SCONUL access to the University of Glasgow Library
If you use, or plan to use, Glasgow University Library under the SCONUL scheme please note the following:
For the months of April and May, access to the University of Glasgow Library will be restricted for students from other Universities and Colleges.
Students who show their student card (or SCONUL Reference card) from their home institution to enter the Library, will only be allowed access after 17.00 weekdays and all day at the weekends.
This is in response to feedback from our own students about pressure on study spaces in the Library.
Please note SCONUL members who enrol at our Membership Desk and are given library cards, can come in at anytime as they are full members. The access change only affects those who show their student ID cards to get in.
Don’t do this to our books!
Every sticky note label that you put in one of our books leaves a residue. You can clearly see the rectangles in these pictures, where we have removed the labels.
They damage in 2 ways -they can actually accelerate the degradation of some papers. And they leave that residue, which attracts dirt that promotes the growth of mold. So don’t do this to our books or we’ll feed you to the penguins!
CABS book(s) of the month- February
Beginning with the opening line ‘A tear is better than a word’, ‘Das Tränenmeer’ (‘The Sea of tears’) and ‘Dars Wähnen’ (‘The Delusion’) by Dieter Roth are three poetic artists’ books accessible from our CABS collection. The item is classed under two entries in our online catalogue but consists of three volumes, known as bands.
‘Das Tränenmeer’ was published
in 1973 and collected together 248 aphorisms, or small one-line poems, which originally appeared from May 1971 in a local advertising bulletin. Band one solely shows these aphorisms, one per page, whilst Band two contain sketches and corrections, and Band three contains sketches, poems and prose. Band three is entitled ‘Dars Wähnen’ (‘The Delusion’) but sub-headed ‘Tränenmeer 3’.
Presented to the library by L. Pedersen in 1988, the books themselves are notable for their sewn pages and illustrations. The book was originally published in editions of 200 per volume. The library’s copy of volume 1 is numbered 108, and volume 2 is number 29.Roth’s Das Wähnen was also presented to the library by Pedersen in 1988, number 21 of another edition of 200 and is signed by the artist opposite the page numbered 262.
Dieter Roth (1930-1988) was a Swiss-German artist, also known as Dieter Rot and Diter Rot. His writing has been described as important as his art, with his poetry inspiring illustrations and so on in a cyclical nature.
As well as artists’ books, Roth was known for his printmaking and sculpture.
Throughout his life he continued to create art in various mediums.
Well known for his artists books’, the library unfortunately (or fortunately, given the tendency food has for rotting) does not hold a copy of the 1972 book Literaturwurst, which consisted of ‘various periodicals chopped up, mixed with lard and spices and stuffed into a sausage casing.’
We do hold a copy of the artists’ book “Tentative little recipe” which he produced with a group of students while he was teaching at the Watford School of Art. Other books by and about Dieter Roth can be found on the library’s open shelves.
http://books.google.co.uk/books
Kimmelman, Michael, [obituary] ‘Dieter Roth, Reclusive Artist and Tireless Provocateur, 68’, in New York Times, 10 June, 1998.
Tamsyn Bayliss and Lloyd Roderick
Graduate Trainee Library Assistants
Education Image Gallery: free trial
The Book Library has just set up a free trial for an online resource called the Education Image Gallery, which provides access to over 56,000 images, drawn from the following collections:
•The Fitzwilliam Museum
•Getty
•GovEd Communications
•The North Highland College
•PYMCA
•Royal Geographic Society
•University of Brighton
•Imperial War Museum
According to the site, “A large variety of images are included, covering key events and multiple subject areas including history, social sciences, engineering and technology, art, creative industries and geography. With the images selected by by an expert community-led panel, you can illustrate key times, places, people and events. The images are available for downloading in screen-resolution format. As the images are copyright-cleared, they are free to download for (appropriately credited) use in learning, teaching and research.”
So, for example, this is an image from the site:
Triptych: The Lamentation, Daniel and St. Peter © The Fitzwilliam Museum.
Members of the Institute can take advantage of this free trial (which ends on 6th March 2011). Please let us know what you think of the resource by emailing me, Phil Bower, at serials@courtauld.ac.uk. The Education Image Gallery can be accessed by following this linkand choosing ‘login via UK Federation’, then ‘EDINA (trial only)’ from the drop-down list of institutions before then entering your login details. Please email serials@courtauld.ac.uk or ask at the main Book Library desk for the username and password.
CABS book of the month – January
It may be our smallest book
L’immortalita e Gloria del pennello : Catalogo delle pitture insigni che stanno esposte al pubblico nella città di Milano (1728) . The original was published in 1671 and, as you can see from the title page of our edition, it is without the main title. It is a mere 11.8 cm x 6.2 cm and may be an abridged version.
It has been difficult to find much information about the book, its authors, or where there are other copies in the world. Some libraries hold a 1980 reprint of the first edition. In Shearjashub Spooner’s book A biographical history of the fine arts being memoirs of the lives and works of eminent painters, engravers, sculptors and architects, from the earlies ages to the present, he says that Agostino (circa 1640-1706) and Giacinto (circa 1620-1688) were the sons of Giacomo Antonio Santagostino, a painter from Milan. His sons were both artists with numerous works executed around Milan.
Nice parchment binding and marbled end papers too!
Spooner, Shearjashub Biographical history of the fine arts. 4th ed., v.II M-Z. New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1867. p.845 Accessed 23 Dec. 2010
http://books.google.de/books?id=Y5of4ZsGayMC&pg=PA845&dq=L%27immortalit%C3%A0+gloria+pennello&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false
Vicky’s last day
Did you know we hold the Cicognara Library?
Conte Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1834) was, among other things, an artist, a patron of the arts and an art historian. In addition to his publication Storia della scultura dal suo risorgimento in Italia sino al secolo di Napoleone, he also amassed an impressive art library, for which he also produced a catalogue Catalogo ragionato dei libri d’arte e d’antichità posseduti dal Conte Cicognara. This library of approximately 5000 books was so valuable that it was incorporated, in 1824, by Pope Leo XII into the Vatican Library, where it remains today.
The Vatican Library, with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, has made the library available in microfiche. And we have a copy. Of course it is never fun to look at fiche, but these early printed books are the basis of our studies of art history. And sometimes the reproduction quality can be slightly better on fiche than in digital copies available on the internet.
We also have some of the titles (not the actual books) that were in the count’s library in our Special Collections, particularly in the Anthony Blunt bequest. As well, we hold the 2nd edition of the Storia della scultura... published in 1824 at shelfmark CABS B611 and the Ciocognara catalogue published in 1821 at shelfmark CABS Z56. The catalogue was used during the project to catalogue our historical books and the reference is included in our catalogue records where possible. Anyway, if you are interested in early books about art, techniques, aesthetics, etc., please ask at the desk to see the fiche.
Erica Foden-Lenahan Special Collections Librarian
References:
Geschichte der Kunstgeschichte – www.arthistoricum.net/fr/themenportale/kunstgeschichte/ressourcen-kunstliteratur-digital/leopoldo-cicognara/
Dictionary of Art Historians – www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/cicognaral.htm
Welcome to new readers of the book library blog
This is just a quick post to welcome everyone new to the Courtauld Institute of Art this academic year. On this blog you’ll find news and updates from the staff of the Book Library. We’re here to help you so please feel free to ask us any questions you might have whenever you’re in the Library or see us around the Institute. Find contact details for each department and member of staff in the Contact us page and put a face to the name in our Meet the Staff page.
Antony Hopkins
Kilfinan Librarian, Head of Book, Witt and Conway Libraries
CABS book of the month – October
A review in the magazine Nature of Studies in the history and method of science, described Charles Singer’s book as “a notable contribution to certain branches of medical history and evolution.”1 We, in the Book Library, didn’t realize we had the author’s corrections, albeit only for the introduction and the two chapters he contributed to the work. His chief role was as editor of this seminal text.
Our volume was presented by Lord Conway to the library in 1933. It has lived in the Kilfinan Librarian’s office for some time until this summer when it was sent off to binding. Although just a pile of papers at the time we found it, evidence shows that it was, at one time, in a ring binder. Once compared with a couple of copies of the book at Kings College London, we realized that the thin paper and the cut and pasted illustrations were pre-publication versions of the texts; and the extensive annotations were corrections by the author, not overly-pernickety comments by Lord Conway.
Singer was born in 1876 in London and he attended the City of London School, where he distinguished himself as a Latin and Greek scholar. However he chose to study medicine at University College London, eventually graduating with a BSc, with a specialism in zoology. He then took a scholarship to study zoology at Magdalen College, Oxford. He returned to medicine in 1898 and graduated in 1903. He had a long, distinguished career holding several medical posts. He was also a founding member of the History of Medicine section of the Royal Society of Medicine.2
The first volume of Studies in the history and method of science was published in 1917, the second volume which the library does not hold, came out in 1921. Volume 1 includes the results of his 
investigation of Hildegard of Bingen’s manuscripts. It is likely this chapter which drew Lord Conway to it. However, we have no idea how he came to own this unique and quite special item. This chapter has the name Hugh of St. Victor corrected throughout, as it originally appeared as Hugo de St. Victoire. It also includes his handwritten addition of a note of thanks to a number of colleagues who permitted him access to the manuscripts.
The Wellcome Library holds a lot of correspondence between Singer and his wife Dorothea, who was herself a medieval scholar and who assisted with research and publications throughout his career.
Erica Foden-Lenahan
Special Collections Librarian
1. Nature 101, 82-83 (04 April 1918)
2. E. Ashworth Underwood. “Obituary: Charles Singer (1876-1960)” Medical history. V.4(4), 353-358 (Oct. 1960). Accessed 28 Sept. 2010 through the National Center for Biotechnology Information http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1034567/pdf/medhist00173-0092.pdf
Julia Sheppard. “Charles Joseph Singer, DM, DLitt, DSc, FRCP (1876-1960): papers in the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre.” Medical history. V.31 (4), 466-471 (Oct. 1987). Accessed 28 Sept. 2010 through the National Center for Biotechnology Information http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1139787/pdf/medhist00065-0088.pdf
Courtauld Book(mark) Library : Keep track of your research
There are a range of social bookmarking sites available online which can help you manage references to electronic resources.
Delicious allows you to keep a log of bookmarked pages which can be accessed from any computer, rather than book- marking pages on individual machines.
To set up, all that is needed is a yahoo account- if you already have this, creating a delicious account takes seconds.
While there is no substitute for old fashioned library research, the recommendations function can be helpful to locate articles and references that you otherwise may have missed. By setting up networks of users, sharing bookmarks could be a useful for preparing for group work or presentations.
Notes can be added to references and more crucially, the bookmarks can be tagged. Such folksonomies are common to anyone already using flickr or youtube, but to gain the best use of this in an organisational context, it may be necessary to control the vocabulary used: bookmarks which may be useful to be shared with others might not be found by other users if idiosyncratic tags are used. There are also options to add a message to the bookmark, which then can be sent via email or twitter to other users; useful if you are feeling generous and find a page that would be useful for a friend’s essay.
Once you have created a list of resources it if possible to find articles and web pages which may be of interest that otherwise might have been missed. Given the size of the network, this can be a little hit or miss- ‘also tagged by….’ Would refer to the whole network and so could be a little nebulous, and while it can be useful to find other references, a more worthwhile approach would be to add specific users to your network (under the ‘People’ tab)- this way different work groups could access each others bookmarks.
Superficially, Delicious would appear to be more useful in a social rather than academic setting. However, by creating a distinct network of users relating to a particular area of work it could be a useful tool to share references. This would be enhanced if used for particular projects or set areas of work, and possibly agreeing on a brief list of tags to be used.
What is citeulike?
CiteULike is a free service to help you to store, organize and share the scholarly papers you are reading. When you see a paper on the web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. CiteULike automatically extracts the citation details, so there’s no need to type them in yourself. It all works from within your web browser so there’s no need to install any software. Because your library is stored on the server, you can access it from any computer with an Internet connection. [from CiteULike.com]
The advantage of CiteULike over delicious is citation management and could be a useful tool in preparing resources for an essay, or as a means for organizing a list of references into a consistent and clear format. For citation help, Zotero is also worth exploring.
To get the best out of the service, you have to be quite aware of some information retrieval techniques which go beyond a simple search-engine search. For example to quickly search for articles which contain a given tag within your library of articles, the tag can be added to the end of the URL of your logged in page, with Boolean operators. While this produces quick results for those familiar with these techniques, it may present a fairly steep learning curve to those who are not.
For help in honing your internet searching skills, Intute has a range of online tutorials offering advice of critically evaluating resources and improving search techniques.
Lloyd Roderick
Graduate Trainee Library Assistant
