Tag Archives: Library Annexe

Unexpected delights at the UCF

There is a large area of grass growing at the side of the University Collections Facility (née Library Annexe) which is usually just grass and moss with the odd daisy daring to poke its head above the grassy parapets. However, a lunchtime stroll resulted in a delightful find of a Common Spotted Orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) growing amongst the buttercups (Ranunculus acris) and grasses at South Gyle.

Brown honey bees looked conspicuous busily collecting nectar from the white clover (Trifolium repens) which is in full flower. The tiny purple flowers of selfheal (Prunella vulgaris) looked especially lovely as a complementary colour to the shining yellow buttercups. A daisy (Bellis perennis) or two is also flowering. A few thistles (Cirsium vulgare) are nearly flowering and small sheep sorrel plants (Rumex acetosella) are appearing. The type of grassland here (neutral to alkaline) is typical of one which has not had chemicals or artificial fertilisers put on it and is typical of how grassland looked before ploughing and fertilising became common practices.

Sandi Phillips, Collections Management Assistant

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Do it like they do on the DiscoverEd channel

DiscoverEd is the Library's discovery service and principal search tool

DiscoverED, the University of Edinburgh’s new one step information, discovery and delivery service, is now on-line and fully operational. You can request Library Annexe items using the new service; all you have to do is sign in and find the items using the search bar. As well as books, DiscoverEd will search ebooks, ejournal articles and more.

The first request for a Library Annexe item was placed by non-other than our staff member Dominic Tate. Congrats Dominic, we know how important this is to you. [You will receive your diploma in the mail shortly.]

You can read all about DiscoverED at the links below.

About DiscoverEd

Search for Library Annexe items and more

Marko Mlakar, Library Annexe Assistant

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Thomas Nelson Exhibition: Covers in Colour

The new exhibition in the CRC showcases a number of items from the Thomas Nelson Archive, which has been written about on this blog more than once in the past. It really is an interesting collection and it’s great to see some of the books making it into the public eye.

Fiona Mowat and Beth Dumas, who began organising and cataloguing the collection of over 10,000 books, have worked with Emma Smith to make this exhibition possible. In it you can see a range of books from throughout the 20th century including stylish art deco designs and pulpy dust-jackets from the ‘40s and ‘50s. There is plenty of sci-fi and and romance present for genre fans!

The exhibition can be seen at the Binks Trust Display Wall at the Centre for Research Collections on the 6th floor of the Main Library from 3 March until 21 May 2015.

More information can be found here:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information-services/library-museum-gallery/crc/events-exhibitions

Read more about the Thomas Nelson Archive at the Library Annexe here:

[Blog] Fiona an Beth blog about their work on the Thomas Nelson collection

[Blog] The AnneXe Factor: Full Nelson Archive

Carl Jones, Library Annexe Supervisor

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Recycling at the Annexe (It’s easy bein’ green)

We’re happy to report that the Library Annexe has joined University’s (recycling) efforts to make our planet a wee bit more sustainable. Every little step in the right direction helps, so next time when at the Library Annexe please recycle your litter.

“No dogma taught by the present civilization seems to form so insuperable an obstacle in the way of a right understanding of the relations which culture sustains to wildness, as that which declares that the world was made especially for the uses of men. Every animal, plant, and crystal controverts it in the plainest terms. Yet it is taught from century to century as something ever new and precious, and in the resulting darkness the enormous conceit is allowed to go unchallenged.”

John Muir

John Muir was a Scottish-American advocate of preservation of wilderness, born in Dunbar, East Lothian. If you want to know more about John Muir the University Library has a small collection of his works or you can visit his birthplace in Dunbar.

 Find “John Muir : apostle of nature” on the library catalogue

Recycling bins at the Library Annexe

Recycling bins at the Library Annexe

The University of Edinburgh’s Waste & Recycling department

John Muir on Wikipedia

Visit John Muir’s Birthplace

Information on the John Muir Way

Marko Mlakar, Library Annexe Assistant

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Edinburgh University Press and the Library Annexe

Part of the Special Collections material we keep here at the Library Annexe is the published output of the Edinburgh University Press; leading scholarly publisher of academic books and journals in Scotland. EUP publishes a range of research publications (in a wide variety of subjects), from research monographs and serials; to textbooks and materials which are available online (it is a part of University Publishing Online, the online platform of Cambridge University Press). It was established in 1940s and became wholly owned by The University of Edinburgh in 1992. All publications carry the imprimatur of the University and the University Library acts as a deposit library for all publications printed by the Press. This helps to ensure that EUP’s publications are collected systematically, to preserve the material for future use and to make it available for readers here and now. EUP material is available on a strictly reference basis under the same conditions as any other rare book or Special Collections item. Readers can consult the material either here or in the CRC (6th floor of the Main Library). The deliveries are twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays at 1pm

To show the variety of material published by EUP, I did a quick search (key words Slovenia and Zizek) and found quite a few interesting articles and monographs.

Žižek and Politics: A Critical IntroductionŽižek and Communist Strategy: On the Disavowed Foundations of Global Capitalism

Slavoj Žižek is undoubtedly the most renowned Slovenian author; philosopher and cultural theorist sometimes referred to as “Elvis of cultural theory” or “academic rock star”. Žižek achieved international recognition after the 1989 publication of his first book in English, The Sublime Object of Ideology.

Edinburgh University Press Official Site

About the University’s Special Collections

Marko Mlakar, Library Annexe Assistant

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Merry AnneXMAS!

Merry Christmas from Edinburgh’s Library Annexe!

Here are a few festive images from some of the books that can be found within our general lending collections:

XMAS (2)XMAS (3)

XMAS (5) XMAS (4)XMAS (1)Images are taken from the following Library Annexe books:

I Saw Esau by Iona and Peter Opie

The Twelve Days of Christmas by Miles and John Hadfield

The New Punch Library: Round the year with Mr. Punch

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Favourite character from a Scottish book

As part of Book Week Scotland, the Scottish Book Trust are holding a vote to discover the most loved characters in Scottish fiction. Here, the Library Annexe staff put forward their own favourites.

One of the interests that the Annexe team has in common is a love of sci-fi, which has begun a continuous stream of talk over lunch breaks and has culminated in the recent founding of the (small and unofficial) Annexe Science Fiction Club.

In this vein, and to promote what I think is one of the most underrated Scottish fiction books of the last century my nomination for favourite character goes to Maskull, the protagonist of David Lyndsay’s novel A Voyage to Arcturus.

Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay

Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay

Maskull, a man from Earth, awakens alone in a desert on the planet Tormance, seared by the suns of the binary star Arcturus, and embarks on an extraordinary pilgrimage with an extraordinary revelation at the end.

Having sold only 596 copies of its initial print run of 1430, Lyndsay’s masterpiece has since found a place as a classic of speculative fiction, earning itself a place in Harold Bloom’s the Western Canon, and earning words of praise by masters from J.R.R. Tolkien to Philip Pullman.

Even though he is very far from the type of hero one can relate to, I often find myself thinking about Maskull (and Lyndsay’s wildly imaginative world) when I really should be working.

And if that is not a sign of a good book, I don’t know what is.

Iraklis Pantopoulos, Library Annexe Assistant

Find A Voyage to Arcturus on the University of Edinburgh online catalogue

When picking a favourite Scottish character from literature, I am drawn to my two favourite Scottish authors, Muriel Spark and Iain Banks, but I find myself struggling to choose a best character. The lure of the enigmatic Long John Silver is also hard to resist – a character so well drawn, he has become the template for all pirates since.

The Invisibles Vol. 1

The Invisibles Vol. 1

However, I am going to collectively go for Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, a weird and mysterious bunch, mainly because this is the book that introduced me to his work (and is the only DC comic that is ever likely to feature Greenock as a location).

Read about The Invisibles at Wikipedia

Morrison’s work on Batman has been exceptional, but somehow Batman doesn’t feel very Scottish… apart from in Batman: Scottish Connection, as drawn by Glaswegian Frank Quietly.

(It’s terrible).

Find Grant Morrison’s Arkham Asylum on the University of Edinburgh online catalogue

Why not vote for your favourite at the Book Week Scotland website?

Carl Jones, Library Annexe Supervisor

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Annexehalloween 2014

Viki took her creativity to new heights with this creation. We're not sure what it is but it is certainly scary!

Viki took her creativity to new heights with this creation. We’re not sure what it is but it is certainly scary!

Previous pumpkin carving competitions at the Library Annexe have proved popular and we always enjoy the opportunity to flex our creative muscles during our lunch breaks. As such, the annual Annexe pumpkin carving competition was entered with much enthusiasm once again. And here are this year’s results!

Jack Skellington looks fantastic next to his more ambiguous friend.

Jack Skellington looks fantastic next to his more ambiguous friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our part-time Annexe Assistant, Iraklis, was not at work on Halloween itself, but was sport enough to send us his own contribution, which he lovingly crafted in the comfort of his own home.

For those who can't quite see it, it's Sandra Bullock from the film Gravity.

For those who can’t quite see it, it’s Sandra Bullock from the film Gravity.

Carl Jones, Library Annexe Supervisor

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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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We feel very Olympic today

Our newest Library Assistant at the Library Annexe is Marko Mlakar, who joins us at Edinburgh from Ljubljana, Slovenia. Marko worked at the University of Edinburgh last year as an intern within the Scholarly Communications team and brings a wealth of experience to the Collections Management team. Marko settled into his new role just in time for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, and with enough Olympic spirit still in the air, reflects on the competition in his first blog entry.

Carl Jones, Library Annexe Supervisor

With the Olympic Games now behind us, it’s time to reflect a little on the fun we had at the Annexe over these past few weeks. Honestly, we could not hold our excitement about the Games so we got involved with every single Olympic day – falling short of watching TV during our work hours, of course! Since that super Olympic spirit hadn’t really left us we wanted to track down the oldest item about the Olympics in our collection for the Annexe blog… but it turned out to be neither that interesting nor that old – a bit of an anti-climax, for sure! Our advice is if you really want to know more about the Games, Moray House Library seems to be the place to visit.

The Library Annexe Sochi Winter Olympics board
The Library Annexe Sochi Winter Olympics board. Slovenia punch above their weight to bring the “Team Annexe” medal count up to 15.

We did, however, manage to introduce a bit of playful competition to the office during the games! Cheering for our united athletes of “Team Annexe” the Olympic spirit was running high from the get go, to the extent that we even created our Annexe Team Olympic medal board, which we put up to follow the achievements of our Olympians.  Our united Team of Australia, United Kingdom and Slovenia won no less than 15 medals altogether (3 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze) beating China and some other great winter sporting nations such as Finland, Italy and Sweden. WOW! That is without a doubt an extraordinary achievement for such a small team. And as every story has to have a moral at the end, we would like to make sure you get this one right – never underestimate the power of team effort, no matter how small the team.

About Moray House Library

About the Scholarly Communications Team

Marko Mlakar, Library Annexe Assistant

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