Thefts at the British Library

An article from the Guardian in the UK from November 21, 2008, describes the theft of single leaves from rare printed works in a number of Libraries in the UK, including the British Library and the Bodleian.
According to the article

'Using electronic records, they found all the British Library members who had taken out the book and then examined other works these people had had contact with. They discovered that other works detailing the same periods in history and covering European engagement to the area from modern-day Syria to Bangladesh were also damaged.'

Without the ability to electronically request, circulate and examine transaction data on our collections how easily could we follow the trail of a suspected thief?

Handle this Book!

In Handle this Book! the New York Times describes the presentation of rare books and manuscripts to History undergraduates. There's nothing like the smell of old books, the sound as you flick through the pages of a book made from cloth paper or reading the scribbled notes and signatures of previous owners!

This is the untidy scrawl of a previous owner of the 1640 edition of Parkinson's Herbal held in the Richardson Collection (263F). William Hopkins has practised his signature numerous times on the last page of the volume but what was he thinking when he scrawled the following lines...?

'Remember well and bear in mind
a faithful friend is hard to find
but how to find a friend so just
is first to try and then to trust'

Virtually recreating the Library of Sir Hans Sloane

A Press release from the Wellcome Trust and the British Library has announced the availability of the Sloane Printed Book Catalogue. This is a virtual reconstruction of the Library of Sir Hans Sloane ( 1660 - 1753) , one of Britain's most important collectors and founder of the British Museum. The comment by Alison Walker, Lead Researcher of The Sloane Printed Books Project...' We can learn much about Sir Hans Sloane, his career, and the intellectual and scientific circles in which he lived by looking at what material he acquired and how it was used, ' reminds us of how important it is that we continue the work from the David Scott Mitchell Project and include the provenance of items in our electronic records, particularly when they are related to significant people in the Library's history and the development of Australia.

You can read about the collection and the project from the website. The detail on identifying and interpreting the provenance of items is interesting. I know I have seen items in the Library's collections with this British Museum stamp. If we looked closer would we also find a Sloane shelfmark?
On a lighter note, did you know that Sir Hans Sloane 'discovered' Milk Chocolate?

An interactive timeline

This commercial site developed by Jeremy Norman has an amazing amount of information about the history of science, medicine and information. According to the 'blurb' on the site 'Historyofscience.com is more than a bookselling site. It is also about the culture of collecting the history of science, medicine, and technology.'
An interactive timeline now available on the site. It is a great resource for bits and pieces on rare books, printing, publishing!
Did you know that the first known medical work was printed in 1457. The Bloodletting calendar apparently listed the unlucky and lucky days to have your blood drained!

Charlie Cheesecake

The eRecords project will no doubt identify some rare and important items. The project will also bring to light curiosities and charming examples of how life used to be. In the Adventures of Charlie Cheesecake young children are warned not to go swimming straight after eating, are cautioned about hanging out the train window and not looking both ways before they cross the road.
We have two copies of this title. One is located with Children's literature the other copy with Children's health & hygiene. I'm not sure the modern advertising Executive would choose Cheesecake for the family name of the main character in a child safety campaign!
In the images below the author Marjorie Hann warns children not to run around with sharp objects in their mouth! Excellent advice!

I See Dead People's Books

LibraryThing has a group called I See Dead People's Books
'Description: A group for those interested and involved in entering the personal libraries of famous readers into LibraryThing as Legacy Libraries.'
Amongst the list of complete and incomplete libraries is one for Alfred Deakin. You can see a description of the Project which is based on a list held by the National Library of Australia.
Could this facility help to gather collections 0f other important Australian people? Books once owned by Ludwig Leichhardt, Samuel Marsden, Henry Gurner that have now been dispersed.
Just one thing from LibraryThing that I am not quite clear about. How can you find out the details of the item that have been added to the Legacy Library - which individual or Library holds the title?

NYPL Digital Gallery

Looking for a Christmas gift or a new way to provide access and gain revenue from collections? The New York Public Library is redesigning their Digital Gallery. You can view the Digital Gallery Redesign Preview or take a look at Der Emu oder der neuholländische Strauss. (1803-1805) use the buttons at the top to resize, select and then create your own unique emu coffee mug!