Home University of Edinburgh Library Essentials
July 20, 2026
Dissertation Week Starts today
#DissertationWeek is here!
All this week we will be posting about the resources, services, workshops, training, events, etc., that are available at the Library and through other support teams at the University to help support you with your dissertation or final year project.
Take a look to see events on this week: https://edinburgh-uk.libguides.com/dissertation/WeekCalendar
Lyell, Landscape and a Lorry
We’ve done it. They’re finally here. Late last week I was lucky enough to go down to London and pick up the Lyell notebooks.
The first step in gaining custody was to head to Sotheby’s on New Bond Street with the paperwork to prove they could be released. It’s a curious process of heading down to pre-sales to prove ownership and then be given a token for collection. I was then taken to their manuscripts and rare books department to pick up the archive. There I got my first glimpse of them.
Their scale surprised me. They are more compact and very consistent compared to even the pictures I’d seen of them and with my love of palaeography and our plans for deciphering them, I had to have a look at the content. Having been to Catania in Sicily last year, I picked the Sicily volume and was immediately struck by the depiction of the landscape around Mount Etna and the flow of his hand across the page providing detail. I know we’re going to have a lot of fun making these available in the future!
I had to draw myself back from getting immersed as our colleagues George and Ryan had arrived from Constantines, who were going to look after me and the notebooks, getting us back to Edinburgh securely. And wow what a large lorry, for small notebooks, down the tiny London lanes!
After checking every volume and packing in order securely, I signed the final piece of paperwork and we could take the notebooks on the next stage of their journey.
They were taken to a secure location, through the streets of London in our rather large lorry, with me sat up top in the cab with a birds eye view. I wondered what Lyell’s view of London was, having lived there in the 1830s and how very different the environment and landscape was now.
The next day we were at the secure location at 6am ready to leave. While the team were getting ready, I chatted to a curator from the British Museum, taking items for exhibition out to the Far East. Never thought, at 6am I’d be meeting such interesting people and sharing our experiences of couriering our rare and unique items throughout the world!
George, Ryan and myself soon set off through London, watching it wake and get busy. Over the next 9 ½ hours we drove north through the changing landscape, with all kinds of weather, from rainbows and hail to bright sunshine, looking at moors and hills, farmland planes to forests. I wondered again what Lyell would have thought, interpreted and seen.
At about 3:30pm we arrived back in Edinburgh, after a very smooth journey (worst bit was the traffic in Edinburgh!) and were met by Grant and Norman, with these photos being taken, so we could show you their arrival.
So, they are here and the next part of our work begins with our archivists and conservators checking and listing them over the next couple of weeks. I’ve delighted to have had my Lyell adventure, picking up these notebooks, so they now can be made available to the world.
Thanks to George and Ryan from Constantines who were consummate professionals and looked after the notebooks and myself with good humour and brilliant driving skills, getting us to Edinburgh safely.
Rachel Hosker
Archives Manager and Deputy Head of Special Collections
Conserving the Mackinnon Collection
This week, Claire Hutchison describes the start of her eight-week internship working to conserve the Mackinnon collection…
I am four weeks into my internship at the CRC and absolutely loving it! I have been given the task of conserving and rehousing the Mackinnon collection. This project has been generously funded by the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust. This collection comprises of the lecture notes, learning materials and other such scribbles of Professor Donald Mackinnon, the first Chair in Celtic at the University of Edinburgh. He made quite the mark during his professional life by translating many Gaelic texts that include poetry, medieval manuscripts and religious texts. Through his work, primary sources of Gaelic language and literature could finally be shared.
They’re coming!
Lyell’s notebooks in Sotheby’s.
The Lyell notebooks were collected from Sotheby’s in London yesterday and are now on their way north, expected to arrive in Edinburgh later today.
Thankfully, they are in a secure lorry, not being pushed up the A1 on the trolley shown!
Norman Rodger
Projects Development Manager
Thank you for saving Lyell’s notebooks
What an exciting prospect! The imminent arrival of Charles Lyell’s 294 notebooks to the University of Edinburgh Library is an occasion which will rightly be celebrated in Edinburgh. Students, staff and alumni will take pride in Edinburgh becoming the dynamic centre for future Lyell research and engagement.
There will also be celebrations around the world, as it was truly an international effort of geologists and historians rallying to save this remarkable collection. Throughout the UK and overseas, individuals, societies and groups gave what they could; from a couple of pounds to hundreds of thousands, so that in a short time the full £966,000 had been raised to allow the purchase to go ahead.
Whilst the £235,600 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the £200,000 from the John R Murray Charitable Trust were vital major gifts, there were over 1,100 other donations which were just as important in reaching our target. To each and every one of those who pledged and donated the University of Edinburgh would like to extend the warmest and sincerest of thanks. Soon we will be publishing an online list of our wonderful supporters, who have given permission to do so.
We look forward to making this collection of Lyell notebooks widely available and used. We wouldn’t have this opportunity to do so if it wasn’t for our generous supporters and donors. To you all – thank you!
David McClay
Philanthropy Manager, Library & University Collections
david.mcclay@ed.ac.uk
Edinburgh Research Explorer Statistics: October 2019
On trial: Translations of the Peking Gazette Online
Thanks to a request from HCA staff the Library currently has trial access to Translations of the Peking Gazette Online from Brill. This is a comprehensive database of approximately 8,500 pages of English-language renderings of official edicts and memorials from the Qing dynasty that cover China’s long nineteenth century from the Macartney Mission in 1793 to the abdication of the last emperor in 1912.
You can access Translations of the Peking Gazette Online from the E-resources trials page.
Access is available on and off-campus.
Trial access ends 4th December 2019.
*Trial has been extended and access will now end on 14th December 2019*
The Peking Gazette was a unique publication that allows contemporary readers to explore the contours, boundaries, and geographies of modern Chinese history. Contained within its pages are the voices of Manchu emperors, Han officials, gentry leaders, and peasant spokesmen as they discussed and debated the most important political, social, and cultural movements, trends, and events of their day. As such, the Gazette helps us understand the policies and attitudes of the emperors, the ideas and perspectives of the officials, and the mentality and worldviews of several hundred million Han, Mongol, Manchu, Muslim, and Tibetan subjects of the Great Qing Empire. Read More
Trial access: The Guardian (ProQuest Recent Newspapers)
I’m pleased to let you know that the Library currently has trial access to ProQuest Recent Newspapers: The Guardian, a new resource that gives us full-text and full digitised images of The Guardian newspaper from 2010 – recent (3-month embargo).
You can access ProQuest Recent Newspapers: The Guardian from the E-resources trials page. Access is available on and off-campus.
Trial access ends 1st December 2019. Read More
Dissertation Fair 14th Nov
Dissertation Week starts next week (11-15th Nov). Today we focus on the Dissertation Fair on Thursday 14th Nov. The Fair highlights the range of resources and support available across the University, including the Institute for Academic Development, IS Digital Skills and more. Come along to find out more.
Attending:
Centre for Research Collections(*);
Library Academic Support; Institute for Academic Development; IS Digital Skills; Research Data Service
Adam Matthew(*); Gale(*); Proquest(*); SAGE Research Methods(*)
National Library of Scotland; National Museum Scotland Libraries
(*) Attending and presenting.
There are a number of presentations throughout the day.
Exploring ProQuest Primary and Secondary Resources to Improve your Dissertation – Ali Nazari-Nouri, Proquest
Join Ali Nazari-Nouri, Training and Consulting Partner at ProQuest, to learn about the wide variety of primary and secondary sources that are available at the University of Edinburgh and how you could utilise these resources to explore and collate the necessary information for your dissertation.
Time: 10:10 – 11:00
Register here
Using Primary Sources to Improve Your Dissertation – Dr Laura Blomvall, Adam Matthew
Critical engagement with primary sources is an essential component of a successful dissertation in arts and humanities. As a student at Edinburgh you have access to films, diaries, theatre records, historical newspapers and government files from archives around the world through Adam Matthew Digital primary source collections, covering periods from the Middle Ages to the 21st century.
Dr Laura Blomvall, Product Specialist in the Outreach team of Adam Matthew, will talk you through Edinburgh’s collections, from Shakespeare’s Globe Archive to Service Newspapers of World War Two, from Foreign Office Files for China to Literary Print Culture, from Mass Observation Online to Eighteenth-Century Journals. She will give you tips on how to navigate archival material online and how to use primary sources to enrich, enliven and expand your dissertation.
Time: 11:00 – 11:50
Register here
Dissertation Fair
Time: 13:30 – 16:30
Register here
We Have Great Stuff – Rachel Hosker, Deputy Head of Special Collections and Archives Manager at the University of Edinburgh
The University holds a vast range of rare/unique material including manuscripts and archives, rare books, photographs, printed and handwritten music, theses and microforms. Hear more about the University’s Collections and the interesting ways they have been used.
Time: 13:10 – 14:00
Register here
Fake News vs Real News: Discovering News Sources (Digital Skills)
In this half hour session you will learn:
How to spot fake news and check your facts.
How to find trusted news sources provided by the University of Edinburgh.
Time: 13:15 – 13:45
Register here
Sage Research Methods: What every researcher needs – Jordan Brooks, SAGE
SAGE Research Methods supports research at all levels by providing material to guide users through every step of the research process. Resources range from books and reference, to case studies, academic video, and exclusive research tools. Join Jordan Brooks from SAGE Publishing to find out more about how you can make the most of this resource for your own research activities!
Time: 14:10 – 15:00
Register here
Gale Primary Sources for your Dissertation: Archives and Platform – Martin McCall and Carolyn Beckford from Gale
The University of Edinburgh has access to a fantastic collection of primary source archives from Gale, covering centuries of content. Including, historical newspapers from the British Library, as well as The Times, The Economist and The Daily Mail, literature drama and plays from the 18th and 19th centuries and thematic collections such as the Archives of Sexuality and Gender.
As part of Dissertation Week at the Library, Martin McCall and Carolyn Beckford from Gale, will introduce a number of these archives as well the Gale Primary Sources platform, where these archives are cross-searchable. The Gale Primary Sources platform greatly enhances the research experience for students and researchers by broadening their discovery of primary source documents through the use of multiple search options and powerful research tools, such as:
Topic Finder – which allows users to explore the frequency of one or more search terms in the content over time, which can suggest the changing importance of particular concepts over time
Term Frequency – where users can discover related terms that commonly occur in relation to their own search term, which helps uncover hidden connections, or can be a helpful starting point in the early stages of research.
Time: 15:10 – 16:00
Register here
More information at https://edinburgh-uk.libguides.com/dissertation
Halloween Highland Superstitions
Image: Title page of a manuscript copy of The secret commonwealth by Robert Kirk, 1692. Held in The Laing Collection (La.III.551).
The day of Halloween is upon us and here at the UCF we’re marking the occasion the only way we know how…with some seriously spooky books! A quick click through the catalogue reveals some absolutely terrifying reading material. Titles such as Bats in roofs: a guide for surveyors (699.878), A bibliographical ghost revisits his old haunts (.01 Fra.), and Safe handling of corpses containing radioactive substances (WN650 Nat 1966) are lurking on our shelves. It’s enough to make even the most stoic librarian shudder!
Continuing to search for the magical and mystical amongst our collections, I came across a title by Robert Kirk; The secret commonwealth of elves, fauns & fairies: a study in folk-lore & psychical research (tOD 91 KIR). Kirk was a Gaelic scholar, folklorist, and alumnus of The University of Edinburgh. He collated this collection of folklore between 1691 and 1692 but died without seeing it published, which wasn’t until over a century later in 1815, by Sir Walter Scott. Several copies are held amongst the universities collections, whilst an 1893 edition, digitised by the HathiTrust, can be found here. Besides being a very significant work in its own right, it has recently served as the inspiration for the title of the second volume in Philip Pullman’s Book of Dust trilogy.
We only hold one item however, with the word Halloween actually in its title. This is Alexander Macgregor’s Highland superstitions; connected with the Druids, fairies, witchcraft, second-sight, Hallowe’en, sacred wells and lochs, with several curious instances of Highland customs and beliefs (SSSA.S.841). Published in Stirling in 1901 it lives amongst the School of Scottish Studies collection. A slim, unassuming volume, bound in forest-green, it details the events of All Hallows Eve as follows:
“Hallowe’en in Gaelic means “Samhuinn,” that is “Samhtheine,” the fire of peace. It is a Druidical festival, at which the fire of peace is regularly kindled. There is no night in the year which the popular imagination has stamped with a more peculiar character than Hallowe’en. It was the night, above all others, when supernatural influences prevailed. It was the night for the universal walking abroad of all sorts of spirits, fairies, and ghosts, all of whom had liberty on that night. It was customary in many parts of Scotland to have hundreds of torches prepared in each district for weeks before Hallowe’en, so that, after sunset on that evening, every youth able to carry a blazing torch, or “samhnag,” ran forth to surround the boundaries of their farms with these burning lights, and thereby protect all their possessions from the fairies. Having thus secured themselves by these fires of peace, all the households congregated to practice the various ceremonies and superstitious rites of that eventful evening. (p. 44)”
Some of the rites and ceremonies Macgregor describes we might recognise, such as ducking for apples or the reading of fortunes in teacups. Others, less so, “the wetting of the shirt sleeve, the sowing of hemp seed, pulling the stalks of corn, throwing the clue of blue yarn into the pit of the kiln, the white of eggs put into a glass of water” (p.46) do not feature in our modern autumnal festivities. An evocative account of the latter ceremony follows, in which a fresh egg is punctured with a pin and allowed to drip into a glass of pure water, to reveal one’s destiny:
“The glass is then held up to the candle, and some important event in the future of the life of the inquirer is found exhibited hieroglyphically in the glass, – the egg droppings assuming an endless variety of shapes, in which the skilful in these matters discover a resemblance to things, which, by association, clearly point out coming circumstances and events. All this was done by an old, weird Sybil, who had been invited for the special purpose of reading to the young folks the various signs and indications of this privileged right. (p.49)”
Perhaps you will take a leaf out of our book (and Macgregor’s) by adding this early 20th century rite into your revelries this evening. The Beltane Samhuinn Fire Festival is keeping the smahnag tradition alive with their yearly blazing display on Calton Hill. Happy Samhuinn!
Daisy Stafford, UCF Library Assistant
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
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