meetings

cdonlan

Librarians Uncorked meeting – Thursday 14th November

Librarians Uncorked

The Ghosts of Librarians Past: Decolonising Library Collections and Classifying Dewey as Cancelled

Thursday 14th November 5.30 – 7.00 pm, Brewhemia Prosecco Bar, Edinburgh

Librarians Uncorked is back and in this session we will be discussing what role libraries should be playing in the decolonisation of knowledge, through diversifying collections and by becoming a more inclusive profession: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/10/04/how-to-decolonise-the-library/

What are the ethical implications for libraries in addressing unnerving revelations that classification titan Melvil Dewey held a collection of unsavoury views on subjects of race, women’s roles and religion? Recently this spooked the American Library Association into changing the name of one of its top leadership honours: https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/09/melvil-dewey-american-library-association-award-name-change.html

Is it the role of librarians to exorcise our haunting legacy issues or should we accept it would take something supernatural to transform established collecting habits?

Unlike some of our librarian forefathers, we welcome all interested parties! Librarians Uncorked is a safe space where opinions can be aired, library issues worked through and professional connections made.

Librarians Uncorked November

JA Condie

Summer Gathering and AGM at RBGE

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We had a great time at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on the 10th July for our Summer Gathering and AGM. Many thanks to librarian Lorna Mitchell for hosting us, and for her talk – sadly not in the the library due to emergency building work there. Another highlight was our visit the lovely Botanic Cottage.

Working Group reports: 

IMG_0443

Twitter Moment: 

JA Condie

ELISA AGM, Networking & Exhibition Tour

endurance-in-ice-lThis year’s AGM will be held (slightly later than usual) on Tuesday 26th September, 5pm at the National Library of Scotland.

Join us for a tour of the Library’s current exhibition Enduring Eye: the Antarctic Legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Hurley led by Paula Williams, Curator of Maps, Mountaineering and Polar Collections.

Following the tour, there will be some refreshments and a short AGM, giving the opportunity to hear about the work undertaken by ELISA during the past year.

Please reserve your place via Eventbrite

 

JA Condie

ELISA Summer Gathering and AGM – report

This year’s Summer Gathering and AGM was held yesterday at the Advocates Library. Here is a very brief summary of proceedings:

Cleo Jones, ELISA Business Committee Chair, welcomed everyone and opened the meeting with an introduction to the work of ELISA.

Reports:


Nominations for the Business Committee, 2016-17
Current committee: Cleo Jones, Fiona Laing, Lauren Thow, Jane Condie, Julie Johnson, Clare Donlan , Ellen Peacock, Iain Young, Kirsteen Urquart.

All BC members are happy to stay on. The existing Business Committee were nominated by Elaine Simpson and seconded by Julie Arnot to serve for another year.

Tour of the Advocates Library
After the AGM, myself and Senior Librarian Andrea Longson provided tours of the Advocates Library building and Parliament Hall. There was also a small display of a few treasures from our collection.

Some rare books
The Advocates Library
The Laigh Hall – Advocates Library
The Mackenzie Building
The Laigh Hall

Many thanks to Andrea Longson for her time yesterday and while preparing for the visit.

If you were unable to attend, or if you’d like another visit, the Advocates Library will be participating in Doors Open Day again this year. That’s on Saturday 24th September. Also, if you’re interested, you can read more about the sad history of The Faculty Mummy on my blog  🙂

JA Condie

ELISA Summer Gathering and AGM

Hello all

Portrait Gallery ceiling

This year’s Summer Gathering and AGM will take place on Thursday 25th June 2015, at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, from 4-6.30pm.

The meeting will be held in the Gallery’s AK Bell room where refreshments will be provided. Sarah Jeffcott, Librarian and Research Assistant, will also give us an introduction to her library/print room where we’ll see some highlights from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery‘s prints, drawings and photography collections.

Please register your attendance via Eventbrite.

Details:
ELISA Summer Gathering and AGM
Thursday 25th June 2015, 4-6.30pm

Location:
AK Bell room
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
1 Queen Street
Edinburgh  EH2 1JD
http://www.nationalgalleries.org

laurenthow

CILIP in Scotland Annual General Meeting 2015

The papers are now available for the Annual General Meeting of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland.

All papers can be viewed here: http://www.cilips.org.uk/cilips-agm-2015/

The meeting will be held at the Apex Hotel, 1 West Victoria Dock Road, Dundee, DD1 3JP on Tuesday 2nd June 2015 at 10.15am.

In accordance with the Rules and Regulations and the Bye Laws of CILIP, all persons resident or employed in Scotland who are members are entitled to vote at the AGM.

JA Condie

ELISA’s Winter Warmer social – an illustrated report

Fiona scrutinising a display
Fiona scrutinising a particularly interesting display of Jacobite documents

Apologies for the delay in posting this report – I did mean to do it far sooner. Better late than never though, eh?

ELISA’s Winter Warmer social 2015 took place on the evening of Monday the 9th of February.

Around fifteen ELISA members turned up to the National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge for a special tour of the Game of Crowns: the 1715 Jacobite rising exhibition, led by Rare Books Curator Robert Betteridge.

I arrived at NLS a little after 5pm to find the first group had already set off on their tour round the exhibit. I chatted with those left behind and enjoyed the very tasty snacks that were on offer – many thanks to Fiona for organising those… Once Group 1 returned, me and the rest of Group 2 had our chance to view the exhibition.

Robert kindly gave me permission to take photos for inclusion in this report.

Group 1 enjoying after tour refreshments
As you can see, the range and scope of documents Robert Betteridge has collected together is very impressive. Robert explained that he’d wanted to present the documents in context. For that reason the exhibition begins by looking at the various contenders for Scotland’s throne at the time, examining their familial connections and religious leanings.
The main body of the Game of Crowns exhibition is made up of pamphlets, letters, and legislation.
this case features a beautifully illustrated map
There are also various maps and illustrations on display, as well as coins and a very impressive sword! Touch-screens offer an interactive element, while specially recorded audio files sing songs and give voice to historic characters.
There seemed to be a fairly large proportion of items on display which were written by or about the Earl of Mar, a Jacobite general. My favourite piece in the exhibit was an I.O.U, written by Mar on a scrap of paper, for items commandeered to the Jacobite cause.
item 11 – the Earl of Mar’s I.O.U.
an interactive display used to illustrated codes and code breaking

It’s amazing to me that such a literal scrap of history is not only still in existence, it is here on display for my viewing pleasure!

Robert Betteridge is a quietly spoken man but his knowledge of this subject is extensive. This knowledge was gained during the curation of the exhibition! I’m sure everyone who attended this event would like to thank Robert for taking the time to give us these tours. I found his commentary extremely informative and particularly appreciated the incite he gave into the creation of a major exhibition of this type.
Group 2 are engrossed
a Jacobite diary written on playing cards
Game of Crowns: The 1715 Jacobite rising runs until the 10th of May 2015 at NLS, George IV Bridge Building
JA Condie

ELISA summer gathering – June 2014

Re-posted from A Very Fine Library

Today I attended the ELISA Summer Gathering and AGM at the Royal Botanic Garden’s Library, Edinburgh. RBG’s librarian told us a bit about the history of the garden and the work of the library, gave us a wee tour and showed us a few items from their collections.

The Library at the Botanics

The Library at the Botanics

The RBG Library It was great to be in the RGB Library again. I hadn’t visited since I did work experience there years (and years) ago. It’s a lot bigger than I remembered!

I was only there for a few weeks but it was a truly wonderful experience. The library staff were so welcoming, the work was interesting and fun – and the gardens! The view from the library windows is just stunning.

I loved hanging round with botanists in the staff room or chatting to horticulture folk in the glass houses. I’d see interesting plants at lunchtime then come back to the library where the staff would help me track them down in the books. Good times!

The collections
The librarian gave us an overview of the RBG collections. I believe she said 30-40 thousand items, made up of: journals, textbooks, floras and herbals (the last two are the beautiful, illustrated works detailing and describing various plant species). They also hold a collection of original artworks recording specimens from RBG’s own herbarium and ‘living collections’.

The library is part of the Science Department at RBG. The librarian reports to the Head of Science who in turn reports to the Regis Keeper. The library works with staff from all departments of the Gardens – including the shop.

Journals
RBG produces two scholarly works: Edinburgh Journal of Botany and Sibbaldia Horticultural Journal. When I was there on work experience I learned that the library used these journals in an international exchange program. RBG would send out their journals to various institutions and, in return, get other journals back. I was pleased to hear that they still use this method today. They do subscribe to some journals but the exchange scheme is still in effect as well.

AGM
After the tour we had a (very) short AGM. There were reports from the treasurer and the heads of two of the working groups: ‘Access’ and ‘Education’. There was no report from the ‘ICT’ group. The members of the business committee all wanted to stay on for another year. This was accepted unanimously.

This was my first Edinburgh Library and Information Services Agency (ELISA) meeting. There were a few familiar faces (the Edinburgh library world is fairly small) but everyone was friendly. It seems like a jolly group – I think I’ll go again :)