   
Section on Rare Books and ManuscriptsNewsletter - Winter 2001PeopleChair:Dr Alice Prochaska Special Collections British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB,United Kingdom Tel. *(44)(20)74127501 Fax *(44)(20)74127400 E-mail: alice.prochaska@bl.uk
Secretary/Treasurer:
Information Coordinator:
IFLA STANDING COMMITTEE ON RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS
Susan Allen
Nicole Benhamou
Jan Bos
Mercedes Dexeus
Mark Dimunation
Barbara Jones
Graham Jefcoate
Sergey Kazantzev
Richard Landon
Viveca Halldin Norberg
David Pearson
Alice Prochaska
Everard Robinson
Henry Snyder
Wolfgang Undorf
Annette Wehmeyer Jerusalem Conference 2000From the Secretary we have got the minutes of the Jerusalem meeting: Section on Rare Books and ManuscriptsMinutes from IFLA 2000 General Conference in JerusalemFirst Meeting: 12 August 2000Present:Nicole Benhamou, Jan Bos, Mercèdes Dexeus, Mark Dimunation, Viveka Halldin Norberg, Barbara Jones, Sergey Kazantsev, David Pearson, Alice Prochaska, Everard Robinson, Henry Snyder, Wolfgang Undorf, Annette Wehmeyer Alice opened the meeting with a plea for more activity and comments on the agenda. Henry, Alice and Viveca talked about the need for new or re-elections and/or nominations of members of the section 2001. The minutes from Bangkok were approved as circulated. Alice gave a short second-hand report from the Co-ordinating Board's meeting Friday August 11, the most important point for the section being the invitation of planning conference activities two years in advance from now on. Further, the whole issue of IFLA Core-programmes is under consideration. The treasurer's report was positive: the section has access to SEK 9,150.30, i.e. approximately USD 955 or EUR 1,095. Money which has not been spent until the end of the year we will have to return to IFLA. In this context, the section discussed the topic of a brochure. Alice pointed out that a brochure could be used for IFLA internal information as well as the information of the member libraries - a wider audience would be less realistic. The next point of discussion was about the contents of both brochure and the newsletter. A number of digitisation projects were presented by Alice, Mark, Viveka and Wolfgang. Digitisation is a fundamental issue, as David pointed out, but there is great risk of overlapping between different projects. From different sides, the need for standards and specifications was raised that cope exclusively with rare book material and manuscripts, not only 19th century b/w copies. Alice asked the members of the Standing Committee to help the section to take the lead in the discussion of digitisation of rare material, including circulation of information on discussions and projects going on and on standards. To that end, also IFLA internal activities should be supported by members of the section, such as the digital libraries discussion group that was planned to be constituted two days later. Also the newsletter should contain at least one article each on digitisation. Henry then took the floor and presented the preliminary programme for Boston 2001. This includes so far a full-day at the American Antiquarian Society together with the Round Table for Newspapers and a half-day at the Houghton Library, Harvard University. The theme for the open session will be as previously suggested, with at least one paper on the history of printing in Spanish-America. There will also be a poster session on Russian history of printing. Glasgow 2002 could then be on common questions of digitisation in libraries, museums and archives. Wolfgang will give a paper on this topic from the Swedish perspective. Henry suggested a workshop and open session, at least one in collaboration with the Section on Bibliographical Control. Viveca offered a report on the digitisation of the Waller-collection. There has been no progress in the section's projects. David gave a short report on the library stamps project which due to lack of time he would like to hand over to someone else. He referred to a recent German publication (Bibliotheksstempel : Besitzvermerke von Bibliotheken in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz. Wiesbaden : Reichert, 1998. (Beiträge aus der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz ; 6) ISBN 3-89500-073-6). Mark thought it could fit in with an ALA/RBMS-project. Jan gave a short report on ABHB and the enthusiastic approval of an online version of ABHB which was presented at this year's SHARP conference in Mainz. This service will be provided by the National Library of the Netherlands. With Everard's reminder of the metadata digital libraries discussion groups, the meeting was closed. Second Meeting: 18 August 2000Present:Susan Allen, Jan Bos, Mercèdes Dexeus, Mark Dimunation, Viveka Halldin Norberg, Graham Jefcoate, Barbara Jones, Sergey Kazantsev, Marie Korey, Richard Landon, David Pearson, Alice Prochaska, Everard Robinson, Henry Snyder, Wolfgang Undorf, Annette Wehmeyer Further discussion of the brochure ended with the following decisions: Jan will assemble the text (primarily in English) according to the information on the section's homepage and other sections' brochures. Wolfgang's wife will take care of typesetting and layout. We will take some of our money to have the English text translated to other languages. Mercèdes offers to do the translation into Spanish. All members are kindly asked to send texts on digitisation projects (catalogues, images, or combinations of both) for the section's newsletter. The section even welcomes contributions from non-members. Henry promised to see to it that the newsletter will be distributed to the ALA/RBMS members in the United States. The proposed program for Boston 2001 was presented. Henry kindly agreed to arrange for two special library visits at Harvard and at the American Antiquarian Society, the last one with a limited number of visitors (25-30). Thereafter the workshop and how it should look was discussed. There was an interest in an outcome for that day, some guidelines or at least a draft set of criteria with regard to initiatives agreed upon earlier this conference. The discussion then went on to questions of digitisation of manuscripts in libraries in co-operation with other institutions and resulted in several suggestions of interesting speakers (Daniel Greenstein, Digital Library Association; the Keio University/British Library co-operative project). Each speaker should address specifically the issues of the framework of the individual digitisation projects, including property rights, cooperations. What has often been missing is co-operation between several independent projects or editorial control within the framework of a single project. The meeting went further to both individual projects (the Japanese-British-German Gutenberg project) and universal aspects (visions, effects, access), being aware of the risks of the latter, though. Success and failure of digitisation projects often depends on how they reach and how they are accepted by the potential users. One of the less desired effects of digitisation, i.e. every form of digital display, are changes of security. Material displayed on the web is more likely to be object of theft, though, on the other hand, material stolen can more easily be identified if there are digital images on display accessible for everyone. Susan referred to the library security listserv which is moderated by her. Alice, then, in detail presented another proposed action: a database of fragments for international co-operation and, eventually, "reunification". This is a cautious question as many fragments have disappeared and very few fragments of one and the same book or manuscript have survived in different libraries that can be put together again. After some discussion the meeting agreed upon further considerations next year. The first step shall be to collect information about projects going on, especially on Latin and Greek fragments. In the next twelve months, guidelines for loans for exhibitions shall be collected in order to assemble a database of documents from as many libraries as possible. We heard of two initiatives from the US which looked at standards for exhibitions and loans in recent years. At the end of the meeting, Alice summed up what had been said. She reminded us of the deadlines, the programmes for Boston 2001 and Glasgow 2002, and the decision to try to find people in the United States as well as in France in order to continue the library stamps project. Boston Conference 2001Theme: Libraries and Librarians: Making a Difference in the Knowledge Age. The conference is taking place at Hynes Convention Center in Boston from August 16-25, 2001. There is no detailed programme out yet, but as it says on the IFLA Homepage, for updated information on the conference please visit the IFLA 2001 website at http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla67/pprog-e.htmExhibition conditions As announced in Jerusalem, our Section is going to collect loan conditions and guidelines for a planned database. Here are the first examples that arrived in the meantime. Wolfgang Undorf has got further news from Munich, Madrid and Stockholm. Reading the two texts below you should be reminded that we need as many examples as possible - so, please, send in your libraries' guidelines. Due to technical problems the following guidelines are not shown as they look when you get them printed by the libraries but had to be reduced to the style of this newsletter. I. The British Library For issue to applicants CONDITIONS FOR LOANS TO EXHIBITIONSfrom the British Library
The British Library, Department of Manuscripts In these notes lending department means that department of the British Library having custody of the object or objects requested for loan to an exhibition. 1 Any communication regarding loans should be addressed in the first instance to the lending department. 2 Applications for loans must normally be made at least six months before the date of opening of an exhibition. 3 Loans are made for public exhibition only, whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. They are not made to touring exhibitions. 4 The premises in which the object or objects lent are to be housed and exhibited shall in all respects be safe, secure, and satisfactory, with similar arrangements for display and security to those prevailing in the lending department. In particular, security precautions, including patrolling of the said premises, shall be in force for the full twenty-four hours of the day, every day of the week, and display shall normally be in locked showcases of standard museum or library design. During the hours when the said premises are not open to the public, patrolling may be replaced by electronic surveillance if the system of surveillance is to the satisfaction of the lending department. The lending department may on occasion require special conditions of display and security, particularly with regard to lighting and atmosphere. No smoking is to be permitted in the rooms or galleries where the object or objects lent are housed and exhibited. Items should be exhibited in a temperature within the range 16-19ºC, not varying by more than +/- 10 per 24 hours, and the relative humidity should be 45-55%, not varying by more than +/- 5% per 24 hours. The lighting level should normally not exceed 50 lux, with the proportion of ultraviolet (UV) not exceeding 10 micro watts per lumen. Methods of display are to be agreed with the lending institution. 5 Loans to national institutions in the United Kingdom are not insured, nor is a Treasury indemnity requested in lieu. Insurance of loans to other institutions in the United Kingdom is the responsibility of the borrower, who must submit adequate details and evidence of the insurance to the lending department for approval and retention well in advance of the date of opening of the exhibition. Insurance of loans to institutions outside the United Kingdom is arranged in the United Kingdom by the lending department, at the expense of the borrower, unless the offer of a national government indemnity is accepted by the British Library. In the case of loans for exhibitions organized by the Arts Council or the British Council, whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, insurance may be replaced by a Treasury guarantee obtained by the Arts Council or the British Council. The value of objects for the purposes of insurance is determined by the lending department. 6 For purposes of record and security, adequate photographs of all objects lent, as required by the lending department, must be in the possession of the Library. Existing stocks of photographs must be supplemented as necessary, at the expense of the borrower, to meet this requirement. 7 All loans must be taken to, and fetched from, exhibitions by one or more members of the staff of the lending department, by whom they must be personally accompanied throughout their journeys, put on, and taken off display, and by whom alone they may be handled. Showcases which contain objects belong to the British Library must not be opened at any time except in the presence of a member of the staff of the lending department, save in extreme emergency. Conveyance of loans is to be by private and/or public transport as appropriate. The most direct routes will be used. Transport by air is, in general, preferred for loans to exhibitions outside Great Britain provided that the object or objects lent can be carried in the passenger compartment of the aircraft. Conveyance by public transport (that is, including air) is normally to be in first class, whenever this exists, throughout the world. All expenses of conveying loans, including the subsistence of their escorts, must be paid by the borrower. The subsistence of escorts is payable at rates determined by the British Treasury and borrowers will be informed of the appropriate sum. Borrowers are particularly requested to have cash available for escorts on arrival. 8 Photography of material on loan is permitted as long as neither handling of the material nor the opening of showcases is involved, and provided the regulations of copyright law are observed. Special permission must be sought for filming requiring more than normal electronic flash. 9 Material on loan must not be taken off exhibition and made available for study either at conferences arranged in connection with exhibitions or at the independent request of individuals. 10 All costs arising in connection with loans must be borne by the borrower. Besides the already mentioned expenses of insurance, photography and transport, these may include any substantial expenditure for conservation work needed on an object to be lent. 11 Applicants for loans must sign an official application, supplied by the lending department, accepting the British Library conditions for loans together with any other conditions which may be specially imposed by the lending department. The signatory to this application should be the chief executive of the museum, gallery, library, institution or other body applying for the loan, and no loan can be authorized before this completed application has been received back by the lending department. 12 Any change in the dates of an exhibition or any proposed temporary closing of a museum, gallery, library, other institution in receipt of a loan must immediately be notified to the lending department. The lending department has the reserved right not to accede to a change in the dates of an exhibition. 13 The lending department reserves the right at any time not to proceed with a loan. In particular, the member of staff of the lending department who is escorting an object or objects to an exhibition, or the senior member of staff of the lending department escorting if there is more than one, has absolute discretion not to deposit an object or objects, if dissatisfied on arrival with conditions at the place of exhibition. Further, irrespective of the terms of a loan, the borrower shall surrender any or all of the objects lent to a representative of the lending department at any time if so requested by the lender. In process of revision, August 2000 II. The Royal Library The Hague KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK Conditions for loans to exhibitions from the Department of Special Collections 1. Loans are made for public exhibitions only, whether in the Netherlands or elsewhere. They are not made to touring exhibitions or to exhibitions running over three months. 2. Applications for loan must normally be made by letter at least two months before the date of opening of an exhibition. Applications must contain title and aim of the exhibition, the date of opening and closing of the exhibition, and an accurate statement of the works requested (when possible with their shelfnumbers) and the pages that will be exhibited. 3. Loans must be insured by the borrower from the moment they leave the library until their return. The value of the objects for the purposes of insurance is determined by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. In advance of the date of transport evidence of the insurance must be sent to the lender. 4. All loans must be taken to, and fetched from, exhibitions by a member of the staff of the Department of Special Collections, by whom they must be personally accompanied throughout their journeys, put on, and taken off display, and by whom alone they may be handled. Transport by air is, in general, preferred for loans to exhibitions outside the Netherlands or Belgium, provided that the objects lent can be carried in the passenger compartment of the aircraft. Conveyance by public transport (that is, including air) is normally to be in first class. All expenses of conveying loans, including the subsistence of escorts must be paid by the borrower. Borrowers are particularly requested to have cash available for escorts on arrival. Customs formalities must take place, through T-documents, after arrival in the museum. Dutch customs formalities as well as the transit arrangements for the escort will be handled by a specialized art transportation firm, appointed by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. 5. If, on special occasions, transport will not be accompanied by a member of the staff of theDepartment of Special Collections, it must be carried out by a specialized art transportation firm, appointed by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. 6. The premises in which the objects lent are to be housed and exhibited shall in all respects be safe, secure, and satisfactory. In particular, security precautions, including patrolling of the said premises, shall be in force for the full twenty-four hours of the day, every day of the week, and display shall normally be in locked showcases of standard museum or library design. During the hours when the said premises are not open to the public, patrolling may be replaced by electronic surveillance if the system of surveillance is to the satisfaction of the lending department. No smoking is to be permitted in the rooms or galleries where the objects lent are housed or exhibited. Items should be exhibited in a constant temperature not exceeding 200C. The relative humidity should be 50-60%. The lighting level should not exceed 50 lux. Direct daylight should be shut out. 7. Material on loan must not be taken off exhibition and made available for study either at conferences arranged in connexion with exhibitions or at the independent request of individuals. 8. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek reserves the right at any time not to proceed with a loan. In particular, the member of the staff who is escorting objects to an exhibition has absolute discretion not to deposit objects, if dissatisfied on arrival with conditions at the place of exhibition. 9. Borrower is supposed to have received all objects in good condition. Any possible damage will be laid down in a condition report upon request. 10. In case of loss or damage, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek must be informed immediately. Under no condition restauration or any other change to the condition of the objects is permitted. 11. All costs arising in connexion with loans must be borne by the borrower. 12. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek will receive free at least two copies of the exhibition catalogue or the publication that is issued on the occasion of the exhibition. All publications should be addressed to the contact at the Department of Special Collections. 13. Applicants should inform the Koninklijke Bibliotheek of all other loan requests for the same exhibition made to Dutch institutions. 14. Applicants for loans must return these Conditions for loans with their signature as an official statement that they agree with these conditions and that their institution satisfies to all conditions. No loan can be authorized before this statement and the accompanying application form have been received. Signature: Name and position in borrowing institution: Date:
DETAILED APPLICATION FORM FOR LOANS OF RARE AND PRECIOUS BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS FROM THE KONINKLIJKE BIBLIOTHEEK TO OUTSIDE EXPOSITIONS THE EXHIBITION 1. Name and address of the institution where the exhibition is to be held: 2. Name of the official responsible for the exhibition: Tel No.: Fax No.: E-mail address: 3. Title of the exhibition: 4. Date of opening and closing: 5. Items asked on loan (please mention shelf mark, title and date, folio or page to be displayed and the reason for wishing to display the item requested): DISPLAY 6. Describe the type of display-case in which the book or manuscript will be put on display: 7. Internal measurements of the case in cm.: Height: Width: Depth: Angle of the display deck inside the case: 8. Will lights be used inside the display-cases? YES/NO 9. Do you have ultra-violet filters on windows, and/or lights and/or display cases? YES/NO 10. Describe the overall artificial lighting system in the exhibition (please mention any use of spotlights) 11. Are there any windows in the rooms where the items will be put on display? If so, in which direction do they face (N, E, S or W) and how do you control the incoming light? 12. What are the room's guaranteed limits for temperature? 13. What are the room's guaranteed limits for relative humidity? 14. Do you keep monitored records of temperature and humidity within the exhibition area? YES/NO 15. How do you regulate temperature and humidity within the exhibition area? 16. Is smoking allowed within the exhibition area? YES/NO 17. Please describe the detector systems for fire/heat/smoke within the exhibition area: 18. Do you have alarms built into the showcases? YES/NO 19. Do you take special precautions (safety guards?) during the periods of mounting and dismantling the exhibition? YES/NO 20. Will attendants be present when the exhibition is open to visitors? YES/NO 21. Please describe briefly your security precautions (guards, alarms?) when the exhibition is shut: Signature: Name: Date:
DigitisationAnother important theme is digitisation. Some libraries have sent us articles, and we do hope that there are many more to come. You will see that we have got the criteria for selection of material as well as a report on a special digitisation project going on.I. The British Library CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF BL MATERIALS FOR DIGITISATION Each proposal to digitise part of the British Library's collections must meet at least one - and preferably more than one - criterion from *each* group below: Nature of the material to be digitised:
RESOURCE ASSESSMENT OF DIGITISATION PROPOSALS Once a digitization project proposal has met the selection criteria, it should be assessed in resource terms:
II. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz One of the library's digitisation projects is run by the Abteilung Historische Drucke. It is the digitisation of Prussian legal sources. Maria Federbusch, responsible for this project, gives us the following report: Prussian legal sources - digitisation in the Berlin State Library Berlin State Library is carrying out the digitisation of Prussian legal sources with the support of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) within the funding programme for „Retrospective Digitisation of Library Materials". We intend to digitise the Corpus Constitutionum Marchicarum (CCM) and the Novum Corpus Constitutionum Marchicarum (NCC), published in Berlin from 1737 to 1822 and occasionally quoted as "The Mylius" after the name of its publisher. The project is now in its initial phase. Therefore the aims and theoretical ideas will be described below. Background Legal science is one of the most strongly represented fields of knowledge in the older holdings of Berlin State Library. The holdings of Prussian, German and foreign law are known for their wide range and their relative completeness. CCM and NCC, the works chosen for digitisation, form the most extensive printed collection of Prussian statutes dating from 1298 to 1810. They are a survey of Prussian law, allowing good insight into the political, social, economic and legal situation of the time. The statutes in CCM are published by subject matter, those in NCC in chronological order, the original legal texts are given in a literal reproduction. This allows historians, legal historians and political scientists to work with the source material. Both collections are part of the much-frequented reference material in the reading rooms. Within the German special subject collection scheme (SSG), the Berlin State Library is responsible for legal science. She takes care of the further completion her holdings, and takes measures for preservation and digitisation. Special attention is given to specific and improved access to single sources according to several criteria, allowing quick and easy retrieval. At the moment, this is only partly possible with the CCM and NCC collection, which consists of twenty-two folio volumes. For this reason, in addition to a complete reproduction of this legal collection, navigation assistants and links are to be established to other projects. Aims The first stage of the project is to provide the visual representation of the texts printed in „fraktur" (gothic) letters and to give access to the contents by the aid of indexes. As a first means for quick and accurate access the existing tables of contents and indexes will not only be scanned but captured. By using the old chronological and subject indexes for digitisation many questions are raised: e.g. how to search legal terms using modern orthography? A solution to this problem had to be found for the project. A new dimension for searching will be reached especially by a link to the Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch - Wörterbuch der älteren deutschen Rechtssprache, DRW (German Legal Dictionary), edited by the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften (Heidelberg Academy of Science). Since 1912 CCM and NCC have been used as important sources for the DRW. According to the statement of Dr. Heino Speer, the head of the research unit in the academy, about 5 000 references to the CCM and about 4 600 references to the NCC can be found in the sixteen planned volumes of the DRW. An online-version of the dictionary is in its initial stages so that essential content of the DRW can soon be viewed via World Wide Web (http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~cd2/drw/). A link to other digitised sources has already been intended in this version if only as a prototype. The availability of the images of the CCM and the NCC is proposed for a connection between quotations and references to the respective facsimiles. We also plan to compare index entries of the CCM and the NCC with the DRW entries to build links between keywords in case they correspond. The aim of this procedure is to correlate the vocabulary of the CCM and the NCC with the context of legal terminology. A linking up of the machine readable indexes of CCM and NCC with corresponding entries in the DRW will also help the internet user not skilled in legal history to understand the sources and to introduce him or her to the usage of historic legal terminology. Strategy Scanning will be done from original volumes (28 000 pp.). Disassembling the often damaged bindings will be done only when necessary. There is no microfilming as the paper is in good condition and the material shows no rarity value. The mentioned volumes will be scanned with a resolution of 600 dpi in TIFF 6.0. These scanning parameters should allow a prospective use of OCR-programs of a new generation, which have to be developed. In addition to the scanning procedure supplementary information will be placed into the TIFF header in form of ASCII text (e.g. short title, page number, eight-digit page key as a reflection of the original pagination). The structured capture of the contemporary table of contents and the indexes will take place on the basis of the Recource Description Framework (RDF) and in Extensible Markup Language (XML). For this purpose we want to use existing document type definitions and tag libraries of the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). The captured text data and the images will be unified and presented with the aid of a document management system. An important requirement for this unification is the creation of the eight- digit page key, which reflects the hierarchy of the collection. In this way the clear definition of a page is guaranteed. This key will be created and captured during the scanning as well as during the capturing of indexes. The indexes are based on the subject indexing methods at the time of publication (18th century). During the first stage of the keying process, all words and terms will be captured as they appear. The application of a retrieval programme will lead to search results which will contain orthographical variations. Information requirements on the meaning of individual terms will be satisfied by establishing links to the entries in the DRW. With the help of an additional window, it will be possible to show the entry that corresponds to a term in the index of the CCM or the NCC. Conclusion The described mutual use of project results should enhance the acceptance of the digitisation projects by scientific users and increase the frequency of visits to both offers. We see the benefit of this project especially in the connection of the CCM, the NCC and the DRW used separately up to now. Future digitisation projects of the Abteilung Historische Drucke (Department of Early Printed Books) will try to continue these ideas using image and catalogue data not only side by side, but putting them into relation with each other. The area of legal science is a good starting point for that purpose. The described mutual use of project results should enhance the acceptance of the digitisation projects by scientific users and increase the frequency of visits to both offers. We see the benefit of this project especially in the connection of the CCM, the NCC and the DRW used separately up to now. Future digitisation projects of the Abteilung Historische Drucke (Department of Early Printed Books) will try to continue these ideas using image and catalogue data not only side by side, but putting them into relation with each other. The area of legal science is a good starting point for that purpose. BibliographiesFrom Italy we have got an interesting article on a new project in bibliography:EDIT16Censimento nazionale delle edizioni italiane del XVI secoloThe bibliographic project, The National Census of 16th Century Italian Printed Books (EDIT16), coordinated and managed by Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle Biblioteche Italiane e per le Informazioni Bibliografiche intends to document Italian books printed during the 16th century and to review the Italian country wide heritage. It includes the editions printed in Italy and the editions printed in the Italian language between 1501 and 1600, held in about 1200 Italian state, local, ecclesiastic and private libraries. A data base is available on Internet from march 2000 at http://edit16.sbn.it. The Census, which is being carried out in alphabetical order, is in progress. At present the data base contains some 50,000 records of which about 24,000 (referring to editions with headings from A to H) contain the locations of all the participating libraries (except for a few such as the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana for which at present there are only the locations of the titles from A to F). For the remaining editions (letters I-Z) which have not yet been checked by Census staff, the locations of only some of the items are provided. EDIT 16 is not a mere collection of data provided by the participating libraries. Each item is checked by the staff in charge of the Census that carries out the controls that are necessary to identify editions (and related authors, printers, etc.) by comparing the information provided by the libraries with repertories, photocopies and in many cases by examining copies of the same work held by Roman libraries. The records contained in the data base may be found in different processing stages within the Census project and hence are characterized by level indicators that indicate the bibliographic status of the records.The data base contains also some 15,000 records of authors of which some 5000 refer to alternative forms of the names and 10,000 to accepted forms of author names. Some 7000 are provided with information about authors. Besides short biographic data, such information contains bibliographic references, the name forms found in the bibliographic sources and those present in 16th century editions.For the name forms the Regole italiane di catalogazione per autori (RICA) are followed. For the information about authors the indications set forth in the IFLA Guidelines for authority and reference entries are followed. Besides titles and authors, EDIT16 includes some 3000 records of publishers (printers, booksellers, etc.), of which some 800 refer to alternative forms and some 2200 to accepted forms (the number includes also anyone who acted as publisher only occasionally). The records contain information about publishers and include short biographic data, information concerning place and date of the activity, addresses and/or signs and the devices used. Bibliographic references are also included, as well as the name forms found in bibliographic sources and those present in the 16th century editions. The data base contains also the description of some 1150 printers'/publishers' devices. The information concerning the devices contain the description of the main figurative elements, the names of the publishers who used that device, the dates when they were used (both general dates and dates relative to individual publishers) and any mottoes that may be present. At the present time only a limited amount of bibliographic records (around 9000 out of 50,000 monographs present in the data base) have links to devices. Each device is characterized by one or more standard citations which identify it unambiguously. The standard citation identifies the figure of the device within pre-established bibliographic sources and consists of an alphabetic character identifying the repertory, and of numerical characters identifying the device within the repertory (number of the figure). EDIT 16 enables the user to visualize the pictures of the devices. The pictures are in the course of being digitalized. At present about 1000 figures are already available. In the database two search levels are available, basic and advanced. The basic search is not a simplified query with reduced search fields: the two modes offer the same search channels and exhaustive results. However, the advanced search, in addition to offering a different graphic layout, allows the use of Boolean operators between the fields, so using the same search on additional fields. NewsYou should all have got the following message from the Secretary:"Dear members of the Standing Committee of the IFLA Section on Rare Books and Manuscripts, dear corresponding members, special advisers etc. This is a test message to try to reach you all on our new listserv. You have all been subscribed to the list by me. Please, send any comments concerning your membership or other technical questions directly to the following e-mail address: wolfgang.undorf@kb.se Maybe there will not be much business going on on this listserv, but it makes it easier for us to reach all of you in case. I would like to ask you to confirm that this message has reached you." There has been formed a special working group at GBV (Göttinger Bibliotheksverbund) in Germany recently. The "AAD" (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Alte Drucke beim GBV) consists of the following member libraries Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Universitäts- und Forschungsbibliothek Erfurt/Gotha, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Halle, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek Weimar, and Herzog-August-Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel. The aim of the group is coordination in all concerns of rare books cataloguing, presentation and preservation. In Sweden, the forming of a special section for rare books librarians within the Swedish Librarians' association is well under way as we hear from Wolfgang Undorf who is especially involved in the project. In December, an interesting conference on MALVINE took place at Berlin. The texts of the conference lectures can be found on www.Staatsbibliothek-Berlin.de/malvine/agenda.html. Also at Berlin, the GW (Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke) is on its way to the internet. Probably in October, there will be a first online version. It is intended that later on other libraries will take part in the project. The database for maps published before 1850 in German libraries has moved from DBI to GBV where you can find it on the homepage of Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin under the heading Kartenabteilung, IKAR-Altkartendatenbank. Die Deutsche Bibliothek (DDB) has just launched a new database on German book history. You can find it under the homepage of DDB, special section „Buchhandelsgeschichtliche Quellen-Inventar archivalischer Quellen zur Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels und Verlagswesens im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert". 572 archives have been asked for their material relevant to German publishers and booksellers. About 80.000 items have been collected so that one can find sources of information on publishing and bookselling in Germany from about 1800 to the end of the last century. Addresses of the archives and using conditions are listed. And, finally, here is a note on an exhibition at the British Library, sent to us by Alice Prochaska: Special exhibition of Armenian Christian Culture at the British Library The British Library has mounted a special exhibition for the period 2 March - 28 May 2001 entitled "Treasures from the Ark. 1700 years of Armenian Christian Art". Sponsored by members of the Manoukian family, Armenian businessmen and philanthropists who live in London, this exhibition brings together manuscripts and artifacts from the Armenian communities across the world, dating from before 301 AD, the year in which King Trdat III became the first ruler in the world to proclaim Christianity as the religion of his state. The British Library's own collection of beautiful Armenian manuscripts is joined by others from 20 libraries and museums in Asia, Europe and America. One of the most revealing features of the exhibition is its presentation of the whole range of art media, including carvings in stone and wood, ceramics, textiles and precious metals. The curator, Dr Vrej Nersessian, demonstrates with great skill the central role of manuscripts themselves as religious artefacts in Armenian Christianity. At an opening ceremony attended by high-ranking figures in the Armenian and British churches and government, the head of the Armenian Church spoke movingly of the importance that the modern nation of Armenia attaches to its ancient religious culture. For the British Library, this exhibition symbolises the role of libraries in affirming international cultural traditions. Stop press:We have just got the following mail from Alice Prochaska together with a press release from 28. 3. 2001:Dear friends and colleagues, I thought you might like to know of my future movements, announced in the attachment to this message. I very much hope this move will not mean that we lose touch and in many cases it will bring opportunities to see more of each other.
With all good wishes,
Yale calling Having pursued a distinguished career as Director of Special Collections at the British Library, Alice Prochaska has been appointed as University Librarian of Yale University, Connecticut. Dr Prochaska will begin her five-year term in this highly prestigious post on 1 August 2001. Yale University President, Richard C. Levin said, "It gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Alice Prochaska as Yale University Librarian. We are very pleased to have Dr Prochaska on board and look forward to welcoming her to Yale." Since her arrival at the British Library in 1992 Dr Prochaska has been responsible for the Library's main 'heritage', non-book and Asian collections, which include the Manuscript Collections, the Map Library and Music Collections, the Oriental and India Office Collections, the National Sound Archive, the Philatelic Collections and the Library's Archives. She has also played a leading role in policy making at the Library, both as a member of the Executive Committee and by chairing the Digitisation Policy Group, with overall responsibility for the Library's digitisation initiatives. Dr Prochaska graduated from Somerville College, Oxford in 1968 and received her doctorate in Modern History from Oxford in 1975. She has had a wide-ranging career in cultural and academic administration. From 1975-1984 she was an Assistant Keeper at the Public Record Office and from 1984-1992 she was Secretary and Librarian of the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. In addition to these roles she maintained her broader educational interests by serving on the government committee that designed the UK National Curriculum in History in 1989-90. More recently she has served as Chair of the National Council on Archives and as a vice-president of the Royal Historical Society. Currently, Dr Prochaska is Chair of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Standing Committee of the International federation of Library Associations, a Commissioner of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts and also serves as a Governor of London Guildhall University. As well as maintaining positions with a wide variety of other public bodies in the fields of librarianship and education, she has also written a number of books, including The History of the General Federation of Trade Unions (1982) and Irish History From 1700: A Guide to Sources in the Public Record Office (1986). Alice Prochaska said, "I am deeply honoured to have been offered this prestigious position, and I greatly look forward to working with new colleagues and new challenges at Yale. I shall leave the British Library with real sorrow, and I know I shall greatly miss my colleagues both within the Library and in many other organisations. I hope to find that new links can rapidly be forged, to bring together some of the best work of the world I am leaving behind in fruitful partnerships with the new." Chief Executive of the British Library, Lynne Brindley, expressed both gratitude and regret at the announcement of Dr Prochaska's imminent departure: "Alice has offered tremendous service to the British Library during her time as Director of Special Collections and we will be very sorry to see her leave," she said. "Obviously, though, we offer her the warmest congratulations at securing such a prestigious position at what is undoubtedly one of the World's leading university libraries."
For further information contact Greg Hayman at Press and Public Relations, Tel. 0207 412 7116 From the Editors:As you have heard in Jerusalem, part of the editing of this newsletter is delegated by Annette Wehmeyer to me, Regina Mahlke. As I am in the middle of preparing an exhibition that will take place at Staatsbibliothek in July this year, I have been very busy with a lot of other things over the past few weeks. So I have to apologize to you all for this newsletter which has almost no news, no bibliography section, nothing from the internet, nothing from the magazines - and which is very late in the year for a "winter issue". You have been so kind this time to send us quite a lot of interesting articles - otherwise this issue could not have been published at all. Complaints about it should go entirely on me. Hopefully, our next issue will be better, with the programme for Boston and, again articles you will send us (best before the end of May) on digitisation or your exhibition conditions - and, perhaps, something on people, books, and the magazines. We wish you all a very happy springtime (or a fine autumn if you read this on the other side of the globe)! Yours,
R. Mahlke
Abteilung Historische Drucke
Tel. *(49)(30)2661410, Fax *(49)(30)2661717 [Printed by Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, March 2001]
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