as data on 5,000 cities, 3,000
provinces and 239 countries. Information is readily available on
religious activities, growth rates, religious literature, worker
activity, and demographic statistics.

Encyclopedia of Ancient History Online is now available

Encyclopedia of Ancient HistoryThe Encyclopedia of Ancient History Online (Wiley Blackwell)  is now available  to University of Edinburgh users – find it on the library catalogue. If access isn’t clear, try clicking on Institutional Login and entering University of Edinburgh.

This comprehensive collection of twenty-first century scholarship on the entire ancient Mediterranean world covers not only the Greek and Roman civilisations but also the ancient Near East. Over 5,000 original entries span the late Bronze Age through the seventh century CE, from the Book of Daniel to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Online resources for Byzantine research on trial now

Two research resources for Byzantine history and culture are now on trial until 8 July for University of Edinburgh users.

ByzantineByzantinische BibliographieThe Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online/Prosopography of the Middle Byzantine Period Online (PMBZ Online) is a comprehensive biographical dictionary for the Byzantine Empire in the early Medieval Period (641-1025 AD) documenting more than 20,000 persons. PMBZ Online is based on the print edition of the Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit which appeared in two parts 1998 and 2013. PMBZ Online documents all persons mentioned either by name or anonymously in the relevant Byzantine and non-Byzantine sources, and secondly all persons mentioned in the Byzantine sources both from Western Europe and from the Arabic and Slavonic areas, together with those from the Christian East.

The Byzantinische Bibliographie Online includes the bibliographic sections of the Byzantinische Zeitschrift from volume 98 (2005) up to the present day. It contains around 30,000 entries in total, and each year about 4,000 entries will be added. The entries are organized systematically by subject area and enriched by short discussions and references to relevant review articles.

Access to the database is via http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/databases-trials. University of Edinburgh users have IP based access on campus, or off campus via the VPN.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Full Text now available at University of Edinburgh

ProQuest Dissertations and ThesesProquest’s Dissertations & Theses database is now available for University of Edinburgh users.

We have been subscribing to Proquest’s Dissertations & Theses – Abstracts & Indexes for some time but have been able to upgrade our  access to the full subscription which offers full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997. To access, look under P for ‘ProQuest Dissertations & Theses’ in the A-Z list of databases http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/databases-a-z

Thank you for all your feedback which was key to putting together a case for purchasing this  expensive resource.

For information about more resources and services for theses, see the Theses Subject Guide.

New online EndNote course now available

learn logoThe IS Skills Development team in Information Services has released an online course to help University of Edinburgh staff and students get started with the reference management software, EndNote. The course is available through Learn, the University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as a self-enrol course. Learn can be accessed by MyEd.

New Divinity digital resources available

hinduismNew Divinity digital resources are now becoming available.  New Brill resources already added to the A-Z list of databases are Context of Scripture Online, Coptic Gnostic Library, Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures and Religion Past and Present. Due to appear shortly are World Christian Database, World Religion Database and Library of Latin Texts.

All Divinity databases are available on the Divinity Databases by subject list at http://edin.ac/115ga9T.