Medical Library
NHS Information Strategy
The Department of Health today launched an new NHS Information Strategy - The power of information – which sets a ten-year framework for transforming information for the NHS, public health and social care.
The full strategy is available here.
Comment and Responses come from:
- The Kings Fund and Veena Raleigh
- The Guardian's Dick Vinegar
- The Guardian's Government Computing section
- eHealth Insider
- BBC
- The Telegraph Health section
- The Telegraph Political section
eResources etc.
Index to Legal Periodicals
The Squire Library has recently subscribed to the Index to Legal Periodicals. This currently indexes 1000 mainstream journals with permanent reference value, including some open access law journals, from Common Law jurisdictions. Coverage is from 1981.
Index to Legal Periodicals is available via the eresources@cambridge A-Z list at
http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/eresources/fulllist.php?search_term=I
or directly on and off campus with the following link:-
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,shib,url&group=main&profile=ehost&defaultdb=lpb
Central Science Library
Trial access has been set up to the SPIE Digital Library
Trial access has been set up to the SPIE Digital Library by the Journal Co-ordination Scheme (in conjunction with ebooks@cambridge) and will run until 14th June 2012.
The SPIE Digital Library includes more than 310,000 conference
proceedings, peer-reviewed journal articles and ebooks from the areas of
astronomy, biophotonics, nanotechnology, sensors, lasers,
electro-optics, communications,
MusiCB3 Blog
Bygone concert venues no. 5: Willis’s Rooms
Willis's Rooms (public domain)
Willis’s Rooms began life in 1765 as Almack’s, a suite of fashionable Assembly Rooms in King Street, St. James’s (not far from the St. James’s theatre demolished in the 1950s) built for the eponymous William Almack. They included a ballroom decorated in the Classical style where popular weekly subscription balls took place well into the nineteenth century, and rooms let for numerous purposes including concerts, lectures and readings. When Almack died in 1781, the rooms passed to his niece and were re-named Willis’s Rooms (she was Mrs. Willis).
A variety of musical events took place in the Rooms in the following century. Saturday 11th February 1792 saw the first of Samuel Harrison and Charles Knyvett’s Vocal Concerts . An advertisement in the Times on 9th February gives the programme which consists principally of glees and other light songs, but also included Angels ever bright and fair from Handel’s Theodora sung by Mrs. Harrison.
“Mr Harrison and Mr Knyvett most respectfully acquaint the Nobilty and Gentry that their FIRST VOCAL CONCERT will commence on SATURDAY EVENING next at eight o’clock…”
[The Times. 9th February 1792]
Cold is Cadwallo's Tongue. London, 1820?
MR260.a.80.2
The University Library has copies of some of the popular ballads performed at other Vocal Concerts including: William Horsley’s Cold is Cadwallo’s Tongue and In the dead of night. The Vocal Concerts continued, albeit erratically, until 1821.
John Ella’s Musical Union performed regularly at Willis’s Rooms (the records of the Musical Union held here at the UL will be the subject of a separate post). Ella believed that the audience should prepare for a concert as much as the musicians and so he introduced the programme note (or “synopsis analytique” as they were delightfully called) that we recognise today, describing the works to be played, complete with musical examples and biographies of the performers.
The fare was chamber music and each year between 1845 and 1858 at Willis’s Rooms and thereafter until 1880 first at the Hanover Square Rooms then at St. James’s Hall, eight afternoon concerts were given.
Hector Berlioz was no stranger to Willis’s Rooms: John Ella was a friend of his and Ella invited Berlioz to the concerts whenever he was in London. For example, in the programme for the Musical Union concert on 28 March 1848 there is a note saying:
“We are proud to number among the visitors to this day’s performance one of the most remarkable musicians, composers, and critics of the age – Hector Berlioz. The orchestral, descriptive pieces of this composer have, throughout Europe, created the deepest sensation among all those who could sympathise with the daring persistence of his original genius.”
What a splendid tribute.
Berlioz was on the podium himself at the rooms on 7 April 1848 when he conducted his Hungarian March from La Damnation de Faust at a concert of the Amateur Musical Society.
Programme for John Ella's Musical Union. MR455.c.02.02
For a short time, there was competition for Ella from the Quartet Association (which included the ‘cellist Alfredo Piatti and the pianist/conductors Charles Halle and Sterndale Bennett) who gave concerts at the Rooms between 1852 and 1855 in an attempt to popularise chamber music. The Sterndale Bennett collection at the Bodleian Library in Oxford includes programmes from the 1852 and 1853 seasons.
Sadly, the buildings did not survive World War II as they were bombed in 1944.
SW
Tagged: Cambridge University Library, concert programmes, concert venues, Willis's Rooms
Tower Project blog
A typical box
Today I’m going to tell you about a “typical box.” Apart from the books we catalogue, we also have boxes filled with pamphlets or even just single sheets, which, I’m afraid, look as dull as dishwater, so there won’t be any pretty pictures in this blog post. The contents of a box will cover a bewildering range of topics, making a typical box distinctly atypical, if you follow me. To be honest, our hearts tend to sink when we go up the tower to fetch down a bay of books and discover the shelves groaning with boxes. I don’t think it would be untoward to admit that words such as dross, shredder, and bin are frequently heard being muttered in the same breath by grumpy Tower Project staff rifling through scraps of paper and flimsy pamphlets that look so tedious it’s enough to make grown cataloguers weep. However, sometimes you’re pleasantly surprised. So, here’s a sample of what I found in my typical box this week:
The “A.L.” simple general knowledge cards. (classmark 1916.7.3125)
We used to get a lot of these when we were cataloguing the 19th century material, but there are still a few sets of educational cards turning up in the early 20th century. In this set there are 36 cards enclosed in a paper wrapper. The cards have questions on them to be used in the classroom, with an accompanying answer booklet. In this particular set each card has five questions on it, and on each card the fifth question is divided into two parts, prefaced with (Boys) and (Girls). For example on card no. 18 boys are asked “What is a ream of paper; a rod of land; a ton of shipping; and a puncheon of wine?” while girls are asked “What are the symptoms of measles and of scarlet fever?” Most of the questions specifically aimed at girls seem to be concerned with the sick room , first aid and cooking (I particularly like “Why do we take mustard with beef; butter with bread; and treacle or sugar with porridge?”) but to be fair they do get questions such as “What occupation would you like to follow when you leave school, and why?” Whatever happened to the word puncheon? According to the answer booklet it’s a cask holding either 84 or 120 gallons. A sad loss indeed.
The Victor rapid record selector. (classmark 1916.7.3124)
This is a handy little booklet aimed at owners of a Victrola, the most popular home phonograph on the market, first introduced to the public in the United States in 1906. These were the first phonographs to hide the amplifying horn and turntable inside a cabinet so that the phonograph could look less like a piece of machinery and more like a piece of furniture. The aim of the booklet is “to help you choose your records more expeditiously and with greater ultimate satisfaction” and the editor hopes to “fulfil its purpose in being of material assistance in the building up of a well-rounded record collection.” The guide attempts to steer the reader through the “bewildering variety” of Victor records available by classifying them into Instrumental, Vocal and Miscellaneous, and then further subdividing into Classical, Modern, Light, Concert Dance, Operatic and Sacred. I was quite surprised to see several German military marches listed in the Concert Dance section, including “Parade post with Kaiser Friedrich,” until I remembered that this booklet was published in New York in 1916 and the United States didn’t enter the war until 1917. In amongst the standards listed in the Talking Records category, such as speeches from Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice and Macbeth, Kipling’s Gunga Din, Poe’s The Raven , Lincoln’s Gettysburg address and Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade, we find A Dash for the South Pole, described thus: “A great English explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, has given a very interesting talk on this record of his final experiences in reaching the southernmost point of the globe.” I like to imagine a family settling down to listen to Shackleton of an evening.
Great thoughts almanac for 1915. (classmark 1916.7.3121)
We get a lot of this sort of thing, almanacs, calendars and diaries packed full of aphorisms and apothegms (to use the Library of Congress subject heading), attributed to luminaries ranging from Seneca to Ruskin, Joan of Arc to Longfellow, Saint Augustine to Sir Isaac Pitman. These “great thoughts” are supposed to provide uplifting enlightenment on a daily basis. The almanac, or calendar, is illustrated with portraits and seasonal country scenes, and is composed of loose leaves stapled at the top edge and tied with thread for hanging on the wall.
Next up is “The scholar’s catechism on arithmetic and general knowledge.” (classmark 1916.7.3119)
The word catechism means that this book will be a list of questions. The general knowledge questions come usefully supplied with their answers and include stock questions on history, geography, notable people etc., but my eye was caught by “What is a gamp?” to which the answer is “Another name for an umbrella, so called from Mrs Gamp in ‘Martin Chuzzlewit.’” What a pity that this Dickensian epithet has gone out of use, but so interesting that Dickens had permeated the popular imagination to such an extent that one of his characters was absorbed into the vernacular as an everyday object.
We are reminded of our manufacturing history on reading “What is the chief cotton town of England?” (Manchester), “What is the chief woollen town of England?” (Leeds) and “Where are scissors made?” (Sheffield). Not anymore, I fear. Unfortunately the arithmetic questions do not come with answers, so I can’t tell you what fifty-nine sixths of £1 is (or should that be are?) – answers on a postcard, please …..
Where to go by car by J. Lingard (classmark 1916.7.3114)
This is not what it seems at first glance. The introduction decries the fact that “railway companies still prefer to spend large sums of money in advertising, instead of reducing the ordinary fare to a half-penny per mile, or less. Our present excursion system, restricting people to a few trains, causes overcrowding and delays; every railway maintains an amazing class system by which remunerative third class fares are made to cover the loss on first-class fares, railwaymen are badly paid and work long hours.” Then we get to the point – “This booklet is published expressly to show the different towns and places of interest that can be reached by electric car.” Ah, we’re talking about trams. This is the Lancashire edition, so you find you can travel from Manchester to Leeds, a journey of 48 ½ miles for 2s. 11 ½ d., taking 5 hours.
I hadn’t given much thought to the social implications of taking the tram as opposed to the train, but “Where to go by car” argues a strong case for the democratising impact of the tram:
“Everybody on a tramcar is on an equality, there is no distinction of classes, the artisan who pays his penny is on a par with the rich man, and this rubbing of shoulders is destined to have a beneficial effect all round. It tends to eliminate the aloofness which is fostered by railway travelling, and leads to an exchange of ideas which to anyone of an observing turn of mind, is most interesting, especially the different shades of dialect spoken on a journey.”
Travelling by tram was a political statement, evidently.
Moving swiftly on, past the “Doses of the British Pharmacopeia, 1914,” “A calendar of hymns ancient & modern,” some meditations in “Words out of the silence” and prayers in “The best friend : a little book of thoughts and prayers for women” which includes “Prayer for husband at the war” and “An evening prayer for a child” with the touching petition “O God, bless mother and father (and take care of him, and bring him safe back)” we come to “The star pocket-book, or, How to find your way at night by the stars : a simple manual for the use of soldiers, travellers and other landsmen” by R. Weatherhead, (classmark 1916.7.3109). This little pamphlet, published in 1915, is principally aimed at servicemen, “dealing as simply and practically as possible with the subject, as it concerns present use (1915) in France, Flanders and Germany.”
“Mothers & sons in war time” (classmark 1916.7.3116) is a bringing together of articles written by Sir Ernest Barker, political theorist, originally published in the Times, in which he argues forcefully in defence of England’s participation in the First World War. Barker deplored what he saw as ”the worship of power” in Germany and the tyranny of nationalism. Writing of the English mothers’ sons who have died in the war, he says “They live in the better fellowship of the nations, which the work of their hands has gone to establish; and a mother may say in her heart, in a new Europe which her son died to make: here and here I see my son; in this better thing and that nobler way of living I see him living on and on for ever.” You have to hope that these persuasive words offered some comfort to bereaved mothers, but with our hindsight, knowing that the Second World War loomed ahead, they resonate painfully. There is a memorial stone to Ernest Barker, political theorist and principal of King’s College, Cambridge, from 1920-1927, in St. Botolph’s Church here in Cambridge.
After a cursory perusal of “Prize-giving government and municipal bonds” (classmark 1916.7.3115) advocating that a similar system to that of France be adopted in Britain (which it was, but not until 1956, 40 years after the publication of this pamphlet), we move on to “Brown’s signal reminder” (classmark 1916.7.3106), a colourful little booklet in notebook format with illustrations throughout of international code flags, semaphore, Morse code, naval and military signalling, urgent and special signals (W.— means “Have encountered ice”), featuring a “Pilot Jack table for reporting vessels of war sighted” and nationality signals in Morse (the letter for British is F.)
So you see, it’s not all glamour and fizz on the Tower Project. You can see that the typical box contains some pretty dry stuff, some of which is dull beyond belief, quite frankly, but there’s always the possibility of sifting tiny nuggets of gold from the dross. Now I can get back to a shelf of proper books with a sigh of relief and hopefully rattle through some attractive fiction and ponder over some solid books of sermons, technical books on shell-turning for munition workers, hygiene handbooks and childcare manuals, until I reach the next box with its typically unpredictable contents.
Natural Selections
The importance of having the right Beard
William Beard: The Youthful Darwin Discussing his Theories (Image 3021 AMNH Library)
No, not the famous beard belonging to Charles himself, but the right member of the Beard family, two generations of whom were artists in or around New York in the nineteenth century.
A short while ago we asked for help in finding an image mentioned in a letter Darwin received in 1872. We knew that the artist was a Mr Beard and the title was given in the letter as “The Young Darwinian”. You can read the original post here. Thanks to readers of this blog we found the right image just in time to include it in the next volume of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin (vol. 20) which is about to go to press.
From the context, we thought we were looking for a caricature drawn by the comic illustrator, Thomas Francis (Frank) Beard , but it turns out that what Darwin was sent was a copy of an engraving made from an oil painting by Frank Beard’s uncle, William.
The original painting “The Youthful Darwin Discussing his Theories”, is now in the Division of Vertebrate Paleontology archives at the American Museum of Natural History. It depicts a young humanoid with a nicely vestigial tail, showing a pair of sceptical (and slightly amused) older apes a series of organisms from a fish to an amphibian. It is painted almost entirely in black, white, and shades of grey, with just a little sepia in the foreground, presumably to mimic a photograph. The image was popularised in June 1871, shortly after the publication of Darwin’s Descent of Man, when a copy of the engraving was exhibited at the Century Club in New York.
William Holbrook Beard (1825-1900) specialised in satirical paintings substituting animals for humans. He was born in the US, then studied in Italy and Germany before settling in NYC in 1861. His older brother, James Henry Beard, was also a commercial artist, as were James’s three sons, James Carter Beard, Daniel Carter Beard, and Thomas Francis.
We are delighted to have been put right in time, and are grateful to Michael Barton and Glenn Branch for their sleuthing, and to Mai Qaraman of AMNH for help with a copy of the image. This is the first time we have used the blog to crowd source an editing problem, but we’ll certainly do it again.
Special Collections
Cambridge Bibliographical Society talk, 16 May 2012
Dr Mark Curran, Munby Fellow, will give a talk on ‘Beyond the forbidden best-sellers of pre-Revolutionary France’ on Wednesday, 16 May, 5:00 pm in the Morison Room, Cambridge University Library as part of the programme of events for the Cambridge Bibliographical Society. Non-members are welcome and there is no admission charge. Tea is served from 4:30 pm.
Tower Project blog
On either side from the carriage window
I’ve recently been away on holiday and when I returned to my morning commute to the University Library, it struck me how much a part of modern life the rail commute is to many. From the familiarity of knowing exactly where best to stand on the platform to quickly grab your favourite seat, to seeing the same blank faces every morning. Of course the railway commute is not a new phenomenon at all. The Tower Collection contains a varied range of rail guides dating from before the First World War. These include guides to housing along the routes of popular commuter lines, to tourist booklets advertising popular attractions accessible by rail.
A Great Eastern Railway express train, pulled by a 'Claud Hamilton' class locomotive.
By forest and countryside : a guide to the residential localities on the Great Eastern Railway.
To take the modern commuter town of Bishops Stortford in Hertfordshire as an example, there were forty trains per day available to and from London in 1911. Season tickets cost twenty two pounds for first class or fifteen pounds and four shillings if travelling third class. Many of the locations are described as charming rural idylls before later urban development and much larger population growth. Harlow in Essex is described as an “old world town … and many delightfully old fashioned houses with beautiful gardens may be seen in the direction of Mulberry Green.” Today the original Harlow is located next to the much larger new town built after the Second World War, with its large shopping centre and many roundabouts. However in 1911 commuter development was already well under way,
“There are probably few other London suburbs that can boast a growth so rapid and vigorous as Ilford. A little more than ten years ago it was a comparatively small place; today equipped with all kinds of modern conveniences, owning its own electric light and tramways …”
Epping High Street in 1911.
Another book of interest is On either side from the carriage window, a detailed guide to the route of the East Coast mainline from London Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley. Aimed more at the casual traveller rather than the commuter, this interesting guide features a route map of the line along with details of places of interest along the route and of link lines and connections. As today, the East Coast main line was already one of the busiest rail routes in Britain with passengers from London able to travel to Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland within the space of a day. Speed was one of the primary concerns of the east coast railway companies who were in fierce competition with the rival West Coast main line from London Euston to Glasgow.
East Coast rail guide to Hertfordshire including now closed link lines and branches.
“The East Coast route between London and Edinburgh is the shortest and quickest. [It] has a well merited reputation for punctuality and no effort is spared to maintain this both as regards to the expresses from London (Kings Cross) and Edinburgh (Waverley) and vice versa.”
The Tower collection also contains literature about many other independent railways including the Great Western Railway, London and North Western and Great Northern along with a large collection of material produced by the North Eastern Railway. Not all authors were as pleased about the spread of the commuter belt as the major railway companies were. Gordon Home, author of a guide to the Great Western Railway bemoans the growing urban sprawl of London before the trains steam into the rural beauty of the Home Counties and Cotswolds.
Map of the Great Western Railway in 1913.
“Like all the other railways out of London, there is nothing worth commenting on for the first few miles, beyond regretting that English people have been and still are, foolish enough to allow their great capital to be surrounded by a vast waste of badly designed and poorly built houses, which have spread over the pleasant country traversed by the railway when it was first constructed.”
I wonder what Gordon Home would think of much of Britain if he saw it today?
Row, Prescott and Anderson, Henry, By forest and countryside: a guide to the residential localities on the Great Eastern Railway, Classmark 1913.7.3218
East Coast Railways, On either side, Classmark 1918.10.144(53)
Home, Gordon, The Great Western Railway, Classmark 1913.7.2421
MusiCB3 Blog
IAML (UK & Irl) Excellence Award for Music Collections
At the latest IAML (UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend the Music Collections (University Library and Pendlebury Library of Music) have received the 2012 Excellence Award for Music Libraries. This award is a professional recognition of good practice and good services and we are very pleased that the joint submission in the context of the music pilot has been recognised as being “excellent”.
IAML(Uk & Irl) Excellence Award 2012
To put it in the words of the Award panel: “Cambridge University’s library is one of the UK and Ireland’s key legal deposit libraries and as such draws together special collections – many of them containing unique and rare materials – representing a national collection of the greatest significance. Of particular interest is the initiative now in its second year, to manage both the CUL and Music Faculty’s Pendlebury Library as a single entity. This is a good example of pragmatic collaboration which has the potential for further fruitful development. The Staff are formidably qualified and the active support of volunteers undertaking work on the collections, which would otherwise go unrecognised, is remarkable. Engagement with a very broad range of
users is actively pursued, most recently with a blog (MusiCB3) having immediate appeal to students and many beyond. Overall these two libraries stand at a key moment in their development, and their cooperative achievement should not be underestimated.”
We are still awaiting the official press release, but will spread the word when it arrives.
Clemens receiving the Excellence Award
To end this blog a quote from Professor Smaczny’s speech that says it all: “The roster of excellence before us shows, more powerfully than any words of mine, that the very musical infrastructure of the United Kingdom and Ireland depends fundamentally on the work of music librarians”
AP
Tagged: Cambridge University Library, IAML (UK & Irl), Music at CUL, music pilot, Pendlebury Library of Music
eResources etc.
TRIAL: SPIE Digital Library
Trial access has been set up to the SPIE Digital Library the Journal Co-ordination Scheme (in conjunction with ebooks@cambridge) and will run until 14th June 2012.
The SPIE Digital Library includes more than 310,000 conference proceedings, peer-reviewed journal articles and eBooks from the areas of astronomy, biophotonics, nanotechnology, sensors, lasers, electro-optics, communications, imaging, and more. SPIE is a not-for-profit educational society with over 17,000 Members worldwide.
Journals:
The journals ar available in the ejournals@cambridge A-Z listing
- Proceedings of SPIE : From Volume 1200
- Optical Engineering : from Volume 29 (1990)
- Journal of Electronic Imaging : fromVolume 1 (1992)
- Journal of Biomedical Optics : from Volume 1 (1996)
- Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS Starting at Volume 1 (2002)
- Journal of Applied Remote Sensing : from Volume 1 (2007)
- Journal of Nanophotonics : from Volume 1 (2007)
- Journal of Photonics for Energy: from Volume 1 (2011)
- SPIE Reviews: from 2010
- SPIE Letters Virtual Journal: from 2005
Proceedings:
For a full listing of all titles, visit the SPIE Digital Library Website
- Some Proceedings volumes are not available in the SPIE Digital Library as SPIE does not have electronic rights to this material. Click here for a listing of these volumes.
eBooks
There are currently 164 ebooks from 1989 to present available as an add-on (with an additional cost) to the SPIE Digital Library. The ebooks include titles from the SPIE Press series in optics and photonics:
- SPIE Press Monographs are authoritative reference books, textbooks, and handbooks.
- Tutorial Texts cover fundamental and emerging topics at introductory and intermediate levels.
- Field Guides present key information that students and practicing engineers and scientists need in a concise format
For a full listing of titles, visit the SPIE Digital Library website, or view the list of titles.
********
A user guide with information about the SPIE Digital Library and tips on how to search the site is available. It also shows how to set-up RSS feeds and utilize bibliographic, bookmarking, and research tools.
This trial is available both on and off campus. Off campus access is available via Raven logins, but for off campus access, users should use the links above, the Off campus access bookmarklet or the ejournals@cambridge A-Z listing for journals. Shibboleth access (Institutional login) is being set up but is not yet available.
Please send all feedback on this trial resource to eJournals Feedback by 16th June 2012.