Home University of Edinburgh Library Essentials
March 31, 2026
How do we slice our LOAF (Library OA Fund)?
A number of Universities have introduced funding to support Open Access publishing in addition to external block grants. We are often asked about the rationale for our OA fund, so we have produced a short report as part of the OA Good Practice LOCH Pathfinder Project.
St Andrews Library Open Access Fund: business case and criteria
https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/8504
This short report describes the case for a small institutional fund to support open access publishing at the University of St Andrews. The background to the fund is an institutional commitment to ensuring the widest possible access to its research, and a belief that researchers should be free to choose the most suitable venue for their work. If an author decides that a fully open access journal is the best venue for their work, we do not want there to be any barriers to publishing. The University Library therefore proposed a model where researchers could apply for funds specifically when they wish to publish in a journal which is only available in open access form and which requires payment of a publishing fee. The report describes how the fund operates, and its ultimate aim to encourage and support a transition to open access that is sustainable and achievable.
Jackie Proven – Repository & Open Access Services Manager, University of St Andrews
What’s the Danger?
In this week’s blog Project Conservator, Katharine Richardson, discusses the challenges she has faced while reviewing the CRC’s Disaster Plan….
For the last two months I have been reviewing the Disaster Response and Recovery Plan for the University of Edinburgh’s rare and unique collections. The plan covers twelve different collection sites across the University campus that contain a large number of diverse objects and materials, including archives, anatomical specimens and musical instruments.
One of the most challenging aspects of the project has been to identify each collection’s vulnerabilities and to anticipate the risks involved in moving and handling them during a disaster response operation. Some collection items have very specific handling requirements which must be recorded in the plan, such as the School of Scottish Studies Archive’s audio visual equipment that is so sensitive to movement that they can be damaged beyond repair from one slight knock. There are also certain collections that contain items hazardous to human health, one example being the geology collections, which contain specimens of mercury and asbestos. These, too, require specialist handling instructions and a record of what personal protective equipment (PPE) is required.
A new themed double-issue of The Unfamiliar published online
We are delighted to announce that an exciting new double-issue of the student-led open-access journal The Unfamiliar: an anthropological journal, Volume 5 (1-2), “Humans and the Environment / Walking Threads”, is now available online.
Humans and the Environment
The individual contributions to this double-issue of The Unfamiliar all explore the different and intricate relationships that exist between people and environments. The environment is here understood in its broadest sense, to also include social, economic, cultural and political aspects, all co-constitutive elements influencing how one comes to perceive and relate to the surrounding world.
Walking Threads
In continuation with the theme of Humans and the Environment, the final part of this volume is dedicated to a special section on the ongoing collaborative initiative Walking Threads. The different reflections, essays and creative interventions represented by these pieces offer a glimpse into an ongoing conversation that originated in the context of one such collaboration, between performance and anthropology, and after an unplanned communal walk with a thread in Seaton Park, Aberdeen. The contributions exemplify the value of experimentation and play, while also offering us reflections on the walk’s potential methodological implications and relevance for anthropological research – and how we come to know and connect with our surrounding environment.
Humans and the Environment
A Windswept Archipelago: Stories of Perception, Time and Landscape in the Orkney Islands
– Sara Bowman Friend
Walking Through Amazonia: An Embodied Perspective on “Natural” Environment
– Manuela Tassan
Esther’s Life Story within a Dryland Biography: Livelihood Viability in Central Pokot, Kenya.
– Paul Roden and Christoph Bergmann
Mountains as actors in the Bolivian Andes: The interrelationship between politics and ritual in the Kallawaya ayllus
– Jonathan Alderman
Becoming With, in Life and Death
– Hannah Kuemmerle
Learning Respect in the Mountains: Children’s perception of nature and its master spirits in a Mapuche community
– Gabriela Alejandra Pina Ahumada
Walking Threads
Interrupted Everyday Motions: Journeying With Threads and Lives
– Ragnhild Freng Dale
Introducing the Walking Threads Project
– Paola Esposito and Jan Peter Laurens Loovers
“Walking Threads, Threading Walk”: Embroidering reflection
– Valeria Lembo
Stepping In and Out of the Picture: A drawing-based reflection on Walking Threads
– Paola Esposito
Walking Threads: A Memory and a Reflective Speculation Inspired by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guttari
– Brian Schultis
“Walking Threads, Threading Walk”: Weaving and Entangling Deleuze and Ingold with Threads
– Jan Peter Laurens Loovers
An intuitive walk – a thread to play along
– Gey Pin Ang
Anthropological Renga
– Caroline Gatt
Library supported publishing
The Unfamiliar is supported by the Library’s Open Journals service. The service is offered free to academic staff and students who are interested in publishing new Open Access journals or migrating existing journals to the Library’s OJS (Open Journal Systems) platform. You can find out more about the service on the Information Services website or email Library.Learning@ed.ac.uk
Angela Laurins
Library Learning Services Manager
Shen Bao Digital Archive (1872-1949)
With the kind support from the Confucius Institute for Scotland, the Library has just purchased the complete digital archive of the Shen Bao Chinese newspaper (申報) which was published in Shanghai between 1872 and 1949.
Literary Encyclopedia
The Literary Encyclopedia publishes biographies of major and minor writers; scholarly descriptions of all interesting texts written by these authors, including those often neglected; and a variety of descriptive and critical essays on literary, cultural and historical matters, which provide a finer understanding of the social contexts in which this writing was produced. Includes coverage of English, American, German, Russian, Italian, French and Classical literatures, as well as substantial and increasing coverage of Hispanic, Japanese, Canadian, East European and various postcolonial literatures. (Other major literatures to be added as resources permit.) Currently has about 7557 completed articles, with a total of about 15.77 million words with around 20-40 articles added to the Encyclopedia every month.
The Library has arranged a free trial of the LE, until 31/05/2016. The trial can be accessed via the E-Resources Trials website which also links to other database trials that can be of interest. There is maintenance work going on with the trial Feedback Form on the E-Resources Trials website at the moment. Please leave a comment in this blog or email your Academic Support Librarian for giving your feedback.
NDL launched an English-language newsfeed on Twitter (NDLJP_en)
The National Diet Library, Japan, launched an English-language newsfeed on Twitter with the account name NDLJP_en. Watch the newsfeed for the latest information in English on collections and events at the NDL on https://twitter.com/NDLJP_en.
Choco-love
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.
Lucy Van Pelt (in Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz)
Today we continued our campaign to spread Library Love by handing out Easter Eggs in the Main Library Foyer.
Many students are currently facing a lot of deadlines, so we want to show them that the Library cares about them with this popular comfort food! These statistics suggest that the people in the UK ate more chocolate than anywhere else in the world in 2011, with each person consuming 11kg on average!
While chocolate is alright occasionally, we will also be handing out some healthier, brain-boosting snacks to help students focus in the next few weeks, in the lead-up to exams. We are getting inspiration from things such as this great dessert recipe from the Lothian Health Services Archive:
Invalid fruit tart recipe, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh School of Dietetics, c.1950. (LHSA Ref: LHB1/89/4/1). Find it here.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out more about our brain-boosting snacks, and other ways we are encouraging students to relax! Have a great Easter break!
New Nature Publishing Group e-journals available
The following 3 new e-journals have now been added to DiscoverEd.
Nature Energy is interested in all aspects of energy, from its generation and storage, to its distribution and management, the needs and demands of the different actors involved, and the impacts that energy technologies and policies have on different societies.
Nature Microbiology is interested in all aspects of microorganisms, be it their evolution, physiology and cell biology; their interactions with each other, with a host or with an environment; or their societal significance. Nature Microbiology provides a place where all researchers and policymakers interested in microorganisms can come together to learn about the most accomplished and significant advances in the field and to discuss topical issues.
Nature Reviews Materials
is dedicated to publishing reviews and perspectives across the entire spectrum of materials science and engineering.
Further Info
The library subscription to Nature Publishing includes all Nature branded e-journal titles as well as selected other titles available from Nature Publishing. These can be accessed from our e-journal AZ list located within DiscoverED.
Thinking of donating books to New College Library?
New College Library welcomes donations of recent publications that support the current teaching and research of the School of Divinity. And donations of books which record the intellectual output of the students, staff and alumni of the University of Edinburgh and / or incorporate research using New College Library’s collections are also welcome.
Donations of books to New College Library are accepted by prior arrangement with the Academic Support Librarian, Christine Love-Rodgers. Please get in touch to discuss your donation, with information about the extent of the collection and the type of material it contains, such as a list of contents. Due to restricted storage space and staffing resource, we have to be selective about what we can accept and may decline donations.
In line with policy elsewhere in the University of Edinburgh Library, we will no longer be accepting donations over the New College Library helpdesk. Please contact the Librarian about your donations before you bring them to the library.
Christine Love-Rodgers
Academic Support Librarian – Divinity, University of Edinburgh
*Working Mondays to Thursdays*
Christine.Love-Rodgers@ed.ac.uk
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/new-college-library
New to the Library: Migration to New Worlds
I’m happy to let you know that the Library now has access to the fascinating online resource Migration to New Worlds due to a collaboration between Jisc and the publishers Adam Matthews.
You can access Migration to New Worlds via the Databases A-Z list.
This unique collection brings together varied primary source material recounting the many and varied personal experiences of migration from the ‘Century of Immigration’ (1800-1924), though you will find some material from pre-1800 and post-1924. Read More
Collections
Hill and Adamson Collection: an insight into Edinburgh’s past
My name is Phoebe Kirkland, I am an MSc East Asian Studies student, and for...
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Projects
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
My name is Pauline Vincent, I am a student in my last year of a...
Archival Provenance Research Project: Lishan’s Experience
Presentation My name is Lishan Zou, I am a fourth year History and Politics student....