Special Collections at the University of Bradford

Priestley and other Yorkshire Treasures

alison-cullingford — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:40:47 +0000

The J.B. Priestley Archive at the University of Bradford featured in a Yorkshire Post article about amazing archives in our county (Saturday 7 January 2012). The author also highlighted collections in Leeds, Sheffield, York and Hull, from the famous Liddle Collection of WW1 letters and the papers of another playwright Alan Ayckbourn, to the joys of chocolate and a glass fibre wedding dress.

We Wish you a Merry Christmas (and a Happy New Year)

alison-cullingford — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:11:15 +0000

We’re closed for the Christmas break from 23 December to 3 January. We wish all our readers, friends, donors and supporters a lovely holiday and all the best for the New Year.

Musicians motif from flyer for Social Evening 22 Dec 1903 (ref BTC 4/1/34)

Find out more about Christmas in Bradford long ago on the 100 Objects exhibition: two intriguing parties, in 1903 and 1916. Hope you enjoy the stories they have to tell.

Welcome Emily

alison-cullingford — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:58:20 +0000

A quick welcome to a new colleague. Emily Corley is this year’s graduate trainee for the J.B. Priestley Library, spending time in various sections of the Library to gain experience for librarianship career. She’ll be with us for a short time in January and a longer chunk later on. We look forward to introducing her to the wonderful world of Special Collections!

Taking a Break – back in December

alison-cullingford — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:47:01 +0000

Special Collections is closed 24-29 November 2011 (possibly also 30 November if UCU strike goes ahead). This is because I am in London for various meetings and conferences and currently have no staff cover. I will see email from time to time (dongle permitting), so do contact me and I will do what I can to help.

Victorians against the Gallows!

alison-cullingford — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:52:40 +0000

A forthcoming book from our colleague, Dr James Gregory, lecturer in modern British history, will explore a fascinating aspect of Victorian Britain: “the gallows question” – should capital punishment be abolished? Dr Gregory considers movements to abolish it. He also looks at the treatment of capital punishment in literature of the time and how it fitted into ideas about philanthropy and morality. “Victorians against the Gallows” will be published by IB Tauris this autumn.

Welcome to Windyridge: and other stories, Autumn News now out.

alison-cullingford — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:15:29 +0000

The Autumn 2011 issue of Special Collections News is now online, full of news and pictures about Special Collections activities:

Flyer for Riley and Riley, the family firm of Willie Riley (RIL 10/2). Click for more detail! Anyone know anything about the "Arbee" specialities??

Welcome to Windyridge: Willie Riley’s archive catalogued.
100 Objects set the Pace: project wins prize.
Jacquetta gets Better: new detailed lists of the most important parts of the Jacquetta Hawkes Archive.
Holdens Untangled: project to share the riches of this fantastic 19th century Bradford archive.
Farewell John Brooker: our Assistant has moved to pastures new.
Reading Room Reshuffled: better spaces for readers and books.

Check out our News page to find out other ways to keep in touch.

Learn about Priestley in Lakeland

alison-cullingford — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:53:45 +0000

A new venture for my colleagues in the J.B. Priestley Society. They are running a day course all about Priestley at Higham Hall on Saturday 5 November 2011 (that’s an easy date to remember!). The Hall is an educational trust located on the northern edge of the Lake District; it runs fascinating short courses for adults on art history, literature, music, crafts etc. The Priestley day will include sessions on Priestley’s writings of the 1930s and the Second World War, his links with local author Hugh Walpole, and his wonderful play The Linden Tree, all presented by experts from the Society.

Society members will be receiving full details by post. The event is open to all: find out more on the Hall’s events page.

Untangling the Holdens again

alison-cullingford — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:10:38 +0000

Back in June, I mentioned that we were part of a giant group of libraries bidding for funds to digitise industrial archives, including the Holden Papers. Such archives are often particularly difficult for users to access and comprehend, with information locked away in tricky and fragile formats. Unfortunately, I heard this week that our bid was unsuccessful. There was huge competition for the funding: I gather that there were 67 other bids! Which just goes to show how much wonderful material is hidden from public view for lack of funding.

Anyway, it’s disappointing, but the process of applying did bring us lots of new contacts: we hope to continue to work together. Meanwhile I’m reflecting on how to continue the inhouse phase of the Untangling project. While not on the scale of the work for which we applied, this super new list will really help us to help readers understand this major archive.

Wanted: Graduate Trainee

alison-cullingford — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:52:41 +0000

We’re looking for a new graduate trainee to join the library at Bradford University. Here’s the advert which includes full info about how to apply: closing date 26 October. The post is fixed-term and aimed at graduates seeking professional careers in librarianship.

Just so you’re clear, this is not a Special Collections role, it covers the whole library. You’d get great grounding in all aspects of librarianship (including Special Collections of course) from a friendly team who have really appreciated the help and enthusiasm our many excellent former GTs have brought to the role. You can see this in the posts by Jen Fox and Maria O’Hara, last year’s graduate trainees, about working on the Untangling the Holdens project.

Anyway, good luck to everyone who applies and I look forward to meeting and working with the successful candidate!

Farewell: A Guest Post by John Brooker

alison-cullingford — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:15:46 +0000

John Brooker, our Special Collections Assistant, leaves us on 11 October for pastures new. John has contributed hugely to the work of Special Collections and he will be much missed! John kindly wrote this post on his experiences:

“I started working in Special Collections in 2000, on secondment from the university library counter team. I had previously worked in public libraries in London, so had lots of experience of books, readers and library systems, but not of archives, rare books or other heritage materials.

Initially I worked on book cataloguing, which was fairly familiar. Soon I was working on archives, and wondering what ISAD(G)2 stood for. I began to discover the enchantment of archives while working on the J.B. Priestley Archive. Then it was back to cataloguing Arthur Raistrick’s maps, which meant finding the number of inches in a chain. Meanwhile I was also working on preservation of collections: making phase boxes for books, monitoring the temperature and humidity in our stores, and finding out how to avoid conditions that favour pests and mould. As a member of the library’s disaster team I learned how to salvage water-damaged books, then trained my colleagues. One of my odder tasks has been to carefully half-submerge books for use in salvage practice.

Supplying copies at first meant photocopying, but I moved on to scanning and then photography to supply images from books and archives, and also pictures of maps, paintings, colleagues, milk-bottles, and cakes. And recently we have moved on again, to digital video for our online exhibition.

There has been much to learn, in many different areas. I hope that my successor enjoys the learning process and the variety as much I have.”