August has been a month of goodbyes and hellos to Library staff:
Yvette Bailey, Acquisitions Officer for the past six years, left to take up the post of ULRLS Procurement and Accounts Officer at Senate House Library. The rest of the Library team will be joining her there next year, of course. Rodney Bill is our new Acquisitions Officer, joining us from Senate House Library.
Beth Sockett, our Graduate Trainee Library Assistant, completed her year with us. Our new trainee is Sheena Ginnings.
We would like to give our thanks to Yvette and Beth, who both contributed so much during their time with us, and we'd like to offer a warm welcome to Rodney and Sheena.
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
Register of Commonwealth Research
We're pleased to announce that we have updated the version of the Register of Commonwealth Research hosted on SAS-Space, our institutional repository. The updated version, current to May 2008 and containing over 16000 records, can be downloaded here. The Register is a database of Commonwealth-related doctoral research undertaken within the UK, with coverage extending back to the 1920s.
Each year, the Institute publishes Theses in Progress in Commonwealth Studies, a list, derived from the Register, of all current doctoral research. The 2008 edition is available to download here.
Each year, the Institute publishes Theses in Progress in Commonwealth Studies, a list, derived from the Register, of all current doctoral research. The 2008 edition is available to download here.
Monday, 1 September 2008
Change to Library admission procedure
From August onwards, all Library readers will be given a simple form to indicate their status, which should be completed for every visit they make. Anyone intending to use the Library is given the from by Reception staff. Requiring only a single tick to complete, it should be passed to Library staff at the Service Desk in the Reading Room.
The purpose of this new form is to enable us to have a much better idea of how many visits are made to our Library each year, and by whom. Please note that existing admission procedures continue as before: all Library readers must sign the Institute visitors' book and anyone who has not used the Library before, or who needs to renew their membership, will need to complete the Library registration form.
Library staff would like to thank all of our visitors for their cooperation in completing this form.
The purpose of this new form is to enable us to have a much better idea of how many visits are made to our Library each year, and by whom. Please note that existing admission procedures continue as before: all Library readers must sign the Institute visitors' book and anyone who has not used the Library before, or who needs to renew their membership, will need to complete the Library registration form.
Library staff would like to thank all of our visitors for their cooperation in completing this form.
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Mandela in London exhibition at the Museum of London
The Museum of London is marking Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday with a photographic exhibition of his visit to London in 1962. We, and the Ruth First Memorial Trust, were delighted to be able to contribute three images towards this exhibition, from the Mary Benson Collection (ICS 6). This photo from the collection shows Nelson Mandela with Mary Benson (right) and Freda Levin. In 1957 Mary Benson became secretary to the Treason Trials Defence Fund in Johannesburg. She became a close friend of Nelson Mandela, and assisted with smuggling him out of South Africa in 1962. See more information about the Mary Benson Collection.
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Books received in May and June
Click to view all additions to the Reference Collection in May and June 2008.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
George Padmore Institute lecture series
The George Padmore Institute is hosting the following lectures in July:
4th July, 19:00-21:00hr - David Hilliard, "The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service 1967-1980"
9th July, 19:00-21:00hr - Carole Boyce Davies, "Left of Karl Marx: the Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones"
23rd July, 19:00-21:00hr - Colin Grant, "Negro with a Hat: the Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey"
More information about these, and other, events is available from the George Padmore Institute website. Enquiries may be directed to info@georgepadmoreinstitute.org.
4th July, 19:00-21:00hr - David Hilliard, "The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service 1967-1980"
9th July, 19:00-21:00hr - Carole Boyce Davies, "Left of Karl Marx: the Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones"
23rd July, 19:00-21:00hr - Colin Grant, "Negro with a Hat: the Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey"
More information about these, and other, events is available from the George Padmore Institute website. Enquiries may be directed to info@georgepadmoreinstitute.org.
Friday, 20 June 2008
SCOLMA Conference 2008
Last week’s SCOLMA conference focused on two projects, the Endangered Archives and Endangered Languages projects.
The Endangered Archives Programme, funded by Arcadia (formerly the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Trust) provides grants, administered by the British Library, to safeguard archival material at threat of being lost or destroyed. Archives have been defined widely to include rare printed sources (books, serials, newspapers, ephemera, etc.), manuscripts in any language, visual materials (drawings, paintings, prints, posters, photographs, etc.), audio or video recordings, digital data, and other objects and artefacts - but normally only where they are found in association with a documentary archive. The programme provides pilot project grants to investigate, survey collections and assess the feasibility of projects, as well as major research project grants which provide for surrogate copying and cataloguing of collections.
We heard from two projects that had been funded – David Zeitlyn talked about archiving a Cameroonian photographic studio; that of the studio photographer Jacques Touselle, with a collection of about 40,000 negatives; and Dr Siddig Elzailaee, discussed the endangered archives of Sudanese trade unions, 1899-2005. Both projects were extremely interesting and the talks revealed the risks archive collections face, as well as the richness of the content made available through these projects. Other countries in which projects have been funded include Tuvalu, Nigeria, India, East Timor, Cameroon, Ghana, Tanzania, Nevis, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Jamaica. Details of the programme and projects funded can be accessed at http://www.bl.uk/endangeredarchives
The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, also funded by Arcadia, is hosted at SOAS, the School of Oriental and African Studies. Presentations by Prof Peter K. Austin and Dr Friederike Luepke, gave an overview of current research on endangered languages, and a case study of the Bainouk language in Senegal. It was enlightening to hear how attitudes to languages, the social spheres in which languages are used, and trends towards moving to cities impacted on indigenous and ancestral languages. The website for the project is available at: http://www.hrelp.org
The Endangered Archives Programme, funded by Arcadia (formerly the Lisbet Rausing Charitable Trust) provides grants, administered by the British Library, to safeguard archival material at threat of being lost or destroyed. Archives have been defined widely to include rare printed sources (books, serials, newspapers, ephemera, etc.), manuscripts in any language, visual materials (drawings, paintings, prints, posters, photographs, etc.), audio or video recordings, digital data, and other objects and artefacts - but normally only where they are found in association with a documentary archive. The programme provides pilot project grants to investigate, survey collections and assess the feasibility of projects, as well as major research project grants which provide for surrogate copying and cataloguing of collections.
We heard from two projects that had been funded – David Zeitlyn talked about archiving a Cameroonian photographic studio; that of the studio photographer Jacques Touselle, with a collection of about 40,000 negatives; and Dr Siddig Elzailaee, discussed the endangered archives of Sudanese trade unions, 1899-2005. Both projects were extremely interesting and the talks revealed the risks archive collections face, as well as the richness of the content made available through these projects. Other countries in which projects have been funded include Tuvalu, Nigeria, India, East Timor, Cameroon, Ghana, Tanzania, Nevis, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Jamaica. Details of the programme and projects funded can be accessed at http://www.bl.uk/endangeredarchives
The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, also funded by Arcadia, is hosted at SOAS, the School of Oriental and African Studies. Presentations by Prof Peter K. Austin and Dr Friederike Luepke, gave an overview of current research on endangered languages, and a case study of the Bainouk language in Senegal. It was enlightening to hear how attitudes to languages, the social spheres in which languages are used, and trends towards moving to cities impacted on indigenous and ancestral languages. The website for the project is available at: http://www.hrelp.org
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