IS News Blog

Propose an innovative and transformative project that answers a research question using the British Library’s digital collections / data and if your idea is chosen, the Labs team will work with you to make it happen and you could win a prize of up to £3,000.

From the digitisation of thousands of books, newspapers and manuscripts, the collecting of UK websites, bird sounds or location data for our maps, over the last two decades we’ve been faithfully amassing a vast and wide-ranging digital collection for the nation. What remains elusive however is understanding what researchers need in place in order to unlock the potential for new discoveries within these fascinating and diverse digital collections. The Labs competition is designed to attract scholars, explorers and trailblazers to the Library who see the potential for new and innovative research lurking within these immense digital collections. Through soliciting innovative and transformative projects utilising this content you will be giving us a steer as to the types of platforms, arrangements, services and tools needed to surface it. We’ll even throw the Library’s resources behind you to make your idea a reality.

To find out more, visit the competition pages http://labs.bl.uk/Competition+2013 (deadline for submission of ideas is the 26 June 2013), sign up to the wiki, express your interest and participate in one of the related events, virtually (17 May 2013, 1500 GMT), hack event in London on the 28 and 29 May, 2013 or one of our roadshow events,

Anyone researching or studying medieval British history may be interested in a new resource from JISC – Manuscripts Online, which provides access to written materials from the period 1000 – 1500. The single search box searches manuscripts, early printed books, and historical documents from libraries, archives, publishers and universities. Some materials searched are freely available, others may require an additional login. Should you require further assistance accessing resources via Manuscripts Online please contact library@stir.ac.uk

Following on from the success of our ‘Going Wild in the Archives’ exhibition earlier this year, we thought we’d give our festive Archives and Special Collections Advent Calendar a wildlife theme. 

Every day in the run up to Christmas, a new image from our collections relating to the natural world will be revealed including animals, butterflies and flowers from our Victorian illustrated books and some weird and wonderful drawings from our Norman McLaren Archive!

View the calendar now

*Image:   A rabbit in winter. From The Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland, J. G. Millais (1905).
Read our Archives & Special Collections blog

A unique online archive of over 10,000 aerial photographs has recently been launched. The photographs currently on the Britain from Above website cover the time period 1919 to 1953 and offer an interesting insight to this period for anyone studying or researching twentieth century British social history.

Britain from Above can be accessed here: http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/ 

A lot of the photographs have limited information and members of the public are asked to register and contribute to the project.

The display cases in the Library are currently housing a selection of project work produced by Masters students in the Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication.

One of the most exciting and challenging modules that Publishing students undertake is the Publishing Project. Over the course of a year, students conceptualise a publishing product: a book, magazine or digital publication. They conduct market research, source text and images, create sales and marketing plans and materials, and design and eventually produce their work.

The process brings together all the key elements of the publishing process, enabling students to develop an entrepreneurial, innovative and creative approach.

For more information about Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication, please visit

www.publishing.stir.ac.uk.

The display will be in the Library until the end of August.

The latest exhibition in the Library features Archbishop Robert Leighton, who was Bishop of Dunblane and then Archbishop of Glasgow in the 17^th century. You may be familiar with the Leighton Library in Dunblane, which houses Robert Leighton’s personal collection of books. As 2011 is the 400^th anniversary of Leighton’s birth (we don’t know his birthday, unfortunately), the exhibition celebrates this remarkable man and his collection of books.

 

Leighton lived through one of the most turbulent periods in Scottish history. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister, yet took up the office of Bishop of Dunblane in the restored Episcopal Church, in an attempt to reconcile Presbyterians and Episcopalians in a united Church of Scotland. Aware that he might be accused of seeking self-aggrandisement, he accepted a post in Dunblane, the smallest and poorest see in the country. He was later installed as Archbishop of Glasgow, though he failed to bring about the reconciliation in church affairs which he so desired.

 

Leighton was a learned scholar, with wide ranging interests. He bequeathed some 1500 books and pamphlets to the Cathedral of Dunblane. A library building was erected between 1684 and 1688 in order to house the books for the use of the local clergy. From 1734 the library became one of the first subscription libraries in Scotland and thrived until around 1870. Leighton’s collection of books was supplemented by 18^th and 19th century additions, bringing the total bookstock to around 3350 items. The collection covers a variety of subject areas, including history and politics (particularly 17^th century), theology, medicine, travel, language and the occult. There is also much to interest the book historian.

 

The Leighton Library is open to tourists during the summer months. If you would like to consult a book from the Leighton Library, please contact Helen Beardsley, h.r.beardsley@stir.ac.uk. Researchers are permitted to use the library’s books and manuscripts, but there are no study facilities in the library in Dunblane.  We will fetch the books you require and you can consult them in our Archives Reading Room. All of the Leighton Library’s books are included on our own online catalogue.

 

The exhibition highlights some of the Leighton Library’s treasures, including a 1562 edition of the New Testament in Syriac, a 1667 index of books prohibited by the Catholic Church, as well as volumes of Buffon’s Histoire naturelle (1749-1804) with their superb illustrations. We are grateful to Dr Alastair Mann for contributing his expertise to the exhibition.

 

There is further information and a short film about the Leighton Library at http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/libraries/collections/spcoll/leighton.php.

 

Helen Beardsley

Researchers or students of European cultural history or television history may be interested in the newly relaunched EU Screen Portal, (www.euscreen.eu) This website currently provides access to over 10,000 digital archival television objects from 26 European countries. The collections are expected to grow to contain 30,000 resources by September 2012. EU Screen allows researchers to view and compare coverage of significant historical events from multiple perspectives and provides access to previously difficult to locate materials online. EU Screen is part of the wider Europeana service (www.europeana.eu) which is a portal to millions of digitised cultural resources (painting, museum artifacts, films and books) from across Europe.

Students and staff at the University of Stirling now have access to MediaHub, a brand new resource for locating and accessing audio visual and multimedia resources. MediaHub from JISC provides access to collections of film, audio and image resources including the archives of organisations such as ITN, the Imperial War Museum, The Wellcome Trust, Films of Scotland and the Royal Geographical Society. Resources previously accessible from News Film Online and Film and Sound Online are now available from MediaHub. MediaHub can be accessed from the A-Z list of online resources.

 

There are several ways to search MediaHub: by collection, by time period or topic. Searches can limited by type of resource e.g. audio, video or image.

 

To see other audiovisual resources see our multi-media bookmarks. 

The Battle for Scotland charts the evolution of political election literature throughout the twentieth century. It features examples of election material from all the major political parties relating to Local, General and Scottish elections. The exhibition also focuses on the 1979, 1997 and 2011 Referendums relating to the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and proposed changes to the electoral system.

 

The Battle for Scotland is drawn from the Tait and watson collection held in the Archive and Special Collections and the Scottish Political Archive which is based within History and Politics. The archive aims to chronicle the political history of Scotland in the 20th and 21st centuries. Further information about the archive can be found at: http://scottishpoliticalarchive.wordpress.com/ or on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/scottishpoliticalarchive 

 

An online version of the exhibition is available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottishpoliticalarchive/sets/72157626472435047

The current exhibition in the Stirling Campus Library, ‘Treasures from our Collections’, will end on Tuesday 26th April.  A new exhibition will go on display on 2nd May which will provide an historical perspective on Scottish elections with a selection of materials from our political collections.

 

If you can’t make it into the Library to see our ‘Treasures’ exhibition a selection of material can be viewed on our Flickr site.