Readers' Newsletter No. 7
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A new era in the provision of electronic information services
began at the Medical Library in July when its purpose-built computer
room became operational. The room, which is the result of a shared
initiative by the University Library, the School of Clinical Medicine,
and The Wolfson Foundation, has been named the "Wolfson Technology
Resource Centre" in recognition of the substantial financial
assistance given by the Foundation. The Wolfson Foundation's
grant of £50,000 was one of a number made to members of the
Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) to help them
to integrate computer-based study facilities with traditional
print-based library collections.
The Medical Library at Addenbrooke's Hospital, has long been heavily committed to utilising electronic information resources as an essential element in its services. It was the first library in Cambridge to offer access to online bibliographic databases and the first to run a CD-ROM database in-house, and has been developing networked information services throughout the past two decades.
The new Centre occupies the space formerly used to house the library's
collection of printed indexes and abstracts, which has been reorganised.
It provides spacious air-conditioned accommodation for up to
36 networked workstations and associated peripheral equipment,
and also incorporates an office for technical support staff.
The computers currently installed are a mixture of PCs and Macintoshes,
each of which offers users a wide variety of networked applications.
These include core library services such as bibliographic databases,
full-text electronic journals, multi-media books, and Web resources,
together with supporting features such as word-processing, spreadsheet,
scanning and database software. Training courses, held in the
Clinical School's IT Teaching Laboratory, are provided on a regular
basis by library staff and other experts.
British and Irish books are received by legal deposit under the terms of the Copyright Act and it is not normally necessary for readers to recommend them. Enquiries about these should be made in the Reading Room in the first instance.
Recommendations for items which involve a continuing financial commitment, such as series of monographs, periodicals or electronic datasets, or which are particularly expensive in themselves, are considered by the Library staff at a regular series of meetings. Although most of these are approved it is not always possible to accept readers' suggestions. Recommendation forms can be used for these publications, as well as for books, and it is often helpful if the recommendation is accompanied by a publisher's prospectus and an explanation of its importance. These forms can be handed in at the Periodicals Desk in the West Room or in the Reading Room.
The letters in volume 10 cover the year 1862, the year Darwin
turned 53. Aside from the ongoing reaction at home and abroad
to Origin of species (then in its third year in the public
domain), a reader browsing through the volume will find Darwin
discussing, for example, his (immensely original) experimental
research into the meaning and causes of the degrees of sterility
to be found between species and between varieties and even between
individuals. Or one may follow the story of Henry Walter Bates.
Excited about nature and exploration by Darwin's Journal
(of the Beagle voyage) and, in the 1840s, recognising that
there was little or no chance of making a living in science in
Britain, Bates set off for South America where he spent eleven
years collecting exotic Amazonian natural history specimens for
the collections of wealthy Europeans.
![[Down House]](downhouse-thumb.gif)
On his return he made contact with his great hero, whereupon Darwin
encouraged and assisted him to produce an account of his travels along
the lines of the book which had originally so inspired the young man.
Throughout 1862 Bates followed Darwin's advice and when Naturalist on
the River Amazons was published (early in 1863) Darwin declared
it one of the best books of natural history travels he had ever
read. The letters in this volume are full of interest from a
myriad of aspects. This was the time when the whole modern prehistoric
story - the antiquity of man - was pieced together. This was
the year when the fortunes of the Union in the American Civil
War began to turn (Darwin was passionately anti-slavery). The
wonderful thing about the correspondence of Charles Darwin is
that it is precisely because he isolated himself in his
home in Down House in Kent for the rest of his life after his
round-the-world voyage that his letters are of such great interest:
for others, much of the information conveyed in these letters
would have been exchanged in conversation, in a corridor at a
meeting of one of the scientific societies perhaps, at a dinner
table, or while riding along in a carriage. In these volumes
it is faithfully represented, with detailed explanatory footnotes,
potted biographies of everyone mentioned in the letters - everyone
from the Prime Minister to the local publican - appendixes, and
photographs (some of which, particularly those of Darwin's children,
have never before been published).
http://www.journalsonline.bids.ac.uk/JournalsOnlinepages/journ_list.html
Access to the full text service is password controlled. Passwords are issued by Reader Services staff in the University Library and dependent libraries.
Access to articles in journals published by Academic Press will also continue to be available through the IDEAL service. Access to IDEAL does not require a password if you are within the "cam" domain; just click on the direct IP login prompt at http://delta.bids.ac.uk/
Members of the University have the opportunity to be directly involved in shaping the future of electronic publishing by participating in the SuperJournal project. This project focuses on the evaluation of full text electronic journals and the features that make them useful to the research and teaching community. Cambridge is one of just seven universities nationwide to be involved and have access to the SuperJournal titles. Three subject clusters of journals are currently available:
SuperJournal is a project in the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils through JISC.
Questions concerning electronic journals or any comments may be directed to Michael Wilson, Scientific Periodicals Library (mlw1003@cus.cam.ac.uk).
The COPAC database currently contains approximately 3.5 million records and is growing continually as new material is added. These records represent the merged online library catalogues of the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Oxford and Trinity College Dublin. These libraries are all members of CURL. A schedule to add the records from a further 14 CURL library catalogues is in place, and around half of these libraries will have had their data loaded by the end of 1997.
The CURL libraries are all large research libraries, and their collections provide coverage of all subject areas, spanning science, technology and medicine, as well as the humanities and social sciences. They also have many specialist collections, older documents and particular strengths, such as foreign language materials, which make COPAC a very valuable resource for the researcher.
In COPAC, records for identical bibliographical items held by one or more of the CURL libraries are brought together. Location information at the end of each record lists all the libraries holding that item, and in this way researchers are presented with a single, straightforward point of access to the material they are looking for.
There are two easy-to-use interfaces available for searching COPAC:
Online Help is provided to assist you whilst you are carrying out a search. Printed user guides are also available, giving information and advice on the use of each of the COPAC interfaces.
![[Samuel Hoare]](hoare-thumb.gif)
Among the many projects to enhance access to the University Library's
special collections for which the Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HEFCE) has provided non-formula funding over the
past two years, the documenting of the archive of Viscount Templewood
has proved to be one of the most exciting. Templewood (born Samuel
Hoare) enjoyed an illustrious political career in the 1920s and
1930s, and was widely regarded as a future prime minister, by
Neville Chamberlain among others. For many years he was a friend
of Winston Churchill, but a disagreement over colonial policy
towards India in 1931 caused a rift in their relationship which
was never fully healed. As the 1930s progressed Hoare became
a prominent advocate of the policy of appeasement towards Mussolini
and Hitler (his name is immortalised in the infamous Hoare-Laval
Pact) and with the outbreak of war his political career foundered.Templewood's papers were presented to the Library in 1960, and comprise the political and personal archive of a man who had been Air Minister, Home Secretary and Ambassador to Spain, where he was credited by some with preventing Franco from joining the Axis powers. The Templewood Papers form one of the most detailed records preserved by any modern British politician, and the archive includes photograph albums, scrapbooks and cine newsreels chronicling his life from earliest childhood and schooldays to diplomatic negotiations at the highest level with many European countries and India.
A detailed catalogue and index are now available in the Manuscripts
Reading Room to researchers who wish to study Templewood's career
and the momentous events of the inter-war years in which he was
involved. An online guide to the collection is available via
the Manuscripts Department home page
(http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MSS/Templewood/).
For further information contact Mark Nicholls of the Manuscripts
Department ((3)33147; mn@ula.cam.ac.uk).
Two aspects that have received attention over the last twelve months are the staff structure and the collection development policy. The reputation of any library depends upon the quality of its collections, and collection building is a large operation that takes a great deal of staff time. Peter Zawada has been made responsible for reader services and staff supervision. He will also assist with collection development in the UK law jurisdictions and act as deputy librarian. Lesley Dingle, formerly law librarian at City University, has been appointed to assist with foreign language, EU and international law collection development.
From summer 1997, this invaluable resource has been made available over the World Wide Web, allowing scholars to access records from the published volumes, using highly sophisticated search software. This makes it possible to compile specialist bibliographies for individual authors and themes reflecting three quarters of a century of scholarship.
ABELL's objective has been to provide an annually updated record of scholarly articles, doctoral dissertations, books and essay collections in the fields of English language and literature (and other related areas), published throughout the world. From the beginning, compilation has been handled by an international team of editors, contributors and academic advisers. Since 1978 Cambridge University Library has housed the UK editorial office and provides the project with access both to its collections and network facilities.
Since the first volume - recording 1015 items - appeared in 1921, coverage has expanded greatly and now includes selective reporting of film, biography and autobiography, travel writing, historical and cultural studies. A particular feature of ABELL is its coverage of book reviews - it is one of the few bibliographies in its field to offer this.
The records for 1960 to 1994 are currently available at workstations in the IT Resources area as a part of Chadwyck-Healey Ltd's Literature Online service. By January 1998, the content of all printed volumes from 1920 to 1995 will be easily accessible, allowing users to search more than 500,000 records quickly and efficiently.
The move to publication of ABELL in electronic format - complementary to the printed volume which will continue to be published - enhances the information the Bibliography has to offer and brings unprecedented access to a wealth of archive and current material, which will be updated regularly. This has created a highly versatile research tool for English literature scholars.
Further information about ABELL - and the MHRA's other activities - is available from http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MHRA/
'Milestones in colour printing "1457" - 1870'
Until 31 October
'History in fragments: a Genizah centenary exhibition'
12 November 1997 - 28 February 1998
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Forthcoming meetings - Michaelmas Term 1997
The Saturday talks are free of charge to Members, but Friends wishing to attend the weekday meetings are invited to contribute £2.50 per head, in order to cover costs.
Wednesday 22 October at 17.45 in the Meeting Room (tea will be served at 17.15)
Mr Sebastian Carter
Aristotle and Jam labels:
printing books and ephemera at the Rampant Lions Press
Saturday 8 November at 14.30 in the Meeting Room
Annual General Meeting
Mr Roger Fairclough
The University Library Map Room from the 1950s to the 1990s
The afternoon opening of the Library is by kind permission of the Librarian. Tea will be served after the meeting.
