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December 20, 2025
From the Art Collection #75
Mastaba by James McGlade
First published 3.10.2013
From the Art Collection #73
Twist by Dorothy Black
Today’s From the Art Collection has been selected by our new Museums Galleries Scotland intern, Colette Bush. She writes:
I started last week as the new MGS intern for Edinburgh University Museums, moving here the week before from Essex. I will be based both at the Centre for Research Collections, and Musical Instrument Museums Edinburgh at St. Cecilia’s Hall for the next year.
I studied English Literature at Aberystwyth University, which was a great experience. I enjoyed living in a new place and studying subjects that I found interesting. I am now looking forward to getting to know another new place, and the opportunities and challenges that I will face over the coming year.
The MGS internship programme appealed to me due to the many training and development sessions throughout the programme; I will be taking advantage of everything I can throughout this process. I was initially drawn to this internship because it was a collections based one. The collections care side of museum work has interested me since finding out more about it during a voluntary placement I had at The British Postal Museum & Archive.
I decided to apply for this specific internship over the others because of the prospect of working with two very different collections with very different needs. The work at St. Cecilia’s will give me the opportunity to discover musical instruments, a topic which is quite new to me, whilst also working at a museum as it prepares for a large renovation project will provide an incredibly valuable experience. Working with the art collections, I will gain knowledge of Scottish artists and art movements and how exhibitions and learning material are put together.
I began my first week by meeting many of the people that work at the CRC and have been finding out about what their roles entail. I have also taken a look at some of the collections the University holds and visited some of the museums and galleries.
On Thursday I attended the MGS conference in Glasgow. This was a good opportunity for me to meet lots of the other MGS interns and people who work within museums and galleries across Scotland. I enjoyed the conference, and was interested in hearing about different projects and strategies being run in Scotland to get people involved their local museums.
I have also been looking at some former ECA students’ prints in the collection and trying to identify the artists. I have then started to collect information on the artists, what they are doing now and started to create a fact-file on them. This has been an interesting challenge and introduced me to some new artists.
Of these prints, I have chosen Twist by Dorothy Black for From the Art Collection.
First published 16.9.2013
From the Art Collections #43
Extrude by Charlotte Roseberry
It has been a very exciting few days for ECA Collections as, for the first time since the curatorial team started, works have been formally collected for the ECA Art Collection from the annual Degree Show, which opens to the public on Saturday 1st of June.
The new ECA Collections Purchase Prize highlights outstanding works from across ECA for acquisition into the art collections and recent graduates now find their work sitting happily alongside other former students such as Anne Redpath, Eduardo Paolozzi and S.J. Peploe, among others.
The first works that we confirmed for the collection are by Charlotte Roseberry. Two of Charlotte’s paintings are now in the ECA Collection, Nugget and Extrude (pictured) and we were delighted to secure both of them.
This is an important first step for us and part of a larger desire to built an outstanding contemporary art collection for The University of Edinburgh, of which ECA graduates will be a vital element.
First published 30.5.2013
Library Quality survey – check your inbox!
The Library launched the LibQUAL +2013 quality survey today.
Check your inbox!
If you have been randomly selected to participate, you will have received an email this morning which contains a link to the survey.
Please take 15 minutes to complete
the survey and tell us what you think of the Library service we provide. Your feedback is incredibly important to us. You could also win one of two iPad minis.
Responses are confidential and no identifying links between responses and individuals are retained.
A reminder email will be sent on 8th November and responses should be submitted by 18th November when the survey closes.
More information on LibQUAL+ , the 2011 report and the Library’s response: http://edin.ac/16D1JCb
If you have any questions about the survey, please contact Angela Laurins, (LibQUAL+ survey Co-ordinator) Library-QualitySurvey@ed.ac.uk
Bibliometrics in Libraries, 12 September 2013
On the 12 September, I attended the second Bibliometrics in Libraries workshop hosted by the University of Sussex, this was a one day event sponsored by Elsevier for those who support researchers with bibliometrics.
The Speakers were:
Peter Darroch, SciVal Consultant, Elsevier – Looking past the usual metrics to help researchers demonstrate excellence to support Grant applications Peter started off the day looking at bibliometrics from a researcher’s angle, suggesting this was a controversial area and that metrics needed to be used in more positive ways. He went on to say that academics need to engage more in bibliometrics but use different metrics for different levels of research and engage with SciVal to decide what metrics to use http://info.scival.com/
Enrico Motta, Professor of Knowledge Technologies, Open University – An introduction to Rexplore http://technologies.kmi.open.ac.uk/rexplore/ was again looking at bibliometrics from a user perspective and talked about understanding research dynamics, Rexplore can be used to see relationships across research.
Allan Frey, Thomson Reuters – Citation evaluation beyond journals http://wokinfo.com/products_tools/multidisciplinary/bookcitationindex/ discussed the Book Citation Index which up until now has been largely ignored and is very important. Currently 10, 000 books being added annually from 2005 onwards.
Jean Liu, Altmetrics – Article-level and alternative metrics: tracking other indicators of impact online http://www.altmetric.com/ Jean gave a really interesting talk on looking at new ways of measuring different kinds of impacts and looking at how alternative metrics can be used to complement traditional metrics.
Stephen Pearson, Research Information Analyst, University of Manchester Library – What does a bibliometrician do all day? Stephen is the University’s dedicated bibliometrician providing local support for faculties, handling enquiries on citation impacts and providing training. Academics will be given access to SciVal Strata to assist with bibliometrics although it likely this will be used by support staff.
Ian Rowlands, Research Services Manager and Bibliometrician, University of Leicester – The h-index. Friend or Foe? Ian is also a dedicated bibliometrician and like Stephen provides training for staff on bibliometrics. Leicester displays the h –index of researchers/academics on their CRIS, IRIS but is currently considering removing it as depending on the source, i.e. Scopus, Web of Science; the index can vary resulting in academics losing faith in its accuracy
Clari Gosling, Bibliometrician, The Open University – Tips for improving citations gave a general overview on tips for improving citations. Some of these tips included search engine optimisation, publishing in open access journals as this increases citations and using social media, which has been shown to increase citations.
The slides from the workshop are available at: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/research/seminarsandevents/bibliometricsinlibraries
TPDL Conference, Valletta, September 22-26, 2013
The Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries conference (TPDL) was held in Valletta, Malta on 22-26 September, and Digital Development Team manager Claire Knowles got an extra week of summertime by attending. She writes:
It was my first time attending this conference which attracts lots of attendees from academia as well as fellow library colleagues. On the first day I attended two tutorials, one on Linked Data http://www.tpdl2013.info/tut-lddl.php and the second on ResourceSync http://www.openarchives.org/rs/0.9.1/resourcesync slides http://www.slideshare.net/OpenArchivesInitiative/resourcesync-tutorial.
The following day the conference proceedings started, Christine Borgman (@SciTechProf) from UCLA, gave the opening keynote on “Digital Scholarship and Digital Libraries: Past, Present, and Future“, which was based on her current book (yet to be published) with 4 themes:
- Open scholarship is becoming the norm
- Formal and informal communication is merging
- There are a variety of data practices
- Open access to data is a paradigm shift
The closing keynote was titled: What can linked data do for Digital Libraries? by Soren Auer (http://aksw.org/About.html) who has just joined the University of Bonn. He discussed how to digitise the concept of the library and he demonstrated a number of projects he has worked on to enable this:
- OntoWiki a semantic data wiki
- Cortex, used by https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/ as a search tool
- Slidewiki to enable online collaborative presentations http://slidewiki.org/
- Semantic publications, which are at the prototype stage, to allow annotations to be added to publications to enhance their searchability.
There were a few re-occurring topics during the conference:
- Linked Data and how researchers are using linked data to model the complex relationships within their research.
- Europeana and its use for those working within cultural heritage. There was a lot of discussion around Europeana and how the API allows the data to be used locally.
- How academic research is becoming more open, with information being shared earlier than at the traditional publication stage.
- Web Archiving and how to create an accurate archive of a website.
- How to make use of the PDF through extraction of information and annotation.
Next year’s conference will combine the European TPDL and North American JCDL Conferences and be held in London.
Gems from the ECA Rare Books Collection
The CRC Assistant Rare Books Librarian has been busy cataloguing books from the Edinburgh College of Art Collection again, and has sent a few our way to photograph for upcoming talks and publications.
An amazingly diverse collection from 15th C. Sermons to etchings of Italian landscapes to 19th C. Japanese artistic review magazines and on to detailed plates of British Ferns, each book contains its own wonders.
Susan Pettigrew
RECA.MS.26 Calico Samples Album, pp.200v-201r
RECA.F.157 Le Japon Artistique, vol.3, no.17, pl.ABD
RECA.FF.210 British Ferns, Moore, Thomas, pl.XVI
RECA.MS.8 China, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Macao: Photographs Taken on Lord Elgin’s Diplomatic Mission and Military Campaign in China 1857 – 1861, p.52
A Picture Paints a Thousand Words
Drawing out the detail through visual interpretation
As you may already know, the University of Edinburgh, through Library and University Collections, is one of the partners in the Europeana Cloud Project. Now in its eighth month, the project is tasked with establishing a cloud-based infrastructure for Europeana and its aggregators, and with facilitating access to content and tools for researchers. This is an enormous task, which requires consultation with a wide range of stakeholders.
The latest round of consultation happened in here Edinburgh, earlier this month, where two one day workshops were held to explore the legal and economic issues facing the project. For the latter, the value of the Cloud was discussed from the perspective of each of the stakeholders: content providers, research infrastructures, aggregators and researchers. One of the most interesting aspects of the workshop was the use of an independent visual interpreter, brought in by the Europeana team from an Amsterdam based company called Jam. As the discussion progressed, his role was to capture and visualise the ideas and then to draw out the values of the Cloud for each of the stakeholders.
Translating the discussion in to something visual led to the identification of problems as well as misunderstandings. That one person with a pen and paper was able to encapsulate what twenty five people had talked through over the course of a few hours was astonishing, especially as he had little prior knowledge of the complex issues around the project. We were, at least in a literal sense, on the same page.
The visualisation renewed and clarified discussions and helped us to agree further actions to be taken. There are few things more amorphous than a cloud and the concept of a Cloud based infrastructure is a difficult one to thrash through.
Using a simple tool such as illustration can make a huge difference in terms of achieving clarity and focusing discussions. It’s a tool I would highly recommend to anyone struggling to reach consensus around high level concepts.
Norman Rodger, Programmes, Projects and Innovations Manager
Adapted from an original blog by Susan Reilly, EU Projects Officer at LIBER
The Library Quality Survey 2013
During October and November (21October- 18 November) the Library will take part in the LibQUAL+ survey. Complete the survey and you could win an iPad mini.
On 21st October undergraduates, postgraduates and staff who have been randomly selected to participate will receive an email which contains a link to the survey.
If you’re selected, please take 15 minutes to complete the survey and tell us what you think of the library service we provide. You could also win one of two iPad minis!
Responses are confidential and no identifying links between responses and individuals are retained.
We’re really keen for you to take part so a reminder email will be sent on 8th November. All responses should be submitted by 18th November when the survey closes.
About LibQUAL+
Edinburgh University Library runs this major survey every two years and has done so since 2003. LibQUAL+ is used by a large number of universities internationally to measure their users’ perception of service quality and identifies gaps between desired, perceived, and minimum expectations of service. All results go directly to the LibQUAL+ team in the United States who analysis and compile reports for each participating library.
The survey gives the Library the opportunity to compare user perceptions of service delivery against expectations, and identify where we need to improve our service delivery. We can also compare our service quality with that of peer institutions. The survey results and subsequent reports are published on the University website.
The 2011 LibQUAL+ survey results and reports are available here: http://edin.ac/16D1JCb
We don’t anticipate any problems accessing or completing the survey. However, if any should arise or you have any questions, please contact Angela Laurins (LibQUAL+ Co-ordinator): Library-QualitySurvey@ed.ac.uk
Ethiopian Horses in the thesis collection
These stunning watercolours of zebras in north-eastern Africa are a surprising find in the Library’s collections of early theses, held in Special Collections. They come from a thesis written by J. P. Prazak, A study on the wild horses of the Ethiopian region (1896-1897). The original thesis is in 6 parts including 55 colour plates, and has reference MSS 2616-2621. It can be consulted through the Centre for Research Collections. Theses from this date often contain original photographs, drawings and sometimes even glass slides. Many theses are now being catalogued and digitised at the Library Annexe.
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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
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....