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December 16, 2025
Book Week Scotland 2014
Today marks the start of Book Week Scotland; the annual celebration of books and reading, as organised by the Scottish Book Trust. Part of the activity for 2014 includes the writing of love letters to libraries. Well, I’ve worked in libraries for seven years, and I can’t quite imagine doing anything else, so I think it’s safe to say that I love libraries. The world of library professionals is ever changing, and you are like as likely to spend your time digitising obscure texts to be uploaded on-line these days as you are to find yourself shelving dusty volumes onto creaking shelves. However, like most people I meet, I was initially drawn to the strange allure of a room full of words and ideas, each sealed with a binding, and the incomparable magic of losing yourself inside their pages.
This week, why not use your local library services. If you are a student or a researcher, make sure you take full advantage of the University’s resources:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/information-services/library-museum-gallery
And, please, visit the Scottish Book Trust website and see what else is going on:
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-scotland
There are events happening all over Scotland throughout the week, including this “festival of books” at the Edinburgh College of Art:
Carl Jones, Library Annexe Supervisor
Trial access to Gunsho Ruiju
We have trial access to Gunsho Ruiju until the 19th December.
Gunsho Ruiju is a collection of old Japanese books published from the ancient times to early Edo era. Subjects cover history, literature, religion, language, customs, art, music, cultivated arts, education, morality, legal codes, politics, economy, society and many other topics. Many textual sources are only available in this collection. This is an important primary resource for the study of classical Japanese culture.
The collection consists of three parts: Gunsho Ruiju, Zoku Gunsho Ruiju, and Zoku Zoku Gunsho Ruiju. The number of volumes for each part is as follows:
Gunsho Ruiju: 133 volumes, 1276 digitally compiled books and sources.
Zoku Gunsho Ruiju: 86 volumes, 2,128 digitally compiled books and sources.
Zoku Zoku Gunsho Ruiju: 17 volumes, 350 digitally compiled books and sources.
For further description, please see http://japanknowledge.com/en/contents/gunshoruiju/index.html
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this platform and content as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do 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.
Book Week Scotland – vote for your favourite character
As part of Book Week Scotland the Scottish Book Trust are holding a vote to discover the most loved characters in Scottish fiction. From Begbie to Miss Jean Brodie, from Inspector Rebus to the Gruffalo the choice is vast.
The poll closes at 5pm on Wednesday 26 November 2014 so you still have nearly 3 days left to vote. Make your choice by going to the Scottish Book Trust website.
Find out tomorrow which characters staff at the Main Library Helpdesk voted for.
Rong Flynn & Margaret Redpath, Main Library Helpdesk
The decant is complete
We have finished emptying St Cecilia’s Hall after a great deal of hard work and have left the building in the extremely capable hands of our Project Manager. Now the surveyors can get to grips with the fundamentals of the building so that we know exactly what needs to be done before the serious building work begins. Things look a little sad, but its exciting to think about the transformation which will happen in the next 2 years.
We have all been rehoused in the main Library and the Library Annexe as well as the Reid Concert Hall and Museum, and are getting used to our new locations. Now that the central MIMEd team is in three different locations, we will have to work much harder to arrange our usual coffee and cake ‘meetings’! It feels odd not going to St Cecilia’s every day, but we will get used to it and its great to be at this stage of the project.
Trial access to Italian Dictionaries and Works of Reference from Zanichelli Editore
We have trial access until 22nd December to Italian Dictionaries & Works of Reference from Zanichelli Editore
The dictionaries on trial are:
- Lo Zingarelli
- Il Ragazzini
- Biblioteca Italiana Zanichelli
- I’Inglese Tecnico e Scientifico
- Sinonimi e contrary
- Dizionario Analogico della Lingua Italiana
- L’Inglese dell Economia
- Dizionario gastronomico compatto
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this platform and content as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do 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.
Sir Eduardo Paolozzi: Man + Machine
The Centre for Research Collections is showcasing a selection of maquettes from Paolozzi’s major bequest to the University’s Informatics Forum.
A founder of the Pop Art movement, sculptor Sir Eduardo Paolozzi was born in Leith, 1924. After attending classes at the Edinburgh College of Art he went on to shape a considerable career teaching sculpture and ceramics at a number of institutions, whilst establishing his artistic reputation world-wide.
The culmination of an extensive preventative conservation project, the CRC exhibition focuses on Eduardo Paolozzi’s colossal production of plaster maquettes and his obsession with the relationship between mankind and technology. Also on display is Paolozzi’s bronze sculpture of world-famous entertainer Josephine Baker, taking centre-stage in the foyer of the CRC.
The exhibition is free and open to the public until 27 February
Trial access to Sinica Sinoweb
We have trial access to Sinica Sinoweb until the 20th December.
Sinica Sinoweb provides full-text access to the archive of 14 core journals from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, with the earliest dating back to as early as 1928:
- Chinese Studies
- Chinese-Literature-Philosophy-Institute Bulletin
- History-Philology-Institute Bulletin
- Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore
- Legein Monthly
- Legein Semi-Annual Journal
- Modern-History-Institute Bulletin
- Newsletter for Modern Chinese History
- Oral History Journal
- Research on Women in Modern Chinese History
- Shih-Huo Monthly
- Taiwan Historical Research
- Taiwan Journal of Anthropology
- Thought and Words
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this platform and content as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do 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.
Trial access to Chinese Electronic Periodicals Services (CEPS) and Chinese Electronic Theses and Dissertations Service (CETD)
We have trial access to the Chinese Electronic Periodicals Services (CEPS) and Chinese Electronic Theses and Dissertations Service (CETD) until the 20th December.
The CEPS/CETD database platform provides full-text access to over 4,300 academic journals from China Mainland (2,600) , Taiwan (1,500) and other areas (254), with 2.6 million articles; it also provides full-text access to over 200,000 doctoral theses and masters dissertations from over 58 universities in Chinese speaking regions including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and China Mainland. The collection date is from 1991 onwards.. The database has been indexed both in traditional and simplified Chinese characters.
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this platform and content as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do 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.
Trial – OpenEdition Platform
We have trial access to e-book and e-journal content on the OpenEdition platform until the 31st January.
OpenEdition is the umbrella portal for OpenEdition Books, Revues.org, Hypotheses and Calenda, four platforms dedicated to electronic resources in the humanities and social sciences. We have trial access to 84 e-books and over 300 e-journals. The language of the website can be altered to French, Spanish & Italian.
A list of the e-books on trial is here.
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of this platform and content as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do 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.
Trial – BrowZine
The Library is running a trial of BrowZine until 19th December. BrowZine is a new application that allows you to browse, read and follow thousands of the library’s scholarly journals from your Android and iOS mobile devices. All in a format optimized for your tablet and smartphone! Built to accompany your searching needs, items found in BrowZine can easily be synced up with Zotero, Mendeley, RefWorks, Dropbox or other services to help keep all of your information together in one place.
To learn more, please take a look at this short “BrowZine on Campus” video: http://vimeo.com/75971786?autoplay=1
With BrowZine, you can:
– Browse and read journals: Browse journals by subject, easily review tables of contents, and download full articles
– Create your own bookshelf: Add journals to your personal bookshelf and be notified when new articles are published
– Save and export articles: Save articles for off-line reading or export to services such as DropBox, Mendeley, RefWorks, Zotero, Papers and more
To learn more and start using BrowZine today, visit http://thirdiron.com/download/.
Getting started is easy! From your Android or iOS device, find BrowZine in the Apple App, Google Play or Amazon App store and download it for free. When initially launching BrowZine, select University of Edinburgh from the drop down list. Enter your EASE login. Start exploring BrowZine!
Feedback and further info
We are interested to know what you think of BrowZine as your comments influence purchase decisions so please do 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.
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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