Rare Books in Scotland business meeting
Thursday 5 May 2016, Advocates Library
Present
- Helen Beardsley — Stirling University Library
- Robert Betteridge — National Library of Scotland: Minutes
- David Brown — Advocates Library
- Jill Evans — SCURL
- Julie Gardham — Glasgow University Library
- Pilar Gil — St Andrews University Library
- Mark Glancy — National Museum of Scotland
- Daryl Green — St Andrews University Library
- Anette Hagan — National Library of Scotland
- Marian Kirton — Napier University Library
- Elizabeth Quarmby-Lawrence — University of Edinburgh Library
- Andrea Longson — Advocates Library
- Andrew McAinsh — Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
- Alistair McDonald — Edinburgh University Library, representing CIGS
- Iain Milne — Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
- Nicholas Monroe — St Andrews University Library
- Angela Schofield — Advocates Library
- Helen Vincent — National Library of Scotland: Convenor.
1. Apologies
- Duncan Chappell — Glasgow School of Art
- John Crawford — Leadhills Miners Library
- Veronica Fraser — Historic Environment Scotland
- Lara Heggarty — Innerpeffray Library
- Paulette Hill — Historic Environment Scotland
- Steven Kerr — Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
- Lorna Mitchell — Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
- Karen O'Brien — Edinburgh City Libraries
- Keith O'Sullivan — Aberdeen University Library
- Gabriel Sewell — St Andrews University Library.
The business meeting was opened by Helen Vincent (HV) at 12.55 and began with the list of those sending apologies.
2. Minutes of previous meeting
In the list of those present, number 11 should read Georgia Rogers.
In number 8, the penultimate word of the St Andrews report should read 'archive'.
3. Matters arising
Julie Gardham (JG) asked if there would be any discussion of PSI charges. HV suggested that those who have already revised their permission fees and policies could share information on the mailing list for discussion at the next meeting.
4. Future forum activities
4.1 Meetings
The University of Stirling will host in autumn 2016 including a morning visit to the Leighton Library, Dunblane.
Future venues offered were RCPE, EUL and NMS. Due to the preponderance of Edinburgh venues HV hopes that the autumn 2017 meeting can be held outside Edinburgh.
4.2 Workshops
Andrew McAinsh (AMcA) reported on a successful RCPSG hosted ESTC matching workshop led by Bob MacLean of GUL. There were 9 attendees from Innerpeffray, Leadhills, Advocates Library, National Museum of Scotland and Fife Cultural Trust who were able to match 40 books with 30 potential matches that need further investigation. A volunteer matching programme is now underway at RCPSG and Andrew offered the College as a venue for a re-run of the workshop.
Possible future workshops: Image rights, foreign union catalogues, copyright, cataloguing, exhibition planning, lending and couriering. Having investigated which foreign union catalogues are interested in reports of copies held in libraries beyond the host country, Daryl Green (DG) offered to lead a workshop on this subject.
The topics of exhibition planning, lending and couriering remain popular. However, despite their related nature it was thought to be too much for one day and that the workshops should be split.
Jill Evans (JE) reported that Laurence Bebbington of AUL would be running workshops on copyright later this year and would announce to the list as dates become known.
4.3 Tumblr
Following Christine McGowan's departure from St Andrews, Keith O'Sullivan had asked colleagues at AUL if anybody would like to take on the management of the RBiS Tumblr account but there were no expressions of interest. HV emphasised Tumblr's ease of use and how it can be used to share collections via social media.
AMcI noted that IFTTT can be used to link images to Twitter and that images could be tagged with #RBiS. He will investigate and post his findings to the mailing list.
5. Cataloguing discussion
HV invited Alistair McDonald (AMcD) to speak on recent CIGS activity. AMcD reported on last November's RDA week in Edinburgh which included a successful Robert Louis Stevenson Janeathon. Forthcoming events include the CIGS AGM and a linked open data event based around practical, rather than theoretical resource discovery. HV noted that there is interest from rare book cataloguers in CIGS activity and RDA. AMcD had attended the IFLA RDA seminar and noted the uptake of RDA in Europe and that authority control was now done in RDA. There was discussion of how we manage authority control as a community, e.g. use of vernacular terms as found in CERL thesaurus. AMcD reported on a project to look at the different representations of individuals in catalogues and how to link them. DG said that he would like to have some NACO training. HV and JG noted that in some libraries authority control work is done by dedicated teams. AMcD explained how evidence on individuals can be built up from different sources to create a full picture but wondered if we are duplicating work.
HV reported that she has joined the RBMS working group tasked with transferring DCRM into RDA. Those working on RDA development would like to engage with archivists which HV acknowledged would have benefits for the rare book community. JG asked about a timescale for transition. HV said that the current estimate is two years but given that the working group only meets once every six months it may take longer. DG pointed out that there is now no new work on DCRMB, just on how to integrate with RDA. Anette Hagan (AH) said that Germanic countries are developing their own interpretations. HV reported that CILIP RBSCG is actively pursuing RDA now. There was discussion of the appearance of hybrid records taking elements from RDA and DCRM. AMcD will post CIGS updates to RBiS list.
6. Accreditation
HV reported on the CILIP RBSCG meeting with Nick Poole who showed interest and enthusiasm for accreditation for rare books and special collections services. It is recognised that current archival accreditation skews mixed collections and encourages investment in the archival side. The Arts Council has no plans to begin accreditation of rare book services in the next five years and the BL is not interested in taking a leading role. Nick Poole will work with the Arts Council to try to develop a programme. It was noted that the existing recognition/designation schemes are based on the quality of collections rather than on the service provided but that they help to safeguard collections. AMcI noted that RCPSG has accreditation status but acknowledged that though it covers all the Colleges collections, it requires museum collections to gain access. HV noted that as culture is devolved the Arts Council would not be able to issue accreditation in Scotland but that Nick Poole wants CILIP to lead on accreditation. HV wondered if SLIC would lead on this in Scotland? Jill Evans said that she would take it up with them.
7. Reports
7.1 CILIP RBSCG/ESTC/SCURL
CILIP RBSCG
HV reported that the CILIP RBSCG committee was meeting today. The annual conference on the subject of diversity and barriers to access in both the profession and to collections would be held in Liverpool 7-9 September. The 2017 conference would be in either Plymouth or Brighton and may cover collections at risk and the 2018 conference will probably be in Cambridge.
ESTC
AH reported that a new ESTC interface is coming soon. ESTC has four categories of user:
- Anonymous users who access ESTC via the BL website
- Contributors who match holdings
- Bibliographers who can create and edit records
- Super-users who have additional authority to approve changes or new suggestions.
JISC is investigating freely available early texts (FREEBO) to index and to which ESTC would link. Around 4000 texts have currently been identified.
SCURL
JE reported that SCURL is investigating collaborative print management, a group led by Diane Bruxvoort of AUL and including Iain Milne (IM). A report is expected in June with a final report by the end of the year. HV noted that libraries often wanted to dispose of journals and highlighted the problem of identifying when there is just one copy of a title left in Scotland.
An access audit is being undertaken to survey what access college students have to university libraries. This is currently mixed. HV noted that access to general collections is not always the same as access to special collections. JE will circulate findings.
7.2 Forum members
Historic Environment Scotland
Helen to provide.
Napier University Library
Nothing to report.
Stirling University Library
The Jacobite exhibition held in conjunction with Innerpeffray and the Leighton Library has finished. William Wallace material is going on loan to the Wallace Monument to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Cataloguing of the David Daiches collection has begun.
Glasgow University Library
Planning for the merger with archives continues. Records being merged into EMu but records for rare books will still be available in the catalogue. EMu requiring lots of configuration as it is archives oriented. John Logie Baird and Benjamin Clerk collections are being processed. ProQuest are digitising the University's theses collection of 12-13000 items.
Edinburgh University Library
The Centre for the History of the Book's MSc course, which works closely with the CRC, has been accredited by CILIP. The University is buying a warehouse at South Gyle with environmental control and 10 years of expansion space for special collections. University theses are being digitised. Staff have been seconded to catalogue Russian and music material. Adam Smith books have been catalogued, Clement Little books are nearly finished and William Drummond of Hawthornden will be catalogued next. The Library took part in the University's Knowledge Exchange Week.
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
The College achieved Museums Accreditation last October. A new temporary paid intern post has been created, primarily to photograph the College's instrument collection. Building works to create a new store and refurbish the current one, and associated book moves are ongoing. Cataloguing backlog work continues with 21,000 out of 32,000 catalogued. The College is taking part in Glasgow's Marvellous Medicine on 14 May.
National Museum of Scotland
An MSc placement student has been working on the bequeathed library of Alexander Henry Rhind. Rare books are being moved and manuscripts being separated with the opportunity being taken for some cleaning. With the opening of the art and design galleries, the library has also been reopened to the public. The Museum's Celts exhibition contains 6 items from the library.
St Andrews University Library
Christine McGowan has left. Jennifer Schaffner has been appointed to a one-year cataloguing post. Elizabeth Henderson will return in June. A conservator has been appointed to a two-year preventative conservation officer post. Accommodation continues to be a problem. Sally Mapstone appointed as Principle of the University. An exhibition on 175 years of Scottish photography will run as part of the St Andrews Photography Festival in August and September. The Lighting the Past project continues to catalogue around 1300 books a month. Recent acquisitions include 40 16th-century books from an auction in Rome and the Marchmont Manuscript of 'Regiam Majestatem', written in Lowland Scots, signed and dated 18 October 1548 by the scribe Robert Ewyn, presented to the poet Alexander Hume by his maternal uncle, Alexander Hume of Manderston, in 1582.
National Library of Scotland
The Plague! exhibition continues until the end of May and the Playing Shakespeare display runs until 12 June. The forthcoming exhibition of maps entitled You Are Here will run from July to April and the next display, on Robert Adam, will begin on 16 June. A photography display is also being planned. The state of the collection purchase fund has improved and the Library has acquired a Kelmscott Press book, meaning the Library only lacks one book from this press. The 1661-1700 tranche of Aldis has been added to the Library's web pages. CERL are turning the SBTI into an online database which they will host. Retroconversion of manuscript and music catalogues will follow the Bodleian method of digitising cards and extracting metadata. The Map Library's hours are to change in the summer as the focus moves from physical to digital access. A working group has been set up to investigate a Scottish national bibliography. Kelvin Hall is to open in September, hosting the Moving Image Archive and providing access to electronic legal deposit. In line with the new Strategy the Library has been investigating methods of digitising collections en masse.
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
The College is taking part in the Wellcome's Medical Heritage Library digitisation project. Statistics have shown the popularity of French and German books. IM thanked Jane Hutcheon, formerly of RBGE, for her assistance with the College's contribution. Books have been moved to Granton during an upgrade to provide 1.7 miles of mobile stackage.
Advocates Library
Session papers are being digitised in collaboration with EUL. Cataloguing of Abbotsford chapbooks has been completed. Staff are supporting other work at Abbotsford such as exhibitions and checking the collection every three months. The Scott exhibition Rave Reviewer will run at Abbotsford until the end of November. The rarity of some Abbotsford books is being investigated. Temporary exhibitions have been put on for advocates. The web site has been re-launched.
8. Forum organisation
Nothing to report
9. Any other business
HV thanked the Faculty of Advocates and Andrea Longson for hosting the meeting which closed at 15.00.