Home University of Edinburgh Library Essentials
May 15, 2025
Nature Protocols – access back to vol.1
We have now extended our e-access to Nature Protocols back to Volume 1 (2006).
Nature Protocols is an online journal of laboratory protocols for bench researchers. Protocols are presented in a ‘recipe’ style providing step-by-step descriptions of procedures which users can take to the lab and immediately apply in their own research. Protocols on the site are fully searchable and organized into logical categories to be easily accessible to researchers.
Reading Music
The new exhibition in the Binks Trust display wall on the 6th floor of the Main University Library shows some of the fabulous items relating to music in our rare book, archive and musical instrument collections. Come and see some of the most important early modern books about musical instruments alongside volumes relating to musical life in 19th-century Edinburgh. Also on display are two company ledgers which help us to understand how musical instrument making firms operated.
23 May – 2 Aug 2017, University of Edinburgh Main Library (6th floor). Mon-Fri 9am-5pm.
Digitisation Strategy and Survey
The University of Edinburgh already provides access to a wide range of digital resources, but we want to increase the number of our own collections available in digital format.
Webpages have been launched that detail what digitisation means for Library and University Collections, as well as case studies where digital content is currently being used for teaching, research, learning, community, culture, and business.
However, we want to find out more about what you want digitised and why. Please complete the 5 minute survey at https://edinburgh.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/digitisation-strategy
You can find out more about the consultation and existing digitisation work at http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/about/organisation/library-and-collections/strategy-planning/digitisation-strategy-consultation
Claire Knowles on behalf of the, Library and University Collections, Digitisation Strategy Group
New Conservation Internship at the CRC
This week’s blog is written by our new conservation Intern, Holly, who is working on a collections rationalisation project within the rare books department…
I am now beginning my third week as an Intern here at the conservation studio, and thought I would take the time to briefly introduce myself and the project.
I am a current student at the University, studying for an MSc in Book History and Material Culture. The opportunities provided through this degree since it’s commencement in September have allowed me to realise fully a long-held belief in the irreplaceable importance of cultural heritage, and I soon wanted to get involved and gain experience in the field of conservation. As such, I have been a volunteer in the conservation studio since January, and when the advert for this internship was brought to my attention, I jumped at the chance.
Holly working in the studio
New Look and Feel for DiscoverEd!
On Tuesday 4th July 2017 the Library rolled out a new look and feel for DiscoverEd, our online discovery service. This means there’s a new improved mobile responsive interface, so you can use DiscoverEd easily on a range of devices including tablets and phones. It is also now easier to navigate.
The core functionality of DiscoverEd has not changed. Users are still be able to search the same extensive range of resources, view online resources, access their account details, renew loans, place requests, pay fines and access the same range of functions offered by the previous version of DiscoverEd.
Search results are displayed as before, with options for refining them. However, the screen has greater readability across a range of devices, and easier access to useful functions:
What’s new?
Options for saving and exporting are now easily accessible from the list of search results:
The full details and links for each item on your results list are now conveniently displayed on a single page:
The My Account area has been enhanced and now provides a useful overview page, which allows you to review your account information at a glance:
e-Shelf has been replaced with My Favourites. When you are signed in to DiscoverEd you can easily add items to your saved records list in My Favourites by clicking the Pin icon.
You can organise your list of saved records in My Favourites by adding descriptive labels:
The Queries section in the old DiscoverEd, which allowed you to save queries and set up alerts, has been replaced by the SAVED SEARCHES section in My Favourites.
IMPORTANT: Please note that any saved queries you have in the old DiscoverEd ARE NOT be available in the new interface. Instead you will need to run these searches again in the new interface and then save each of them as a saved search in My Favourites.
2 and 3D Photography: Practice, Prophecies, and Beyond- Conference at the Rijksmuseum
Team DIU (well, half of it!) have been visiting the Rijksmuseum again for the biennial conference on 2 and 3D photography. 2 full days of speakers followed by another workshop day left us with lots to think about. This year’s conference built on the last, Robert Erdmann released the open source code for his amazing curtain viewer which can be tried out in the Bosh Project here http://boschproject.org/#/ . Malcolm is going to delve deeper in to Erdmann’s latest developments below. Otherwise 3D technology seems to be taking root, with debate over the level of quality and detail needed, and advances such as ‘videogrammetry’ and ‘unstructured light field renderings’ (see below) entering the fray.
Free access to optional contents of JapanKnowledge
The following contents will temporarily be accessible on the JapanKnowledge platform between 1 June and 30 June 2017:
1. Encyclopedia of Japanese Historical Place Names http://japanknowledge.com/en/contents/rekishi/index.html
2. Fuzoku Gaho http://japanknowledge.com/en/contents/fuzokugaho/index.html
3. Oriental Economist http://japanknowledge.com/en/contents/orientaleconomist/index.html
Please contact shenxiao.tong@ed.ac.uk if you have any feedback.
When size matters : big books
A really good question was asked by one of our student interns recently about the rare books collections they were working with : “Why are the big books so big?”. This set me thinking about the size of the books in our Special Collections, big and small, and why size matters.
[Bible. Authorized version]. The Holy Bible : containing the Old and New Testaments … Glasgow ; Edinburgh ; London : Printed and published by William Mackenzie ; 1862-1863. New College Library B.r.302a-b
The Bible: translated according to the Ebrew and Greeke, and conferred with the best translations in diuers languages. London: Christopher Barker, 1583. B.r.33/1
Alongside this book, in our early Bibles collection we have several examples of pulpit Bibles such as this Geneva Bible used as the pulpit Bible in Crail, Fife. Traditionally Presbyterian churches in Scotland had a centrally located pulpit, reflecting the importance of the Bible as the foundation of faith. The large size of the book is part of its role as an object used in public worship.
Mikdash yeyai, ʻesrim ve-ʾarbʻa sefare ha-mikhtav ha-ḳadosh = En tibi lector Hebraica Biblia. Basel, 1534. LP4/2.10
In fact many of the largest books in our rare book collections are Bibles, and this is no surprise considering that the Bible is a very large amount of text, which requires a large book to fit it all in. This is even more the case for polyglot Bibles, which offer parallel versions of the text in different languages such as Latin, Hebrew and Greek, or for Bible versions that include commentary parallel with the text. In the recently catalogued LP section, this folio edition of the complete Hebrew Bible, with Latin translation, and Latin commentary drawn from Rabbinic sources, is one of the greatest Christian Hebraists of the sixteenth century, Sebastian Münster. This Bible was highly valued by 16th century Christian students of the Hebrew language and the Hebrew Scriptures, and is likely to have been among the resources used by Luther in preparing his Genesis lectures (1535-1545), his last major work.
Christine Love-Rodgers, Academic Support Librarian
With thanks to Janice Gailani, Rare Books Cataloguer.
New! Past Masters Commons
We now have access to Past Masters Commons, a growing series of important texts and translations that present the history of philosophy and thought. Read More
Psalm singing and the Reformation
New College Library welcomes delegates to The Cultures of the Reformation: A Colloquium in Honour of Professor Jane Dawson on Thursday 1 June 2017. We have updated our current display of early psalm books and Scottish liturgy to include two new items.
The CL. Psalmes of David in meter : for the vse of the Kirk of Scotland : the contents of this buke follovve in the next page after the kalender. Imprinted at London : By Thomas Vautrollier dwelling in the Black-Friers, 1587. tUR 77 1587
Collections
Archival Provenance Project: Emily’s finds
My name is Emily, and I’m the second of the two archive interns that...
Archival Provenance Project: a glimpse into the university’s history through some of its oldest manuscripts
My name is Madeleine Reynolds, a fourth year PhD candidate in History of Art....
Projects
Documentation Challenges in Practice: Art Collection Barcoding Project
In this week’s blog, our Art Collection Documentation Assistant Gaby Cortes discusses some of the...
Sustainable Exhibition Making: Recyclable Book Cradles
In this post, our Technician, Robyn Rogers, discusses the recyclable book cradles she has developed...