Linking resources to user

Having been given a leg up (soas to speak) back into the Library world, I am having the pleasure of cataloguing rare books which I have now been doing for 6 months.

A cataloguer used to AACR2, MARC21 and books mostly of the 20th century, it is a real joy to learn something new. Enter DCRM(B). When I wrote a post on metadata surrogacy for High Visibility Cataloguing back in 2011, one of the questions posed was how institutions can justify spending good money on cataloguers in the age of the internet. A good answer of course is, Special Collections.

Special Collections are the hidden treasures of Libraries and other institutions that “require specialized security and user services”. Compared to other materials, it is their uniqueness which means that they require special handling, security and storage. Key words here are ‘hidden’ and ‘unique’. This means that although records can often be found on union catalogues, each item is actually unique and is therefore different. The uniqueness is the deal breaker for researchers; the individual item providing specialist information on a variety of subjects. It is the job of cataloguers to record this uniqueness for posterity, and in this way, enabling researchers and supporting teaching across Universities.

In the not too distant future, the catalogue that I have been creating (alongside my colleague) will be accessible via the website. In the meantime, please keep checking here.

 

Book magick

Books are so much more than they first appear.  Not only are they pure escapism, a chance to become something or someone else, a sanctuary, therapy, self-help, informative, pages of wonder and delight, but they are also time travel portals.

As objects in any era, they can provide evidence on the social values and beliefs of the time in which it was written. The body of knowledge within the binding can often contain so much more than the text.

As rare objects made before the advent of mass production, books can reveal a plethora of information about the society in which it was fabricated – industry, technology, values and beliefs, social etiquette, social status and self-presentation, information on import and export trends, materials that were available and why we used them. All of this and so much more if the book has provenance or readers notes.

Take another look at your book because it has “magick”…

 

 

Anthropology – Your relationship with your book

Definition of anthropology in English:

NOUN

The study of humankind, in particular:

1. (also cultural or social anthropology) The comparative study of human societies and cultures and their development.

2. (also physical anthropology) The science of human zoology, evolution, and ecology.

______________________________________________________

Anthropology is most simply defined as the study of humans through time.  In studying a human culture, a social anthropologist studies the material culture of the people in question as well as the people themselves and their interactions with others and things.  An anthropologist looks at the object itself, its context, and the way it was manufactured and used in order to understand the social culture in which it featured.

So think of your relationship with your book or books…

• Is is a paperback or hardback binding?
• Is it printed in English or another language?
• Where was it printed?
• When was it printed?
• Have you borrowed it from the Library, and does it have a Library stamp?
• If you own it, does it have any previous owners?
• Have any previous owners written in it?
• Have you written in it?

What is the social life of your book?

What will your book tell others about you, and also about the era that we live in?

Are you leaving behind autobiographical information for posterity?

Trompe L’Oeil Books

  The pleasure of books, 
without the books...is that possible?

 

Trompe L'Oeil book wallpaper

If you can’t get enough of books, or you can’t fill your walls with bookshelves or bookcases, or maybe the children/dogs would eat them anyway, here is your answer.

It looks beautiful and can give you the same sense of equanimity that a book collection, being surrounded by books, or walking through a Reference Library can give you.

Bibliophiles everywhere do not scoff at this, it is surely the next best thing..

Rare books cataloguing

 

Rare books cataloguing experience

I have recently had the joy of learning and performing some rare books cataloguing, and this is what I would like to share:

As with a lot of things, it is important to be equipped with context. I hold my hands up to being a “context person” anyway, and I have learnt the hard way, that I don’t cope well on being given tasks that are tantamount to a factory line with no meaning. With rare books cataloguing, this means having knowledge and understanding of the printing process during the hand-press period (approx 1450 – 1850), and I would without doubt, always advise anyone beginning their training to start here. So here’s my little list for this task (which I may add to as I learn!) –

• knowledge and understanding of printing process during hand-press period
• knowledge of Roman numerals e.g M.CD.XLII
• knowlegde of the way names were shortened e.g  James – Jas
• knowledge of spelling history
• knowledge and understanding of paper – the history of how it is made
• knowledge of parts of the book without doubt via John Carters ABC for book collectors
• knowledge of book conservation and preservation
• some understanding of provenance (just because the subject is too wide)
• knowledge of and appreciation of marginalia

There are a few significant differences between regular cataloguing and rare books cataloguing, probably the thing that stands out the most for me initially was the absolute essential need to check every single page in a rare book. This is something that is done for pagination, signatures, catchwords and any marginalia or damage. The second thing for me, was the need to check the format and using *Gaskell to do so – looking at the paper, checking for chain lines direction, measuring the book, and checking both of these against the signatures to ascertain the format i.e folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo. Finally it is essential to note any provenance marks. Obviously, because it is a bit of a passion of mine, I would personally also make notes about the binding.

Books as material culture

Material culture is the physical evidence of a culture in the objects and architecture they make, or have made, and I strongly believe that books have a role to play here. Every piece of the composition of a book during the hand-press period, can tell us something about the social culture of the day. Why is that you ask? When we think of evidence of a social culture, what springs to mind is consumerism, education, and class. It actually encompasses relationships between people and their things: the making of, history, preservation, and interpretation of objects. Now, all you bibliophiles, think about that for a moment –  the relationship between you and your books. This is a subject that I am passionate about, so I will talk more about that in another post, but in the meantime, if anyone has any thoughts on that, I’d be happy to hear them.

 

 

 

*Gaskell P, (1985) A New Introduction to Bibliography.

You Who Never Arrived ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

You Who Never Arrived

You who never arrived
in my arms, Beloved, who were lost
from the start,
I don’t even know what songs
would please you. I have given up trying to recognize you in the surging wave of the next moment. All the immense images in me — the far-off, deeply-felt landscape, cities, towers, and bridges, and unsuspected turns in the path, and those powerful lands that were once pulsing with the life of the gods–
all rise within me to mean you, who forever elude me.

You, Beloved, who are all
the gardens I have ever gazed at,
longing. An open window
in a country house–, and you almost
stepped out, pensive, to meet me.
Streets that I chanced upon,–
you had just walked down them and vanished.
And sometimes, in a shop, the mirrors
were still dizzy with your presence and,
startled, gave back my too-sudden image.
Who knows? Perhaps the same
bird echoed through both of us
yesterday, separate, in the evening…

Rainer Maria Rilke

The power of books – camouflage in the waterways

 

I’ve always suspected the protective power of books, the sense of sanctuary in a library or bookshop, and the calm that descends when reading. In his novel, Steven Hall describes the  intriguing premise that all human minds are linked by vast ‘streams’ of language and thought, and, swimming through these streams, are thought-fish. Not all fish are good, and from the most predatory of all, the Ludovician, we need protection or camouflage:

‘Books of Fact/Books of Fiction:  Books of fact provide solid channels of information in many directions.  Library books are best because they also link the book itself to every previous reader and any applications of the text.  Fiction books also generate illusionary flows of people and events and things that have never been or maybe have only half-been from a certain point of view.  The result is a labyrinth of glass and mirrors which can trap an unwary fish for a great deal of time.  I have an old note written by me before I got so vague which says that some of the great and most complicated stories like the Thousand and One Nights are very old protection puzzles, or even idea nets by which ancient peoples would fish for and catch the smaller conceptual fish.  I don’t know if this is true or not.  Build the books into a small wall around yourself.  My notes say three or five books high is best.’

The Raw Shark Texts

There have been times there is no denying, when the only thing to do, would be to come home to my favourite books, stack them up around me, and find peace enough to relax knowing that I was safe in my book tower. Now I know, they only have to be three or five books high…

 

 

Downside Abbey ~ Rare Books Conservation and Cataloguing

Downside Abbey and Library

Home to the Benedictine monks, an eclectic 200 year old book and archive collection, and one of the largest gothic Abbeys in England.

The collection requires cataloguing in order to make it accessible to researchers, and to enhance and promote the English Benedictine Community. The Downside Abbey community began its life in Somerset in 1814 with the arrival of exiled monks from France. Since then the monastery was raised to abbey status in 1935.

Conservation is about preserving the integrity and authenticity of the book, and in that sense, the volunteer project work at the Library at Downside Abbey is set to conserve not only items of religious value, but also those of historical value and material culture.

Let me be clear this is NOT about being a Library volunteer. This is my personal journal of a week spent with the team, on conservation and cataloguing a Library collection whilst the Library is renovated.

Day One – Induction and Conservation

The Project is run by the Keeper of the Library, the Archivist and the Librarian. A good, friendly bunch of people who prudently thought to bring cake on a Monday (you can tell they’re Librarians!). The tour of the Library despite its rather sorry state, was remarkable. Such an incredible archive (including living archive) collection of the personal writings of hundreds of Benedictine monks since 1814, and such an eclectic collection of books in various states and conditions, from the 16th Century.

Louise (Librarian) provided training on handling rare books: utterly important for all work at the Abbey Library. And then as a nice and easy introduction to rare books and taking a closer look at them before the cataloguing begins, some conservation work. Who knew that cleaning a 19th Century book took so long, and a 17th Century one, even longer! Its a delicate process.

Tools of the trade involve the all important cushion, soft brushes, book snakes, and sponges. For more significant disrepair, cotton ties, acid-free paper, and phase box card.

I’m not going to go into how rare books should be cleaned and cared for here, but only to note the most remarkable things that caught my attention today:

Before 1850 paper was not made of wood, but of other materials such as linen or rags left to rot, and made into ‘stuff’. So in my comparison of cleaning a 19th Century and 17th Century book, it was one of the most noted differences. In the earlier book, the binders end papers were noticeably of different quality.

Type and spelling. Of course although Dictionaries were starting to be used in the 17th Century, it wasn’t until the 19th Century that it stabilised into the language that we know today. Prior to this, such foybles as ‘VVinchester’ ‘contayne’ ‘discovrse’ and ‘downe’ were used. In fact spelling was completely subjective and different fonts were used throughout the text, which seemed to be the fashion of the day.

Binding. Today I handled only a few of the books, and I could already identify different bindings – half bound, vellum, spine replacement, and paper covered boards.

What is left inside a book. The most interesting things are left inside of books – ribbons, celebratory cards, foliage (from possible pilgrimages), as well as manuscript marginalia.

Things to look out for include brittle corners (never turn pages by the corner!), manuscript, spine degradation, missing pages, and any additional pastings.

What a lovely day I had, interacting with rare books and their keepers – nothing like a bit of 17th Century dust! Bring on tomorrow…

 

Day Two – Archives

Another interesting day, preparing personal items for cataloguing.

My first subject was Dom. Benedict Kuypers (1867 – 1935)

Its a very magical thing to be holding and reading artefacts such as a letter from Lady Emily Tennyson in 1894 to ‘Fitzgerald’. (Tennyson died in 1892). A letter from her son Baron Hallum Tennyson was also amongst a collection I was combing through, and personal letters pertaining to the submission of a dissertation for a degree, graduating from Cambridge in 1899. Father Kuypers was made Priest in 1893.

My second subject was Dom. Paul Brooks (1888 – 1959), Chaplain to the Forces, First World War 1917 – 1919, and also again 1939 – 1945. Became Priest in 1914. His fathers connection to Arthur Hallum, best friend of Tennyson was interesting, as was the mention of opium. One would almost think the Benedictine monks had some sort of loose connection to the renaissance poets, or rather that they were learned gentlemen of art and history.

Historically, when a monk died, an archivist was sent into their room to collate papers of interest which would then be archived. More recently, the Abbey has living archives, whereby the monks are archiving their own lives ‘as they go’.

Thought for the day….if I were to archive my own life, what would be in the box?

Day Three – Rare books cataloguing

Spending the day collating basic bibliographical information on the cleaned rare books ready for full cataloguing once the software arrives! This is good as it means I have had an introductory lesson in order to ease my way into the details required for the full bibliographic record. Cataloguing hand-press period books requires different call fields to be utilised. The wonderful Gaskell* has a very useful table for determining format (folio, quarto, octavo) but this does require some knowledge about how books were made during this period. Checking for which direction the chainlines run on the paper, measuring the cut pages, and counting the gatherings are ways of finding out the format. Leaves in the gatherings are marked by Signatures, and these are counted – so if a gathering is in 4s its likely to be a quarto etc. Signatures are usually letters of the alphabet and are different to pagination. Pages run on and numbers are marked both sides of the leaf. Of course due to the nature of printing during this period, with rare books it is important to check every page. Today I made records for 3 books and with all of them, there was mispagination. Also looking for half title, plates, frontis, tables, advertisements, imperfections and anything else that may be copy-specific, today was remarkably interesting. This job, I love. Its a studious pastime, but a very important one, and will endeavour to make the collection more accessible.

Cataloguing from the book also involves handling with care for all of the reasons above – brittle edges, binding fixed too tight, tears in pages, pencil manuscript etc. It was great to have an experienced and knowledgeable Librarian to hand to answer many questions, I thoroughly enjoyed my day!

*Gaskell P, (1985) A New Introduction to Bibliography. OUP: New York

vellum binding

Day Four – digging into the card cataloguing ready for computerising

A day spent on Excel work, computerising card records. This involved searching ESTC for the Downside books, of which I would say of what I got through, there was already a good 75% with full records on the ESTC. This exercise followed on well from rare books cataloguing as I was able to compare records – from the basic card cataloguing often with only a title and date, to a full record which included Signatures and former owners. Highly invaluable.

What happens next?

I work full time, so I used  annual leave in order to obtain some hands on experience in an area of Librarianship that interests and fascinates me. I have managed to negotiate some regular time off to continue on this project albeit temporarily at first, I hope to continue for the full 3 years and see it through to fruition.

 

The Library of Unrequited Love ~ Sophie Divry

The Library of Unrequited Love – a s0liloquy

This book is probably going to be something other than what you were expecting. However, I am delighted to say, the Librarians’ soliloquy is one that we have all experienced or are experiencing – that constant narrative in your head, that portions of, sometimes unwittingly, end up being spoken out loud to a colleague or other.

So here she is. Not altogether unhappy, but definitely not happy. But then who is? Finding a reader asleep in her Library who had been locked in overnight, she begins her little speech about various aspects of Library, as well as her, life.

Full of description, and lovely Librarian ‘nuggets’, it will undoubtedly be one that mostly appeals to those in the business. But I would like to think that it does give a little insight, if not a little sensationalised, into the world of Librarians. I could listen to her all day long.

Book to read at its best in one sitting. Has my full recommendation.

 

Positive risk taking in Librarianship

In thinking about a route back into librarianship, I wanted to share with you my last progressive and optimistic library role, where I believed I had a career with books and information.

This is a good article to read, as it reminds me and you, of a perspective that has trickled away from me.

When my role came to an end due to restructuring and outsourcing, I found myself in a position of being frowned upon for advocating librarianship. The person who led our Content team arrived one day in 2009, and after successfully smashing apart the librarianship based team, made her farewell in 2012 and moved along to another University library no doubt to do the same thing, leaving in her wake a disillusioned set of library assistants. It does, with hindsight, give me mixed feelings. She was obviously brought in to change business processes and to make this team work more effectively. In real terms, she smashed people’s beliefs, values and lifestyles. Although validated with CILIP, her personal beliefs were not in line with CILIP values and I wonder now how that could happen. It is also interesting that no other University libraries in the near vicinity followed suit. Please tell me if yours did!

Right now, I look back at that role and can see it was heading for outsourcing. The Subject Librarians that I worked with clung on by their teeth for their titles and mercifully avoided becoming Liaison Administrators. This makes me very happy.

So where am I now? Well I’m still a Metadata administrator but within the health sector…so severely lacking in books! The skills that I learnt I am thankfully still using. However, I do intend to pursue Librarianship and advocate Libraries for the sake of personal congruence. I hope that my colleagues of old found some librarian kind of peace in new paths including all of their redundancies.

 

Addendum:  August 2015 and I am about to return to libraries in the form of Rare books cataloguer at Downside Abbey. I couldn’t be happier, and I think it will give me the opportunity to finally find some ‘librarian’ peace.