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December 16, 2025
A Visit from Dolly…
It has been a while since my last post, but rest assured, the ‘Towards Dolly’ project has not been idle! As you’ll have seen from the last couple of posts, John Bryden has done a brilliant job digitising the Roslin glass slide collection. We’ve also been conducting some fascinating oral history recordings which we’ll post more about soon. But mainly, we’re excited to announce our forthcoming exhibition in the University of Edinburgh Main Library’s Exhibition Gallery. Titled ‘Towards Dolly: a century of animal genetics in Edinburgh’, this multimedia exhibition will explore the enormous contribution the Edinburgh area has made to the science of genetics over the last century. We will be open from 31 July to 31 October 2015 and also appear as part of this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe Festival: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/towards-dolly-a-century-of-animal-genetics-in-edinburgh
Data Visualisation with D3 workshop
Last week I attended the 4th HSS Digital Day of Ideas 2015. Amongst networking and some interesting presentations on the use of digital technologies in humanities research (the two presentations I attended focused on analysis and visualisation of historical records), I attended the hands-on `Data Visualisation with D3′ workshop run by Uta Hinrichs, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The workshop was a crash course to start visualising data combining d3.js and leaflet.js libraries, with HTML, SVG, and CSS. For this, we needed to have installed a text editor (e.g. Notepad++, TextWrangler) and a server environment for local development (e.g. WAMP, MAMP). With the software installed beforehand, I was ready to script as soon as I got there. We were recommended to use Chrome (or Safari), for it seems to work best for JavaScript, and the developer tools it offers are pretty good.
First, we started with the basics of how the d3.js library and other JavaScript libraries, such as jquery or leaflet, are incorporated into basic HTML pages. D3 is an open source library developed by Mike Bostocks. All the ‘visualisation magic’ happens in the browser, which takes the HTML file and processes the scripts as displayed in the console. The data used in the visualisation is pulled into the console, thus you cannot hide the data.
For this visualisation (D3 Visual Elements), the browser uses the content of the HTML file to call the d3.js library and the data into the console. In this example, the HTML contains a bit of CSS and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) element with a d3.js script which pulls data from a CSV file containing the details: author and number of books. The visualisation displays the authors’ names and bars representing the number of books each author has written. The bars change colour and display the number of books when you hover over.
The second visualisation we worked on was the combination of geo-referenced data and leaflet.js library. Here, we combine the d3.js and leaflet.js libraries to display geographic data from a CSV file. First we ensured the OpenStreetMap loaded, then pulled the CSV data in and last customised the map using a different map tile. We also added data points to the map and pop-up tags.
In this 2-hour workshop, Uta Hinrichs managed to give a flavour of the possibilities that JavaScript libraries offer and how ‘relatively easy’ it is to visualise data online.
Workshop links:
- Visualising data with D3 workshop – http://www.digital.hss.ed.ac.uk/news/digital-day-of-ideas-2015/uta-hinrichs/
- Dr Uta Hinrichs (St Andrews University) – http://www.utahinrichs.de/
- D3 website (find out all about D3) – http://d3js.org/
- Leaflet website – http://leafletjs.com/
- Mike Bostocks’s website – http://bost.ocks.org/mike/
- Github D3 gallery – https://github.com/mbostock/d3/wiki/Gallery
Other links:
- Digital Scholarship website – http://www.digital.hss.ed.ac.uk/
- Lorna E. Campbell’s blog post about the event – https://lornamcampbell.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/day-of-digital-ideas-2015/
Rocio von Jungenfeld
EDINA and Data Library
Weekend e-resource disruption
The MyILibrary e-books website will be shut down for maintenance on Saturday 30th May – 1pm – 7pm. Ingram Content Group apologise for any inconvenience that may be caused during this downtime.
Thomson Reuters have advised that Web of Science and Endnote Online are “at risk” during their maintenance period on Sunday 31st May 2015 – 1:00pm – 16:00pm.
They expect minimal interruption to the service for users who are logged into Web of Science™ or EndNote® Online. Thomson Reuters apologise for any inconvenience.
A Hare Raising Tale
Over the last month, conservation has been playing host to two rather notorious and unsavoury characters, namely William Burke and William Hare. Thankfully for us not in person but rather in the form of a scrapbook containing original documents and cuttings from their capture and subsequent trail and execution.
Burke and Hare Scrapbook before treatment
William Burke ‘blood’ Letter
The most interesting and macabre of all of these is a letter written in the blood of William Burke – as it (helpfully) states “This is a letter written with the blood of Wm. Burke, who was hanged at Edinburgh on 28th Jan. 1829 for the Murder of Mrs. Campbell or Docherty. The blood was taken for his head on the 1st of Feb. 1829.” Unsurprisingly, the scrapbook, and this letter in particular, has caused a lot of attention, and has recently appearing in a number of newspaper and websites. I have found myself in the rather unusual position of combining conservation with press calls – the conservation life is not always quite so glamorous!
The scrapbook has a pamphlet style of binding with the cuttings pasted into its pages, the larger of which have been folded in order to fit within the volume. Overall, the scrapbook was in a reasonable condition and it was decided therefore to take a minimal interventive conservation approach with treatment focused on surface cleaning, tear repair where necessary and rehousing. The aim was to stabilise the object allowing it to be stored and accessed with minimal risk, at the same time as maintaining its authenticity.
Scrapbook containing folded cutting and hand-written documents
The first stage of treatment was to surface clean the pages. This was done with “chemical sponge” – made of vulcanised rubber which (despite its name) contains no chemicals – which works by gently lifting off any surface dirt on the pages. This has not only aesthetic benefits but, more importantly, will remove any potentially damaging substrates. Surface dirt can contain acidic particulates, cause abrasions, attract moisture, and become a food source of mould, all of which can affect the long-term preservation of the object.
Secondly, I carried out tear repairs where necessary using Japanese tissue and wheat starch paste. The tears where primarily on the larger format cuttings that had been folded in position within the scrapbook and found in areas where the paper had become weak, especially along the folds or along edges where the cutting has projected beyond the edge of the scrapbook. Again, as with surface cleaning, repairing tears will not only improve the appearance of the pages, but will also provide structural stability making the paper easier to handle and reduce the risk of the tear getting caught and becoming worse.
Before tear repair
After tear repair
The last stage in treatment, and arguably the most important, was to address the housing needs of the scrapbook. As well as providing physical support to the item, choosing appropriate storage has the added benefits of giving an extra layer of protection from accidental damage, as well as acting as a buffer to atmospheric pollutants, dust and light, and any fluctuations in environmental conditions. It is important to know and understand what the materials you are using are made from as poor quality materials that are in close contact with collection items can cause severe damage. Acid from these materials can migrate to the object causing discolouration and embrittlement and hastening the its deterioration.
Scrapbook during treatment and rehousing
I decided, therefore, to house the detached, fragile and vulnerable front and back covers of the scrapbook in polyester sleeves allowing them to be easily consulted without being removed and so would drastically improve handling whilst minimising the risk of any tears getting worse. Because of the poor quality and acidic nature of the paper cuttings contained within the scrapbook, the individual pages were interleaved with a light-weight acid-free paper to reduce the transfer of any potential harmful elements within the sheets. The scrapbook itself – alongside some loose-sheet material contained within – were rehoused in acid-free paper folders which, in turn, were placed inside a four-flap enclosure made from acid-free card.
Rehousing of the scrapbook into acid-free paper enclosures
Rehousing of the scrapbook into four-flap enclosure
And the blood letter? Well, it is certainly not every day that I come across something so unusual, interesting and, quite frankly, a little unsettling. However, by applying general conservation principles of minimal treatment and the use high-quality and appropriate conservation and rehousing materials, I was able to treat the letter, and scrapbook as a whole, very much like other paper-based material. Perhaps with just a little more murder and intrigue this time…
Post by Emma Davey, Conservation Officer
Development model
The Data Vault project is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the University of Manchester. The majority of the funding from the Data Spring programme has been allocated to paying for software development effort at both partners, along with a small proportion to pay for travel costs.
The intention of the three month project is create a proof of concept Data Vault system. Months one and two perfoemd the scoping, use case, requirements, and design phases. Month three will spent developing the software.
Three of us (Robin, Claire, Stuart) are due to travel to Manchester University next week to start writing the code with their project staff (Tom and Mary). We’re taking the approach of a ‘hackathon – all of us coding collaboratively together! This should allow rapid development as communication will be easy.
Dealing with Data 2015 – Call For Papers
Date: Monday 31 August 2015, 9:30 – 16:00 (lunch provided)
Location: Informatics Forum, University of Edinburgh
Themes:
Data creation, including non-traditional data types
Data analysis
Data visualisation
Data security
Working with sensitive data
Archiving and sharing data, including preservation, re-use, and licensing
Infrastructure and tools, for example Electronic Lab Notebooks
Research software development and preservation
Linked open data for research, working with government data
Big Data and data mining
Meeting funder requirements for research data management
Format:
Presentations will be 15 minutes long, with 5 minutes for questions. Depending on numbers, thematic parallel strands may be used. Presentations will be aimed at an academic audience, but from a wide range of disciplines. Opening and closing keynote presentations will be given.
Call for proposals:
Leading edge research is reliant upon data that are produced or collected during the research process, or on existing data that is being analysed and re-used in new research questions. It is important to effectively manage research data throughout the lifecycle, from data management planning through to archiving and sharing. Requirements for managing data are increasingly being adopted by institutions and funders in order to foster good research data management practices.
Following on from the successful ‘Dealing with Data 2014’ half-day conference, Information Services are pleased to announce that we will be hosting a one-day conference covering a broad range of research matters from all disciplines on the subject of ‘Dealing with Data’.
The aim of the conference is for researchers of all levels at the University of Edinburgh to share good practice, emerging techniques and technologies, and practical examples in working with data across the research lifecycle.
We welcome proposals for presentations on any aspect of the challenges and advances in working with data, particularly research with novel methods of creating, using, storing, visualising or sharing data. A list of themes is given above, although proposals that cover any aspect of working with research data will be considered.
Please send abstracts (maximum 500 words) to dealing-with-data-conference@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk before Monday 6th July 2015. Proposals will be reviewed and the programme compiled by Friday 31st July 2015.
Cuna Ekmekcioglu
Library and University Collections
Trials – e-resources on trial this week
Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Library Biblical Texts is on trial until 24th June. It presents a complete Hebrew transcription and English translation of the Biblical texts, together with high-resolution images (scalable). Access is available for all biblical fragments, including photos of the fragments, texts derived from the fragments in Masoretic order (bible books), English translation from the texts on the fragments and full Hebrew Scripture.
Parliament Rolls of Medieval England database is on trial until 20th June. The rolls of parliament were the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272 – 1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485 – 1509), after which they were superseded by the journals of the lords and, somewhat later, of the commons. The rolls, which amount in total to over four million words, were first edited in the eighteenth century and published in 1783 in six folio volumes entitled Rotuli Parliamentorum ( RP ) under the general editorship of the Reverend John Strachey.
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of these e-resources as your comments influence purchase decisions so please fill out our feedback form.
A list of all trials currently available to University of Edinburgh staff and students can be found on our trials webpage.
Art and Psychoanalysis
As mentioned briefly in a previous post (Unexpected Item of the Month) the Edinburgh-based psychoanalyst, William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn, was notable for the diversity of subjects he pursued with a psychoanalytical eye. One of the best represented subjects in the Fairbairn Archive is art.
The first evidence we have for Fairbairn’s interest in this subject is from 1937. The item in question is a talk, written and delivered by Fairbairn at a meeting of the Scottish Branch of the British Psychological Society and entitled ‘Prolegomena to a Psychology of Art’. This little-known paper was published in ‘From Instinct to Self’, the 1994 compilation of Fairbairn’s papers, co-edited by David Scharff and Fairbairn’s daughter, Ellinor Fairbairn Birtles. In it, ‘Prolegomena’ is described as being, ‘written largely from the standpoint of the pleasure principle…Fairbairn described art as play; thus artistic activity is making something for fun’. This starting point is important, because it would later bring Fairbairn into conflict with members of the artistic world who objected to what was viewed as a superficial treatment of the subject.
‘Prolegomena’ was quickly followed by ‘The Ultimate Basis of Aesthetic Experience’, also read at a British Psychological Society, Scottish Branch meeting, in 1938. Fairbairn re-worked both papers which were then subsequently published in the ‘British Journal of Psychology’, in 1938.
Although Fairbairn’s ideas on art did undoubtedly offend some in the art world – if his correspondence is anything to go by – they nevertheless received unexpected support from the then Director of the National Gallery of Scotland, Stanley Cursiter. In what could be one of the greatest letters in the Fairbairn Archive, Cursiter reassures Fairbairn that fun was indeed the correct attitude for the appreciation for a work of art and,
‘I am glad you take this line because to serious-minded people seeking the meaning of art, I have always contended that the fundamental meaning of a picture was the fundamental meaning of a plum pudding – and have been counted frivolous for it!’
Perhaps buoyed by such high-profile vindication, by the 1950s Fairbairn had hopes of writing a book on the subject. The working titles was ‘Art and Psychoanalysis’ and Fairbairn had undertaken quite detailed preparatory work in advance of its hoped-for publication. This included not only collecting items such as this picture postcard of the statue ‘Church and Synagogue’ in Munster Cathedral:
but also compiling this list of illustrations:
Fairbairn corresponded with a wide-range of people and organisations in relation to this proposed book, including Stanley Cursiter and T Elder Dixon, Vice-Principal of Edinburgh School of Art. Fairbairn was clearly attempting to learn more about the minefield that is ownership and copyright in relation to reproducing works of art. He also sought companies who had the requisite skills to reproduce the works, once permission had been secured. However, the book was not to be and Fairbairn’s contribution to this field has been largely, and perhaps not surprisingly, overshadowed by his work on object-relations. However, few papers in the Archive demonstrate such personal enthusiasm for a subject; art was clearly something of great importance to William Ronald Dodds Fairbairn.
New digital resources for Puritan thought
Herbert, John Rogers. Assertion of Liberty of Conscience by the Independents of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (c) Palace of Westminster; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
I’m pleased to report that we now have access to digital collections from Oxford Scholarly Editions, including the seventeenth-century prose collection. This contains several titles of interest to researchers in Puritan history and thought, including the Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly 1643–1652 and the Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter, Vol. 1 & 2. Scholarly editions of the works of John Bunyan – Pilgrim’s Progress, Grace Abounding and the Holy War as well as thirteen volumes of smaller works by this Puritan writer are also now available. All titles can be access via the online library catalogue.
Christine Love-Rodgers – Academic Support Librarian, Divinity
Old Books, New Discoveries: The Tale of a Feather
Our blog post today comes from History of the Book student and CRC volunteer Allie Newman.
The University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research Collections (CRC) is home to over 300 examples of Western medieval manuscripts, ranging from single leaves and fragments to large bound tomes. While it can certainly be said that this collection represents some of the oldest material in the library, it cannot be said that everything in the collection has been exhaustively examined, even given the items’ relatively long existences. Despite the great age of the items, they are still producing new discoveries in terms of textual content and physical structure, both of which inform our understanding of their individual histories and book history as a whole. I recently made a very interesting, if very tiny, discovery that could hopefully shed some more light on the medieval scribal and artistic processes.
MS 33, a 15th century illuminated Dutch gradual (or songbook), is a large and somewhat unwieldy volume, and is known as the source of the illuminated piper that graces the logo of the Friends of Edinburgh University Library. The piper is actually part of a richly decorated floral border that surrounds a page of music, further embellished by a large illuminated initial (folio 10 verso).
Collections
Hill and Adamson Collection: an insight into Edinburgh’s past
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Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
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Projects
Cataloguing the private papers of Archibald Hunter Campbell: A Journey Through Correspondence
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Archival Provenance Research Project: Lishan’s Experience
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