We are delighted to introduce a blog post by Sarah, who recently completed a student placement with us in Archives and Special Collections.
My first encounter with special collections at Strathclyde was with a class on 'Literature, Culture, Technology' I had taken as part of my English undergraduate degree. The class involved weekly visits to the department to study a chosen, pre-1800, text and we were encouraged to notice the physical attributes of these texts such as the illustrations or plates, pagination, gathering and folding of the pages, and handwritten notes from previous owners. As a keen amateur genealogist intrigued by studying the history of how things came to be and where they came from, studying these unique characteristics and intricacies of the texts and the history behind them was interesting.
Fast forward nine years, and I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to return to the department on placement as part of the MSc Information and Library Studies course. I was tasked with updating the holdings of books from John Anderson’s collection into the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) database.
The ESTC is an international union catalogue listing early books, serials, newspapers and selected ephemera printed before 1801, and distributed in Britain, Ireland, British colonial territories overseas, or the United States. Around 2,000 libraries have contributed to the database containing over 480,000 entries.
A project to match the material at Strathclyde with descriptions on the ESTC began in 2020. This project involves assessing a book's physical details, such as those attributes mentioned above, and comparing these with the physical description of the same title, as recorded on the ESTC website. As each copy of the same publication was made individually, and sometimes by more than one printer, it was common to encounter slight differences between the Anderson copy and the one listed on ESTC. The most common differences I found were page numbers being misprinted (thankfully the context of the books was not affected) and differences in the folding and gathering of the pages, for example, Anderson’s copy may be gathered as a quarto and the ESTC holding an octavo. In the case of coming across major differences between Anderson’s copy and the ESTC record, such as different publishers, extra pamphlets bound etc, I noted these in the spreadsheet for the cataloguing manager to create a new record.
The ESTC project is important as it provides a central point for researchers across the world to search for the existence and locations of pre-1801 titles for study. The Strathclyde project, which will take many years to complete, will boost the discovery of our rare books.
The process of examining each page of the book led to the discovery of some intriguing handwritten notes and dedications by previous owners. The most memorable one was pencil margin notes written by the reader, I imagine it was John Anderson, in reaction to the opinions of the author, Adam Smith, as detailed in his book 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments'. Although it is a simple act, I find this insight into the reader’s reactions and thoughts fascinating and found myself pondering over the identity of the reader and visualising their reactions, which prompted them to add their commentary to the content.
I would highly recommend a visit to the Archives and Special Collections to students, visitors, and forthcoming Information and Library Studies students. I have learned from the team’s wealth of experience about how copyright regulations and restrictions are navigated to allow the resources to be shared with visitors, the varied nature of enquiries the department receives and how these are serviced by the team, and I gained insight into the process for accepting donations of materials to be added to the collections and archives. Carol, Andy, Anne and Rachael are so welcoming, encouraging, and open to sharing their knowledge; the masters programme provides a crash course and introduction to the theory and practices of libraries and the information profession and, as essential as this knowledge is, this practical placement has been one of the most beneficial and insightful parts.
A small exhibition 'Reaching Beyond Strathclyde: the English Short Title Catalogue project' is available to view on level 3 of the Andersonian Library until the end of summer 2023.
We are delighted to introduce a blog post by Sarah, who recently completed a student placement with us in Archives and Special Collections.
Fast forward nine years, and I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to return to the department on placement as part of the MSc Information and Library Studies course. I was tasked with updating the holdings of books from John Anderson’s collection into the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) database.
The ESTC is an international union catalogue listing early books, serials, newspapers and selected ephemera printed before 1801, and distributed in Britain, Ireland, British colonial territories overseas, or the United States. Around 2,000 libraries have contributed to the database containing over 480,000 entries.
A project to match the material at Strathclyde with descriptions on the ESTC began in 2020. This project involves assessing a book's physical details, such as those attributes mentioned above, and comparing these with the physical description of the same title, as recorded on the ESTC website. As each copy of the same publication was made individually, and sometimes by more than one printer, it was common to encounter slight differences between the Anderson copy and the one listed on ESTC. The most common differences I found were page numbers being misprinted (thankfully the context of the books was not affected) and differences in the folding and gathering of the pages, for example, Anderson’s copy may be gathered as a quarto and the ESTC holding an octavo. In the case of coming across major differences between Anderson’s copy and the ESTC record, such as different publishers, extra pamphlets bound etc, I noted these in the spreadsheet for the cataloguing manager to create a new record.
The ESTC project is important as it provides a central point for researchers across the world to search for the existence and locations of pre-1801 titles for study. The Strathclyde project, which will take many years to complete, will boost the discovery of our rare books.
The process of examining each page of the book led to the discovery of some intriguing handwritten notes and dedications by previous owners. The most memorable one was pencil margin notes written by the reader, I imagine it was John Anderson, in reaction to the opinions of the author, Adam Smith, as detailed in his book 'The Theory of Moral Sentiments'. Although it is a simple act, I find this insight into the reader’s reactions and thoughts fascinating and found myself pondering over the identity of the reader and visualising their reactions, which prompted them to add their commentary to the content.
I would highly recommend a visit to the Archives and Special Collections to students, visitors, and forthcoming Information and Library Studies students. I have learned from the team’s wealth of experience about how copyright regulations and restrictions are navigated to allow the resources to be shared with visitors, the varied nature of enquiries the department receives and how these are serviced by the team, and I gained insight into the process for accepting donations of materials to be added to the collections and archives. Carol, Andy, Anne and Rachael are so welcoming, encouraging, and open to sharing their knowledge; the masters programme provides a crash course and introduction to the theory and practices of libraries and the information profession and, as essential as this knowledge is, this practical placement has been one of the most beneficial and insightful parts.
A small exhibition 'Reaching Beyond Strathclyde: the English Short Title Catalogue project' is available to view on level 3 of the Andersonian Library until the end of summer 2023.