Tag Archives: University of Edinburgh

Happy Birthday New College Library

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Seventy six years ago on the 8th of October, New College Library, Edinburgh, was formally opened to students and staff in its current building, the former Free High Kirk. The earth under the church floor had been excavated to allow the three stackrooms below the Library Hall.

The New College Archive preserves this original admission ticket to the inauguration ceremony, as it also preserves the suggestions books, committee minutes and account books of the business of New College Library since its foundation back in the 1840s.  The ticket bears the arms of Edinburgh University on the left and the Church of Scotland’s burning bush emblem on the right. This represents the union which had been effected in  January 1935 of the Church of Scotland’s  New College with the University’s Faculty of Divinity in the New College building.

Christianity in the Far East?

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The Centre for the Study of World Christianity at the School of Divinity hosts its Research Seminar today, and the speaker is Andrew Kaiser, on:

” Lessons for Today from China’s Past: Timothy Richard’s Innovations in Mission.”

New College Library’s stacks bear witness to the activity of nineteenth and twentieth century missons in China and East Asia.  I picked up these three volumes which all have attractive publishers bindings.

The Cross and the Dragon, or, Light in the Broad East by  Rev B.C. Henry (London, Partridge & Co, 1885) announces the author as “Ten years a missionary in Canton”. It is beautifully illustrated and has endpapers printed in a pattern of Chinese fans.  The introduction proclaims “There is no new and sacred sight open to the eyes of present generations better worth study than the rising of the unobscured orb of Christianity in the Far East …”

East of the Barrier, or, Side lights on the Manchuria Mission (Oliphant, Andrewson and Ferrier, Edinburgh & London , 1902), was written by J. Miller Graham, a missionary of the United Free Church of Scotland, Moukden, Manchuria.

Two Lady Missionaries in Tibet by Isabel S. Robson ( London: S.W. Partridge & Co 1910) is the story of  two intrepid women missionaries – Miss Annie R Taylor and Dr Susie Carson Moyes.

A Study in Syriac

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Syriac has been taught at New College, Edinburgh, since its earliest days, as part of the family of ancient languages studied here. Today, for University of Edinburgh Students in years 3  and 4, Aramaic and related Semitic languages (post-Bibilical Hebrew, Syriac and Ugaritic) can be taken as options in Hebrew, Hebrew Bible, and New Testament honours programmes.

Schola Syriaca (1672). New College Library, Hebrew 14.

 This item, Schola Syriaca: unà cum synopsi Chaldaica et dissertatione de literis & lingua Samaritanorum (1672) looks back at the tradition of Syriac learning.

Held in New College Library’s Special Collections,  it is three books bound in one, covering Syriac grammar, syntax and comprehension passages. Despite the main language of the book being in Latin, the text reads from back to front as a book entirely in Syriac would.

One of many books presented to the library in 1924 by the widow of Rev. J.E.H. Thomson, this book belongs to the Hebrew Collection recently catalogued as part of the Funk Cataloguing Projects. With thanks to our Hebrew Cataloguer, Janice Gailani, for sharing details of this item.

 

Science and religion : a natural history

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R. Brookes. A new and accurate system of natural history, containing, 1. The history of quadrupeds …London : Printed for J. Newbery at the Bible and Sun in St. Paul’s Church Yard, 1763. New College Library Nat. 109

Today’s Opening Lecture for the 2012-13 academic session at the School of Divinity will be given by Professor Wentzel van Huyssteen of Princeton Theological Seminary, and will launch the new MSc in Science and Religion.

New College Edinburgh’s history of teaching Science and Religion goes back to the original Chair of Natural Science that was occupied at New College until 1934. The books in New College Library’s Natural History collection, now part of its Special Collections, reflect this academic past.

This volume,  A new and accurate system of natural history, containing, 1. The history of quadrupeds … contains striking animal illustrations, and is part of a series covering the whole of the natural world.

A bookplate and stamp marks the item as originating from the United Presbyterian Library. The 1900 Union of the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church prompted the amalgamation of their library into New College Library, and many volumes in Special Collections bear these marks.

Get Connected with University of Edinburgh Information Services

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Get Connected drop in sessions for Freshers Week are running in the Main Library  on 12th-14th September between 10am-4pm. No appointments necessary, just turn up.

Take the opportunity to connect up your own personal devices e.g. laptops, phones and tablets/pads to the University network. Staff will be on hand to help and guide you.

Sessions will take place on the Mezzanine area of the first floor of the Main Library, George Square (above the entrance gates).

There is a quick reply mailbox at get.connected@ed.ac.uk to support this event.  Send a blank email to this address and you’ll get an automatic reply which contains details of the event and links to our help pages on these topics.

You can also find out more at : www.ed.ac.uk/is/new-students

Welcome to New College Library

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A big welcome to all students starting and returning to the University of Edinburgh today, at the beginning of Freshers week 2012. We’re looking forward to meeting you. To help you get started at University, check out this guide  for new students to Library & IT services.

If you want to get ahead with using New College Library, you could start with the Virtual Tour.

There will be a programme of tours for students at New College Library – students please watch your email for details. There will also be events happening all over the University Library to help you get connected with your IT and Library services.

New books at New College Library – September

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New College Library has a regular display of new books at the far end of the Library Hall, close to the door to the stacks. We also acquire some titles as e-book versions when these are available.

New book of the month for September is the Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence  (Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, c2011)

This book has been purchased as an e-book and is available via the Edinburgh University Library Catalogue. Access is restricted to University of Edinburgh users. It was purchased to support the course Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding, a Year 2 undergraduate course at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.

You can see an regularly updated list of new books for New College Library on the Library Catalogue – choose the New Books Search and limit your search to New College Library. Here’s a quick link to new books arriving in the last few weeks. A word of caution – some of the books listed here may still be in transit between the Main Library (where they are catalogued) and New College Library, so not on the shelf just yet. Please ask at the New College Library Helpdesk if there’s a book that you are interested in and can’t find.

Once in a blue moon? Surprises in the New College Library stacks …

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The Romance of Modern Astronomy by Hector MacPherson. New College Library Stack II C4/a2

The 31st of August is scheduled for a ‘blue moon’ over Scotland. A blue moon traditionally occurs whenever two full moons happen in a single month – an unusual occurence, hence the saying ‘Once in a blue moon’.

Dedicated users of New College Library may have made their way down to the depths of Stack II at basement level, and discovered the sequence of older monographs known as the ‘unclassified sequence’.  These books date from the pre-1930 existence of New College Library, and the variety of the content covers a much wider scope than the theological curriculum of the time. I was surprised to find this one :  The Romance of Modern Astronomy (1911), by Hector MacPherson.

This collection is currently part of an online cataloguing project funded by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Edinburgh.

New JSTOR collections benefit e-journals for Divinity

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Are you a fan of JSTOR electronic  journals ? In 2012 the University of Edinburgh purchased the JSTOR Collections V & VIII. This has increased the coverage of backruns of a number of titles relevant to Divinity, such as:

  • Canadian Journal of Philosophy 1971-2006
  • Contemporary Religions in Japan 1960-1970
  • The Catholic Historical Review 1915-2006
  • International Journal of the Classical Tradition 1994-2007
  • International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1970-2007
  • International Journal of Hindu Studies 1997-2007
  • Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1974-2011
  • Jewish History 1986-2007
  • The Journal of Ethics 1997-2007
  • Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 1985-2011
  • Journal of Religion and Health 1961-2007
  • The Journal of Religious Ethics 1973-2005
  • The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society  1835-2006
  • Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 1997-2011
  • Prooftexts 1981-2010
  • Religion & Literature 1965-2008
  • Religious Studies 1965-2011
  • Scottish Historical Review 1903-

New College Library Archives

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An image from the New College Archive of New College Library as it appeared in 1946

Did you know that New College Library holds significant collections of archives and manuscripts?

These  collections include the papers of Thomas Chalmers, J.H. Oldham, James S. Stewart and Norman W. Porteous.  Hidden among the older archives are gems such as the  last speech and testimony of the covenanter James Renwick (1662-1688).  The Archives also include a New College Archive which includes group photographs of students and staff, and of the New College buildings.

Recently added to our collections are the papers of Rev Tom Allan (1916-1965), Rev. Professor Alec Campbell Cheyne (1924-2006), Rev. Professor John McIntyre (1916-2005), and the Very Rev Professor James Whyte (1920-2005). The listing of these papers was funded by a generous bequest from the estate of Rev. Professor Alec Campbell Cheyne .

See the New College Archives web page to find out more.