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June 18, 2026
The Christmas Book Flood
Image: Engraving by F. Barnard from Christmas Books by Charles Dickens, (LRA.S.6660/1). Title page.
Here at the UCF, things are feeling firmly festive – the tiny office tree has been bedecked, mince pies are heaped in the break room, and staff are sporting some of their best knitwear – it’s definitely almost Christmas! Beyond all the feasting and gift-giving, one of my favourite moments of the season is having the time to slow down and relax, to cosy up in front of a warm fire and read a good book by the glow of fairy lights. And this is exactly the Christmas custom in Iceland. Every year in the few months approaching December, publishers release all their new titles in the prevailing tradition of Jólabókaflóðið, or the “Christmas book flood”. This practice dates back to World War II, where currency restrictions limited the amount of imported giftware. This did not extend to paper however, and therefore the humble book became the default gift. Christmas Eve is the main gift-giving day in Iceland, and after receiving their crisp new books many Icelanders spend the night cosied up and reading away, as in my idyllic winter image.
In the same spirit, I hope to introduce you to a deluge of Christmas books held here at the UCF. Amongst the more literary offerings, there are some unexpected instructive volumes; The history of the Christmas card (.74168 Bud.) for example, a guide to eradicating Christmas tree pests (Reference seq.) and the slightly less seasonal, An investigation of the coconut-growing potential of Christmas Island (F 634.616 Dir.). I’m not sure those titles are exactly what I’m hoping to find under my tree this year!
Offering us a more festive read is Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Christmas Sermon (LRA.S.3773). First appearing in the pages of Scribner’s Magazine in 1888, these musings were subsequently published in their own slim little volume by Chatto & Windus in 1906. Here, Stevenson considers how Christmas is a period of both reflection and celebration:
“There is no cutting of the Gordian knots of life; each must be smilingly unravelled. To be honest, to be kind – to earn a little and to spend a little less, to make, upon the whole, a family happier for his presence, to renounce when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends, but these without capitulation – above all, on the same grim condition, to keep friends with himself – here is a task for all that a man has fortitude and delicacy. He has an ambitious soul who would ask more; he has a hopeful spirit who should look in such an enterprise to be successful…But Christmas is not only the mile-mark of another year, moving us to thoughts of self-examination: it is a season, from all its associations, whether domestic or religious, suggesting thoughts of joy (p. 14-16)”
A handwritten inscription in the opening pages, “With much love from…” shows us that this book too was originally given as a gift, which is a cheering thought.
Furthermore, I cannot think of Christmas and not think of Dickens. This may be because The Muppet Christmas Carol is the most beloved film in my household at this time of year, but I am firmly of the opinion that in this tale, Dickens created the best and most enduring Christmas story of all time. We hold several editions of this classic at the UCF, including within a collection of Dickens’ Christmas books published in 1892 by Chapman & Hall (LRA.S.6660/1). In the preface, Dickens writes of the volume: “My chief purpose was, in a whimsical kind of masque which the good-humour of the season justified, to awaken some loving and forbearing thoughts, never out of season in a Christian land.” Bound in an appropriate holly-green with gold lettering on the spine, this beautiful volume is further illustrated inside with 28 engravings by F. Barnard. Above you may see the decorative title page, whilst below is Ebenezer Scrooge encountering the ghost of Jacob Marley, and a transformed Scrooge carrying Tiny Tim through the streets on Christmas day.
Image: Christmas Books, opposite title page.
Image: Christmas Books, p. 8.
My family will most definitely be receiving some rectangular-shaped packages this Christmas, although perhaps not a first edition Dickens. During my most recent bookshop trip I even accidentally picked up a little gift for myself – Stuart Kells’ The Library: a catalogue of wonders (Counterpoint, 2018). The blurb calls it, “A love letter to libraries and to their makers and protectors”, and I can’t think of anything better to curl up with on Christmas Eve. A Merry Christmas to us all, and happy reading!
Daisy Stafford, UCF Library Assistant
Edinburgh Research Explorer Statistics: November 2019
DataVault user roles let you share access to archived data
The Edinburgh DataVault is a secure long-term retention solution for research data.
Thanks to the hard work of our software developers in the Digital Library and EDINA, the Edinburgh DataVault now facilitates five different user roles. This means busy PIs can delegate the work of depositing and retrieving data, to members of their team or other collaborators within the University. It also allows PIs to nominate support staff to deposit and retrieve data on their behalf, or grant access to new members of their team.
Diagram representing a PI and two postdocs using the roles of Owner and Nominated Data Manager to share access to data in the DataVault
There are five user roles:
- Data Owner
Usually the Principal Investigator. Can add/remove other users to their vault(s). - Nominated Data Manager (of a given vault)
Can view and edit metadata fields, deposit data and retrieve any deposit in the vault. May add/remove Depositors to the vault. - Depositor (of a given vault)
Can view the vault contents, deposit data and retrieve any deposit in the vault. - School Support Officer
Acting on behalf of the Head of School, may view all vaults and associated deposits belonging to the School. - School Data Manager
Assigned only with the express permission of the Head of School, may view, deposit into and retrieve data from any vault belonging to the School.
Full details of the permissions associated with each role:
Roles and permissions
Support staff who need to view reporting data for their School, or admin access to their School’s vaults, should attend our training – Edinburgh DataVault: supporting users archiving their research data.
Further information on why and how to use the DataVault is available on the Research Data Service website:
DataVault long-term retention
If you have any questions about using DataVault please don’t hesitate to contact the Research Data Support team at data-support@ed.ac.uk.
Pauline Ward, Research Data Support Assistant
Library and University Collections
@PaulineData
New research data management tool on one-year trial: protocols.io
Information Services aims to offer a research data service that meets most of the data lifecycle needs of the majority of UoE researchers without interfering with their freedom to choose tools and technologies which suit their work. In some cases cloud tools that are free to individual users are offered commercially as enterprise versions, allowing groups of researchers (such as lab groups) to work together efficiently.
The service’s steering group has agreed a set of criteria to apply when a tool is put forward by a research group for adoption. The criteria were developed after our two-year trial of the electronic lab notebook software, RSpace, and have been most recently applied to protocols.io. The protocols.io trial begins this month and will run for one year. An evaluation will determine whether to continue the enterprise subscription and how to fund it.
protocols.io is an online platform for the creation, management, and sharing of research protocols or methods. Users can create new protocols within the system, or upload existing methods and digitise them. Those with access to a protocol can then update, annotate, or fork it so that it can be continually improved and developed. There is interoperability with Github and RSpace, and long-term preservation of protocols through CLOCKSS.
Users can publish their protocol(s) making them freely available for others to use and cite or, with the enterprise version, keep them private. The tool supports the Open Science / Open Research agenda by helping to ensure that methods used to produce data and publications are made available, assisting with reproducibility.
Subscribing to the University plan will allow research groups to organize their methods and ensures that knowledge is not lost as trainees graduate and postdoctoral students move on. There are currently over 70 University of Edinburgh researchers registered to use protocols.io. You may follow these instructions to move your current protocols.io account to the premium university version. For more information contact data-support@ed.ac.uk.
Kerry Miller and Robin Rice
Research Data Support team
How to be Popular (in Edinburgh Research Explorer)
Edinburgh Research Explorer • www.research.ed.ac.uk
These are conclusions from a survey of the Top 100 MOST POPULAR downloads from Edinburgh Research Explorer in August 2019, it contains some VERY obvious biases and doesn’t reflect the breadth, depth, or usefulness of the repository as a whole; and shows that whilst OPEN ACCESS can reach a wider audience, it can also be ignored by a wider audience.
1. STEER CLEAR OF SCIENCE
Research items from science-related schools made up 18% of the Top 100, dropping to 12% in the Top 50 and 0% in the Top 10.
2. DON’T COLLABORATE
With each additional author, the number of items and the average number of downloads decreased.
3. YOU DON’T HAVE TO WRITE IN ENGLISH, BUT IT HELPS
In the Top 100, one item was written in Italian, the remainder in English:
that was also one of only five items that month, that failed to find an audience outwith the UK.
4. GO OPEN-ACCESS
8 of the Top 100 items didn’t offer Open-Access Permissions, they averaged 25% fewer downloads than the overall average.
LLC related database trials
There are quite a few database trials going on at the moment that are relevant to subject areas in the LLC School. The trials can be accessed from the Library’s E-Resources Trials website.
On trial: Bayeux Tapestry Online
*The Library now has access to this resource. Find out more at New to the Library: Bayeux Tapestry Digital Edition.*
Thanks to a request from staff in HCA I’m pleased to let you know the Library currently has trial access to the Bayeux Tapestry Online from Scholarly Digital Editions. This online version allows you to scroll through the entire Tapestry and zoom in on the Tapestry to the level of the actual weave.
You can access from the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.
Trial access ends 31st December 2019. Read More
On trial: Medical Services and Warfare
Further to a request from staff in the Medical School the Library currently has trial access to the digital primary source database Medical Services and Warfare from Adam Matthew. This resource tells the story of medical advances during warfare from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and the discovery of penicillin in 1927.
You can access Medical Services and Warfare from the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.
Trial access ends 16th December 2019.
Medical Services and Warfare allows you to explore multiple perspectives on the history of injury, treatment and disease on the front line. Chart scientific advances through hospital records, medical reports and first-hand accounts, and discover the evidence of how war shaped medical practice across the centuries. Read More
On trial: London Low Life
*The Library has now purchased access to London Low Life. This can be accessed via Digital Primary Source and Archive Collections or the Databases A-Z.*
Thanks to a request from a HCA student the Library currently has trial access to the digital primary source database London Low Life from Adam Matthew. This wonderful digital collection brings to life the teeming streets of Victorian London, inviting you to explore the gin palaces, brothels and East End slums of the nineteenth century’s greatest city.
You can access London Low Life from the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.
Trial access ends 16th December 2019.
From salacious ‘swell’s guides’ to scandalous broadsides and subversive posters, the material sold and exchanged on London’s bustling thoroughfares offers an unparalleled insight into the dark underworld of the nineteenth century city. Children’s chapbooks, street cries, slang dictionaries and ballads were all part of a vibrant culture of street literature. Read More
Research Data Service achieves ISO 27001 accreditation for Data Safe Haven facility
Following a five day on-site audit by Lloyd’s Register, the Information Security Management System (ISMS) which forms the basis for the Data Safe Haven facility for University of Edinburgh researchers has been officially certified to the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 standard. In a few weeks we will receive a certificate from UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service).
The Data Safe Haven (DSH) team, comprised of members of Research Data Support in L&UC and Research Services in ITI, and with input from the Information Security team and external consultants, has been working toward certification since 2016. The system, designed by ITI’s Stephen Giles, has been extensively and successfully ‘white box penetration tested’ by external experts, one of the many forms of proof provided to the auditor. (White box means the testers were given access to certain layers of the system, as opposed to a black box test where they are not.)
The steel cage surrounding Data Safe Haven equipment in one of the University data centres.
In addition to infrastructure, a proper ISMS is made up of people who perform roles and manage procedures, based on organisational policies. The Research Data Support team work with research project staff to ensure their practices comply with our standard operating procedures. The ISMS is made up of all the controls needed to ensure that it is sensibly protecting the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of assets from threats and vulnerabilities. Over 150 managed and versioned documents covering every aspect of the ISMS were written, discussed, practiced, reviewed and signed off before being examined and questioned by the auditor.
The auditor stated in the final report, “The objectives of the assessment were achieved and with consideration to any noted issues or raised findings, the sampled areas of the management system demonstrated a good level of conformance and effectiveness. The management system remains supportive of the organisation and its business and service management objectives.” On a slightly more upbeat note, Gavin Mclachlan, Vice-Principal and Chief Information Officer, and Librarian to the University said by email, “Congratulations to you and the whole team on the ISO 27001 certification. That is a great achievement.”
The Digital Research Services programme has invested in the Data Safe Haven to allow University researchers to conduct cutting edge research, access sensitive data from external providers and facilitate new research partnerships and innovation. Researchers are expected to include Data Safe Haven costs in funded grant proposals to achieve some cost recovery for the University. To find out if your project is a candidate for use of the Data Safe Haven contact data-support@ed.ac.uk or the IS Helpline.
Robin Rice
Data Librarian and Head, Research Data Support
L&UC
Collections
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Projects
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