In response to demand, the Historic Libraries Forum will be offering a new day-long workshop, A Novice’s Introduction to the Identification, Dating and Preservation of Bookbindings. The workshop will be hosted at the Deansgate site of the John Rylands University Library in Manchester, and is aimed at those with no background knowledge of binding history or identification. The first session, led by Ed Potten, will look at identifying, localizing and dating bindings based on their characteristics, and at some of the reference sources available which can help. The second session, led by Caroline Checkley-Scott, will look at identifying and prioritizing bindings for preservation or conservation, and at what immediate remedial work can be done on a tight budget to stabilize and care for at-risk bindings. The afternoon session will include a tour of the Conservation Studio. This is a “hands-on” course, so places are extremely limited.
The fee for the day will be £40.00, which will include tea and coffee, but not lunch. Lunch can be purchased on-site in the Rylands Café. A Booking Form is available here.
For more information please contact Ed Potten (Edward.Potten@manchester.ac.uk).
Thursday, 20th November, 2008 at the Wellcome Institute, 183 Euston Road, London.
Details to follow.
Cataloguing antiquarian, special and early printed collections
In response to continuing demand, the Historic Libraries Forum in collaboration with the Bibliographical Standards Committee will be holding two final day-long workshops on cataloguing antiquarian and early printed collections on March 4th at New Hall, Cambridge, and on April 3rd at The British Museum. These courses are aimed at those with little or no formal training in historical bibliography and antiquarian cataloguing. The workshops will look at practical and technical skills, such as establishing bibliographical format, collational formula and book structure, alongside some of the more ephemeral skills a cataloguer needs to tackle difficulties with dating items and recording provenance and binding information. Numbers are limited to 20 for the Cambridge day and 16 for the London workshop - early booking is advised. For more information on the Cambridge workshop please contact Alison Wilson (amw18@cam.ac.uk), for more on the workshop being held in London, contact Joanna Bowring (jbowring@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk). Both Workshops start at 10.00 a.m.
The annual meeting for 2007 was held on Thursday 15th November at the Royal Asiatic Society, 14 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HD
The annual meeting for 2006 was held on Thursday 16 November in the Weston Room, Maughan Library, King’s College London, Chancery Lane. The day covered improving access to buildings and collections, security issues, virtual access through websites and email and the importance of access as a factor in securing grants. Tours of the Maughan Library and Foyle Special Collections with Katie Sambrook, Special Collections Librarian, and colleagues were a highlight.
The Historic Libraries Forum, in collaboration with the Rare Books Group and Rare Books in Scotland, held two day-long workshops on cataloguing antiquarian and early printed collections on May 24th and May 25th 2006. These courses, aimed at those with little or no formal training in historical bibliography and antiquarian cataloguing, were heavily over-booked and feedback was very positive. In view of the obvious demand, the Forum hopes to run two more courses in London in late 2006 / early 2007. People on the waiting list will have priority.
This was a meeting about all kinds of manuscripts and related material found in libraries, including personal papers, scholarly documents, correspondence and the library's own archives. In addition it covered some of the initiatives in the archive world to which libraries could contribute. The day ended with a talk on the British Museum archives.
The Historic Libraries Forum Autumn meeting for 2004 focused on automation for the small specialist library. Speakers discussed the issues faced when automating a small library for the first time, with papers on the fundamentals of automation and on the practicalities of running an automation project. The afternoon session consisted of a series of brief presentations from users of some of the different systems discussed, then an open question and answer session. The day concluded with a visit to the British Museum Reading Room for a demonstration of British Museum catalogue, presented by Joanna Bowring, Head of Libraries and Information. The Annual General Meeting of the Historic Libraries Forum also took place during the day.
| Committee — | Home — | Publications — | Links — | Contact us |