23 Things …

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There are many amazing web tools out there which make working life easier (lovely Zotero for instance).  However, it can be hard to find time to explore them and see whether they are worth using.  Which brings me to 23 Things for Professional Development … back by popular demand on 7 May 2012.

23 Things … is a co-operative self-directed learning course for librarians.  It introduces participants to social media and to lots of web tools.  The format of the course is perhaps particularly useful for special collections librarians, who need to build a presence for their service online but who often are solo professionals, lacking support for external training courses. I didn’t do the course formally but I’ve heard many good things about it from those who did!

Exhibiting the Written Word

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A new report, Exhibiting the Written Word, makes the excellent point that “there has been little reflection on the challenges of displaying the written word and how such displays differ from the display of art and museum artefacts”.   The report outlines the challenges e.g. book formats were not (usually) created to be shown in glass cases, displaying a single page freezes something that was meant to be read as a sequence.  Created by an AHRC-funded project involving the National Library of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, the report brings together insights and examples from librarians, academic staff and other interested people which will help us get over these challenges and create better exhibitions with our written words.

 

Stewards of the Born-Digital

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The University of Hull, along with three US universities, produced a white paper outlining practical and achievable ways forward in tackling the problems of collecting and managing born-digital archives: “AIMS Born-Digital Collections:An Inter-Institutional Model for Stewardship“.

There’s also a blog, Born Digital Archives,  featuring insights from those working on the project.   Both have plenty to offer those seeking help with the great challenge of digital collecting!

“Exotic … Exhaustive”

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This interesting review from a perspective outside Special Collections by Elena Maceviciute of Vilnius University describes the subject matter as exotic (which I like very much!) and the book as straightforward and exhaustive (which is what I hoped it would be).  I’ll be adding more reviews to this site as they come my way.

Talking of reviews, if you’ve read the book, please do review on Amazon, blog, tweet whatever … even if you have criticisms, it all helps to publicise the book and indirectly to raise awareness of our sector.  Even if you don’t want to do this, I would really like to know what you think of the book and of any errors or omissions, which can be put right on this website and maybe in a future edition if we get to that stage.

The Missing Materials Experiment

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The Missing materials.org experiment in working together on stolen material, which I cited in the Handbook, has now finished.  It didn’t achieve huge takeup, but helped publicise the issue of theft, encourage more openness and assisted OCLC Research in developing light touch resources and experimental software.  Find out more in this article: Turning out the Lights, on Hanging Together (OCLC Research’s blog).

Books about Books Reviewed

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The latest issue of Rare Books Newsletter (91, January 2012) is entirely devoted to reviews of recent books of interest to Special Collections. Find out what librarians, academics and other experts made of publications about manuscripts, early printed books, the historic book trade, bookbindings, a private press and a national library:

Alston, R.C.. Inventory of sale catalogues of named and attributed owners of books sold by retail or auction 1676-1800 Privately printed, 2010.

Brown, G.H., Voigts, L.E. & Pfaff, R.W.. The study of medieval manuscripts of England festschrift in honor of Richard W. Pfaff, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2010.

Brown, I.G. Rax me that buik: highlights from the collections of the National Library of Scotland, Scala, 2010.

De Hamel, C. Bibles: an illustrated history from papyrus to print, Bodleian Library, 2011.

Gillespie, A. & Wakelin, D. The Production of books in England, 1350-1500, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Hanna, R. & Turville-Petre, T. The Wollaton medieval manuscripts: texts, owners and readers, York Medieval Press, 2010.

Marks, P.J.M. Beautiful bookbindings: a thousand years of the bookbinder’s art, British Library, 2011

Miller, J., Spitzmueller, P.J. & Jones, J.W. Books will speak plain: a handbook for identifying and describing historical bindings, The Legacy Press, 2010.

Pearson, D. Books as history: the importance of books beyond their texts Rev ed., British Library, 2011.

Raymond, J. Cheap print in Britain and Ireland to 1660, Oxford University Press, 2011.

Southworth, H. Leonard and Virginia Woolf, the Hogarth Press and the networks of modernism, Edinburgh University Press, 2010.

Wagner, B. & Reed, M. Early printed books as material objects: proceedings of the conference organized by the IFLA Rare Books and Manuscripts Section: Munich, 18-21 August 2009, De Gruyter Saur, 2010.

Conference-going: advice from a US librarian

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The Handbook is of course written from a UK perspective, but I did my best to incorporate material which would help librarians in other English-speaking countries.  Many examples and best practice come from the USA in particular, home to so many Special Collections and their librarians.  We have much in common, but there are of course differences e.g. in the workings of our organisations and how we can develop as professionals.  All of which leads into a recommended blog post, from Lynne Thomas, offering advice to new professionals in the US about professional development, especially which conferences to attend.

52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings

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For images and helpful information about historic bindings, I highly recommend the 52 Weeks of Fantastic Bindings series of blogs from Special Collections at the University of St Andrews.  Masses of beautiful and intriguing books, check out their biggest incunable or this lovely Tennyson edition.  A great resource, and a weekly treat!

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