Openness in Research: The Modernist Archives Publishing Project (MAPP)
Virtual Volunteering with Special Collections in the Archives of British Printing and Publishing . We are thrilled to announce that the Special Collections and The MERL team have won one of the University of Reading’s 2023 research awards, selected for the ‘Openness in Research’ category. In this blog, Project Archivist, Helena Clarkson describes the project […]
Steam engines and Samuel Beckett: My Experience as the Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant
Written in September 2022 by Rebecca Keddie, Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant 2021-2022 My time as the University of Reading Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant is drawing to a close. The last reference numbers are being written, Adlib entries made, and reading room enquiries dealt with. This past year has been an amazing experience; I have learnt […]
‘Embellish’d With Gold’: Crafting an Online Exhibition of Premodern European Manuscripts
Blog post written and online exhibition curated by Joanna Hulin, Reading Room Assistant. The European Manuscripts Collection held at the University of Reading’s Special Collections currently amounts to 143 items in total. When planning for the digital version of ‘Embellish’d With Gold’, I had thought that choosing just 15 items from the original 29 shown […]
Publishing and Printing in Milan
In late June, members of the archive and library team at UMASCs travelled to Milan for staff training under the Erasmus+ scheme. The aim of the trip was to visit various institutions in Milan and the surrounding area which hold similar special collections to University of Reading Special Collections. This was in order to provide members […]
Cat sketches and cataloguing: Final thoughts of our Archive Graduate Trainee
Special Collections offer year long graduate trainee schemes in both the Archive and Library. In this month’s blog, our departing Archives Graduate Trainee Timothy Jerrome looks back on his year with us. Now that I am coming to the end of my year’s archive traineeship at Special Collections and the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), I feel […]
From Artistotle to Anatomy and the tongue of a woodpecker… Digitising the Cole photographic records
In today’s blog post, Tim and Ceri discuss their progress in digitising the glass lantern negatives created by Professor F J Cole(1872-1959), F.R.S., Professor of Zoology in the University of Reading from 1907 to 1939. Tim Jerrome – Graduate Trainee Archive Assistant Though I am admittedly fairly new to work in archives, I already have the belief […]
Finding one of the oldest examples of printing in Britain: the story of the Caxton leaf
Written by Erika Delbecque, UMASCS Librarian, as part of the 2017 Being Human festival: Lost and Found. The leaf on my desk was stained, torn in places, and fairly unremarkable. Unlike other loose leaves from the fifteenth century that I had been working on, which mostly contained standard texts that circulated widely at the time, the […]
Ladybird: Art from the Auction House
Clare Plascow (Collections Officer) describes her exciting auction experience, a rare opportunity to see examples of John Berry’s work for Ladybird during MERL’s extended hours tonight… and her love for kippers… I like the word kippers. This might seem like a little bit of odd revelation to have come to on a relatively warm day in […]
Recently Acquired Ladybird Artwork- Extended Hours Exhibition
Don’t miss this special opportunity to view our recently acquired additions to our Ladybird Archive! Thanks to our partnership with Ladybird Books Ltd, Special Collections will be displaying a total of 59 original illustrations by the artist John Berry. The artwork will be displayed within the University’s Museum of English Rural Life (The MERL), during […]
Archive or Objects: Cataloguing Ladybird Artwork
Written by Clare Plascow, Collections Officer How do you catalogue an artwork? That is the question I’ve been trying to solve over the last few days. Usually the answer would be simple…it would be added to the Art Collection area of the University of Reading’s Collections Management System (CMS). Complicating the matter, however, is the […]