The Friendsnewsnews’ Friends’Friends’Spring/Summer 2008 Friends’ Registered Charity No. SCO 09009 FRIENDS’ ACTIVITIES Once again we welcome all new and established Friends to our News and Dates for your Diary trust that we will have the pleasure of your company at one of our forthcoming events. THE FRIENDS OF UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Friends’ Membership Cards Please bring your Membership Card Spring / Summer Meeting with you when you use the University Library if you have no other Library Queen Mother Library Seminar Room membership identification. This will Aberdeen University Library also mean quicker access when you Bedford Road, Aberdeen come to Friends events. Thursday 15 May 2008 Remember that as Friends you are AGM at 7.00 pm followed at 7.30 pm by entitled to 10% off George Washington Wilson items from Queen Mother Northness: Aberdeen’s northern connections Library CopyShop. by Neil Curtis, Senior Curator, Marischal Museum Single copies of the postcards which the Friends funded recently, depicting some of the Treasures held in Special Libraries and Archives, are available from the CopyShop in Queen Mother Library at 25p each.

Inuit Boat

Fur Coat for half-Inuit Lady

Aberdeen has had many and varied connections with the Baltic, Scandinavia, the North Atlantic and Canada, including the Scots Colony in Danzig, the Canadian fur trade and the whaling industry. This talk will explore some of these connections through a focus on objects in the University’s museum collections.

Those of you within easy reach of Aberdeen may also be interested to see the current display in Marischal Museum (until 11 May) which also has a similar theme: Material Histories, exploring the links between the North-East of and the fur trade in Northern Canada. The Friends of Aberdeen University Library Principal’s Reception at Chanonry Lodge, Links with the by kind permission of the Principal Alumnus Association Professor C Many of you will know of the Thursday 12 June at 5.30 pm University of Aberdeen Alumnus Association, for Aberdeen graduates, and we are aiming to have closer ties with the Association in the future.

We will be advertising events reciprocally which should help to swell the numbers and provide added attractions for each group. You may thus have seen new faces at the Librarian’s talk to us in March.

Any Friends of the Library who are graduates of Aberdeen may go to Alumnus meetings as a guest of someone who is already a member. Chanonry Lodge If you’re interested in joining the Once again the Principal has very kindly extended to us the hospitality of Alumnus Association please Chanonry Lodge - and garden, weather permitting - for a recruiting evening. contact the Secretary: The occasion is primarily aimed at potential new Friends and number restrictions mean that regrettably only existing Friends who bring a potential new member Mrs Gail Murdoch, e-mail: can be accommodated. [email protected] tel: 01224 594536 If you would like to come in this capacity, please let us know by Friday 2 May and tell us the number of guests you’ll be bringing. Please contact: Sheona Farquhar e-mail [email protected] or tel: 01224 273773

A model of the new Library building will be available to see in the Old Town House, High Street, Old Aberdeen, immediately before the evening at Chanonry Lodge. Please feel free to turn up at the Old Town House between 4.45 pm and 5.15 pm, when the University Librarian, Chris Banks, will be there to explain our plans and answer any of your questions. There is no need to book for this. Friends Web site

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/ library/friends/

2 Autumn / Winter 2007 by the US embassy about the rising failure very close to the Swiss border Meeting politician Adolf Hitler, of whom he had to let Putzi escape. never heard, although Hitler had then heard of him. Putzi went to one of the He made his way to London, but made original Bierkeller rallies and, as many an enemy of Lord Beaverbrook by Our Autumn / Winter Meeting on 15th genuinely cultured persons then were, raising a successful libel action November saw a welcome return was greatly impressed. An invitation to against his newspapers. The result from our President. Jack Webster is, Hitler to the Hanfstaengl family villa seems to have been that when he was of course, an acclaimed author and gave Hitler an access to German high interned on the outbreak of war journalist and would, we knew, give society which he might have been Beaverbrook had him transferred to us a lively evening. This time he unlikely to achieve otherwise. Canada under house arrest. However spoke to us on Ernst Hanfstaengl a personal phone call to President (1887-1975), a mentor to Hitler and Although he never joined the Nazi Roosevelt quickly had him friend of Winston Churchill, whom party, Putzi was tarred with the brush transferred to Washington as an Jack interviewed. of the failed Putsch and took refuge in adviser on Hitler’s mentality and Austria, while Hitler hid at the motivations. He was placed under He provided us with the story of an Hanfstaengl villa before being military guard, but the guard was his intriguing international figure, whose imprisoned. own son whom Putzi had sent to wife once prevented Hitler from America on the outbreak of war and committing suicide, and also gave us However in 1933 Hitler was elected who had then joined the US Army. yet another fascinating glimpse into and immediately took Jack’s own professional life as author advantage of Putzi’s world-wide Putzi returned to the family home in and journalist. contacts (including friendship with Bob Munich after the war, largely Boothby, the MP for Aberdeenshire) by forgotten by Germans, but Jack had Professor Mike Meston give a flavour appointing him Press chief of the Nazi been interested in a brief BBC feature of the evening below. party. But Putzi was not always about him and succeeded in making politically correct, was disliked by the contact with him, developing a likes of Goering and Ribbentrop, and, friendship over several years. when he became more aware of Hitler’s Hitler’s Mentor - true nature, was probably indiscreet in Ernst ‘Putzi’ Hanfstaengl his comments. Our President’s most stimulating address was warmly received by the In 1937 he was asked to fly to Spain in many Friends that evening and a vote The evening began with a short Hitler’s private plane, ostensibly to of thanks was proposed by Graham Special General Meeting, at which obtain better access for German Hunter. a technical amendment to the journalists. The pilot however warned Friends’ Constitution was approved him that it was actually a Gestapo plot Professor Mike Meston – Friends’ to comply with new regulations to kill him and arranged an engine Committee issued by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

We were then delighted and privileged to have our President, Jack Webster, with us to give a fascinating talk with the intriguing title, Hitler’s Mentor.

The mentor in question was Dr Ernst (‘Putzi’) Hanfstaengl, who had moved in the highest society in Germany, Britain and the USA. A semi-aristocrat in Munich, he had studied at Harvard, knew the future President Roosevelt and ran a family business in New York until the 1920s; he was also a high grade pianist. Ernst ‘Putzi’ Hanfstaengl together with Adolf Hitler, at Cafe Heck in On returning to Munich he was asked Munich in the 1920s (when he acted as Hitler’s Press Agent) 3 Postscript The Life of Marischal Museum Lewis Grassic Gibbon Lectures Jack Webster’s Aberdeen Enclosed with the Autumn / Many Friends will know that Jack Winter issue of the Friends’ News Webster’s latest publication, Jack was a copy of the brochure for the Webster’s Aberdeen (Birlinn, 2007, Marischal Museum Tuesday ISBN 978 184158472 price £20), is lecture series, held in the Lecture now available. Theatre at Museum. The lectures will continue to be held here until the end of the current series, the final three being:

Tuesday 13 May Art and history into life: the pageant revival in Scotland Juliette Kinchin, University of Glasgow (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland – Free) As we all know, Jack’s busy life of research and publication never stops and for those interested in Lewis Tuesday 27 May In this new book Jack does not attempt Grassic Gibbon (the pen-name of James ‘The Old Ship Zion’: to emulate the previous histories of Leslie Mitchell) and his entrancing and the city but condenses the knowledge immortal Scots Quair trilogy Jack had using the trawler radio and wisdom of past research and his yet another treat in store for us. band to transmit gospel own experience. songs among North-East For two performances at the end of Scottish fishermen Frances From Robert the Bruce to Willie March, Aberdeen’s His Majesty’s Wilkins Miller, Isaac Benzie and Raggie Theatre put on Grassic Gibbon, (Elphinstone Institute - £2) Morrison to Cocky Hunter and Ma fulfilling Jack’s ambition for many Cameron, and bringing us up to date years to stage a performance of Grassic with Annie Lennox and Donald Gibbon’s life story. Trump, there are fascinating tales of Tuesday 10 June How old are the stave war and peace and everything from It took us from the author’s early years churches? school and university to the history in Auchterless and Arbuthnott to his of sport, cinema and theatre, later life in Welwyn Garden City, Dr Ola Storsletten, stretching from Lillie Langtry to Hertfordshire, from the struggle for The Norwegian Institute for Harry Gordon and Scotland the What? recognition in his youth to his Cultural Heritage Research successful years and premature death (Society of Antiquaries of There are thanks to so many people at the age of 34. Scotland – Free) including the staff in Historic Collections and Graham Hunter, our Not only was Jack himself in the www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/ Treasurer. An enthralling read. audience but also Grassic Gibbon’s son, historic/museum/ who lives in Devon - a rare treat indeed. Jack previewed his new book at one lectures.shtml of the Music Hall’s ‘Look Who’s The gestation for this most marvellous Talking’ lunchtime talks in October. production is given in the University’s The Aberdeen magazine January 2008 p29, Man of Mearns: Jack Webster pays tribute to his North-east literary hero and the inspiration for his first play. 4 Tales from the Stave: proceeded to captivate the large listed – manuscripts, both sketches Elgar’s other ‘Enigma’ audience with an absorbing account of and scores; printed music; books; by the work of the British Library Music letters and papers of composers; Collection. This was illustrated by the sound recordings; journals and Chris Banks, Librarian, archival material relating to the newspapers. They were acquired for University of Aberdeen evolution of a major music score, the Collection by gift, bequest, Edward Elgar’s eloquent violin purchase, loan and legal deposit. concerto. In the talk extracts on music manuscript were shown and short recorded passages from the concerto played. The talk continued with Chris Banks’ vision for the University’s new library The concerto began its written and its collections. existence on fragments of paper. In 1909 Elgar started a new sketch book She saw the new building providing and in it appears part of the work. Some the opportunity to unite the present of the early manuscripts revealed large stock, the historic archive and the parts of the initial composition erased books in store in ideal conditions. with only small sections marked to be Dedicated areas will furnish scope for retained, providing an insight into his exhibitions, readings and musical method of working. Elgar worked recitals: it is a building that has towards completing the violin part of already been an inspiration to artists the concerto, rehearsing this with his and musicians. own piano accompaniment, the full Chris Banks enthusiastically took up orchestration being completed later. This section of the address concluded the invitation from the Friends’ with a brief outline of the structure Executive Committee to speak to us The progress of the work was further of the planned building with its views at our Spring meeting and you were illuminated by quoted extracts from the up through an open atrium. all keen to come to hear what she had diary of Elgar’s wife, letters to friends to say. and comments by music critics such as Chris ended with an explanation of Ernest Newman. Proofs of the nearly- the title of her talk. The manuscript Chris worked at the British Library completed score in the British Library bears the dedication, ‘Herein is for 20 years before joining the showed heavy annotation, some in enshrined the soul of …..’ The University of Aberdeen last Autumn. Elgar’s own hand. Finally the concerto enigma is the identity of the soul – At the BL she spent much of her time was performed in 1910 with Fritz perhaps of his wife, Alice, or some working with its Music Collections Kreisler as the soloist and was other lady with five letters in her and in this talk for the Friends she enthusiastically received. name. We will never be sure! illustrated the range of those collections through one work, Elgar’s Further illustrated archival material Professor Mike Meston proposed a Violin Concerto in B minor. held in the British Library Music vote of thanks for a memorable talk, Collection included letters referring to endorsed by an appreciative audience. Professor Derek Ogston writes: the good ticket sales, the favourable (Friends’ Committe) writes: press reception, copies of the programme and tickets, records of the On the 13th March members of the printing costs of the score, and the Friends of the Library and the royalty and copyright payments. Alumnus Association with guests met in the Seminar Room of the Queen Elgar realised the potential of the Mother Library. They were welcomed gramophone and made a number of by Roy Thomson our Chairman, who recordings of his own music, the most introduced Chris Banks, appointed as celebrated being the historic recording the University Librarian last autumn. of the violin concerto made in 1932 with the sixteen-year old Yehudi Chris began by outlining her own Menuhin as soloist and Elgar as career with over twenty years in the conductor. British Library, much of it working for its Music Collection and latterly The types of material held in the Music as Head of Music Collections. She Collection of the British Library were 5 The following interview appeared in of Reference and Research with collegiate feel and also that it is so Information Scotland, the journal of additional responsibility for the budget close to a bustling and culturally alive CILIPS, the Chartered Institute of for electronic resources. I moved from city centre. On top of that I have Library and Information Professionals managing a team of 13 to a large staff exchanged a three-tube commute in in Scotland, Vol. 5 (5), October 2007. of 95. each direction for a three minute walk! It is reproduced here, with updatings, by permission of the Editor of that What do you consider to be your journal and of Chris Banks. biggest achievements in your career What do you expect the biggest so far? difference will be between working at the British Library and working Career crescendo: interview with I think these have been in the areas of at the University of Aberdeen? Chris Banks, the new Aberdeen opening up collections to wider University Librarian audiences, both from the resource I’m sure it will be different in all sorts discovery point of view (working in of areas - not least that students can Chris moved from the British Library partnership with higher education) and borrow material! There will be the to her new post as the University also through activities intended for opportunity of working closely with embarks on the creation of a new wider audiences: exhibitions, public the academic staff on developing the £57m library. events and via the broadcast media. Library’s collections so that they are immediately relevant to the research The BBC Radio 4 series Tales from the and student communities. Stave, presented by Frances Fyfield, Why did you enter the library / reached large audiences through the information profession? unlikely route of talking about one What do you consider will be the manuscript and examining it from the biggest challenges in your new I came to the profession through the physical, biographical and cultural post? field of music. I took a taught Masters perspectives. Inter alia the programmes degree in Historical Musicology - a helped to illustrate just why we keep I thought the greatest challenge skills-based course which included such historic documents and what else, would be building up a new network elements of palaeography, aside from the main intellectual from scratch but that happened really transcription, editing, etc, - before ‘content’, those documents might quickly. A big challenge will be entering the book trade, working for reveal. working with the fundraising team on an antiquarian music dealer. raising the remainder of the capital for the new building. Resource My first foray into librarianship was What prompted your wish to discovery is also very important in with the Library of English National move to the academic sector enhancing access to the heritage Opera and then in 1986 a job came ... and to Scotland? collections. up on the British Library Curatorial Team in Music. This was a My last task as a Head of Music cataloguing post which also involved Collections at the British Library took What will be your main priorities working with manuscripts, me to Aberdeen and while there I asked in your new post? exhibitions and reader services. for a tour around the Library. Not long after that it emerged that the job These are multifaceted. Getting to In 1995 I was appointed Curator of opportunity was there. I was very know the institutional priorities and Manuscript Music at the British interested in the chance to move on to who the key players are is important. Library with a remit to implement the something bigger, and to be involved As for the new building, we will be integration of the manuscript music in such a landmark building project - a bringing together two elements of the collections with the printed chance that few librarians get in their collections which have been separate collections and the move of the lives. I find the prospect enormously - Historic Collections and the main manuscripts to the St Pancras exciting: we are creating a national Library collections and their building, where they are now resource, one which will enable us to associated staff and functions. available as part of a holistic music open up our historic collections Engagement with the wider service. In 1999, I additionally alongside our main library resources. community is another priority: the became Deputy Music Librarian. In ground floor of the new building is 2003 I was appointed Head of Music I have friends in Scotland and I adore designed as a public space and will Collections. the countryside. Everyone has been have a wider role to play. incredibly friendly and welcoming. I My last big move took me out of love Old Aberdeen and the way it has a music librarianship to become Head 6 What do you think are the current Under the title Green light we are also of us would recognise. “The Library major threats to - and opportunities given the nail-biting background to the is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. for - the academic sector of the last minute appearance of the You go through all these periods in profession? Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair your university career, with ups and Darling (a Law graduate from downs, and the library is just that For some there can be a general Aberdeen), at a London reception to constant thing that’s always there, and perception that everything relevant is share the University’s ambitious plans you’re always there, whether you’re available on the web, that it is full- for the new Library. having a good day or a bad day, or a text and that libraries are no longer quick day or a slow day. It’s just such ‘places’ - a challenge for an institution Morten Schmidt, from the Danish a big thing in a student’s life. It’s the building a new one! We know that architectural firm which won the focal point.” many students will start their research international competition, schmidt with the web and that alarming hammer lassen, explained how the new Edinburgh, like us, seeks to show new numbers don’t necessarily feel the building should “radiate” knowledge to ways to make accessible and promote need to know about library catalogues. the surrounding world. His bywords its Special Collections. “For some were light, height, flexibility and space. students a highlight of their student There is the gap between aspiration As well as being the University’s career is the chance to view and and funding: electronic resources and intellectual hub and a place for staff and handle a rare and beautiful object.” digitisation programmes are students to mingle and connect, the Again, we, too, hope to emphasise expensive; increasing and varied Library is also to be a multi-faceted this part of the University’s demands on library spaces brings a cultural centre for both the academic collections and many of us will cost; ensuring that we remain relevant community and the city of Aberdeen. empathise with this response. and don’t stand still has all sorts of resource implications and we mustn’t Everyone at the London reception drank So we’re doing the right thing lose sight of ensuring that our unique happily to realising the dream of a planning for a new Library! But items are discoverable. The “Library fit for purpose in the 21st unlike Edinburgh, we’re not technology brings opportunities - it is century”. anticipating transferring Careers, there to help us open up collections, Counselling and Disability services especially for those not physically from the new student ‘Hub’ building able to get to them. to the Library. The December issue of Information How would you encourage someone Scotland included an article on the considering entering the library University of Edinburgh Library’s and information profession today? rebuild project’ in the context of the current ‘great wave of university library Byrds and Banks … I love it that no two days are alike; transformation’, which included that there are some really wonderful Aberdeen in its listing. In the article the William Byrd and Richard Turbet and talented people (worldwide) in Director of Library Services there, will be names familiar to many of our profession; and that the Sheila Cannell, made several very you, Richard being a member of the opportunity to be entrepreneurial in a telling, pertinent - and comforting! – Library staff and author of the public /’not for profit’ environment points. definitive work on Byrd, the greatest English composer of the 16th century. She feels that the digital library can be an isolating experience for students and Richard has been on the staff for 30 researchers because it delivers the years, primarily involved in information and resources they require cataloguing work, more recently the directly to them; but the physical library Stationers Hall and Sir Walter Scott Progress on the can counterbalance this by providing a Collections, both in Special Libraries. lively intellectual environment for New Library To celebrate this landmark and his ‘conversation’. Students report that 60th birthday, the University when they come to the library they Department of Music put on a special The University’s The Aberdeen revert to a work and study mindset, concert in King’s College Chapel in magazine: intelligent conversation helped by being surrounded by books, February. from the University of Aberdeen for which they see as the collective wisdom January 2008 p9-11 keeps up its of past generations of scholars. Richard was asked to choose a coverage on the progress of the programme of Byrd’s music, which planning of the new Library. One student spoke about his time at was prefaced by a new short work Edinburgh in a way that I’m sure many written especially to mark the

7 occasion by Pete Stollery, Head of 500 Years of Printing Aberdeen University’s the Department of Music and in Scotland Writers Festival: Professor of Electroacoustic Music Word 2008 and Composition. This piece, entitled Showing on the top floor of Provost ‘b3:dz’ (pronounced “birds”), for Skene’s House in Aberdeen until 25 Items in this year’s Word Festival organ and digital sound, was October is a fascinating exhibition may have particular interest for projected over 8 loudspeakers and entitled The Local Word and Image: Friends - if you’re quick!. drew on various Byrd and bird pieces 500 years of printing in Scotland to wish Richard a Happy Byrdday. which Friends in the North East may The Festival takes place from Friday be interested in visiting. 9th - Sunday 11th May, on the Old Also included in the concert was a Aberdeen Campus and at some selection of Byrd’s compositions The display examines the history of venues in the city centre. For the from the manuscript now known as printing in Aberdeen. Edward Raban, first time most events have an My Ladye Nevells Booke, completed Aberdeen’s first printer, was appointed admission charge but in fact the two in 1591. The work, consisting of 42 in 1622 and worked for both the city significant for us don’t. compositions for keyboard by Byrd, and King’s and Marischal Colleges. was in private hands until 2006 Tickets should be booked in advance when, after an arduous and sustained from Aberdeen Box Office on: campaign of fundraising, it was 01224 6441122 or online at: purchased for the nation and housed www.abdn.ac.uk/word/tickets in the British Library.

Leader of this successful fundraising Friday 9 May at 4.30 pm was our own University Librarian, The Linklater Lecture Chris Banks, when she was Head of David Hewitt on Walter Scott Music Collections there. Her final King’s College Centre duty in this post was a seminar on Edward Raban, Aberdeen’s first printer My Ladye Nevells Booke in Friends will remember the stimulating Aberdeen’s Department of Music. Many of the most important printed evening we had a few years ago when books and documents on display have we heard David Hewitt, Regius Rounding this off so well was the fact been brought together from a variety of Professor of Scottish Literature, speak that at Richard’s concert Chris sang different sources for the first time. to us on the marvellous collection of items from the manuscript with other Scott manuscripts, publications and members of the University’s vocal memorabilia which the University had ensemble. recently bought and which has now been catalogued for Special Collections.

A Historic First for Professor Hewitt is also Editor-in-Chief of the Edinburgh edition of the As a postscript to this, Aberdeen Art Aberdeen … Waverley novels, the first scholarly Gallery will host the first showing edition of Scott’s fiction, published in in Scotland of the My Ladye Nevells Apparently, in 1923, without much 30 volumes by EUP. This massive Booke manuscript from 10 May 2008 fanfare, the first woman was elected to achievement has revolutionised ideas of to 02 Aug 2008. the Council of the Scottish Library Scott and his work and the theme of the Association, the professional body for lecture will be: A Reformed Scott. It is one of the most beautifully library staff in Scotland. The lady so written music manuscripts to survive honoured was Miss Maud S Best, sub- Saturday 10th May at 11.00 am from the late 16th century and is still librarian at Aberdeen University The Beast is Beautiful preserved in its original ornate Library. King’s College Centre binding. Chris Banks has been invited to talk about the manuscript Since than, of course, Michael A chance to have yet another at a reception and concert given by Smethurst, whom many of you will enthralling session with Dr Jane the Friends of remember, held the same position in the Geddes, from the History of Art and Museums. 1970s, but it is gratifying to think that Department, and a regular speaker we were at the forefront of such an at Friends’ evenings over the last accolade. few years.

Dr Geddes will be one of a distinguished panel chaired by Alan

8 Taylor, editor of the Sunday Herald, Thanks to you … which will discuss the Aberdeen Bestiary, one of our greatest Dr Iain Beavan, Head, Special Libraries and Archives, asked for funding from treasures, the richly illuminated the Friends to allow his Department to purchase two volumes of importance. medieval manuscript cared for by The works will distinctly enhance Aberdeen’s early modern collections and Special Collections. The panel will provide research resources for members of the University’s Centre for Early discuss this collection of moralising Modern Studies. Professor Jane Stevenson (Latin) and Professor Peter stories about animals - the Davidson (Renaissance Studies) both gave the volumes a high Bestiary’s meaning, source and recommendation. creation. The cost of purchasing these works was shared with the National Fund for Acquisitions. Friends may also be interested to ——————————— know that Siobhan Convery, Archivist in Special Libraries and Philip Sidney The Countess of Pembrokes Arcadia London, 1613 £1,300 Archives, who spoke to us so inspiringly a few years ago on her A poet, courtier and soldier, Sir Philip Sidney’s writings and specifically work here, features in the Word Arcadia, are central to early modern English and European literary studies. ‘Schools Festival’, 6 – 8 May. However we have no early editions of the work, a noticeable gap in our otherwise very early strong modern holdings. Our earliest edition currently is She is leading a ‘Written Treasures dated 1662 and we have 18th century editions but for research scholars are Workshop’ for Primary 5 – 7s on the reliant on 19th century reprints and more recent scholarly editions. art of making books. They will learn about scribes, illuminators and Ironically, over 350 years ago, Marischal College owned a copy of this 1613 printers, try using a quill and edition, bequeathed in 1624, but lost by 1720. We have no reason to believe discover hidden treasures from the that this latest volume is our missing one! collections.

QML Copyshop A range of images in full colour Jean-Jacques Boissard De divinatione 1615 £1,300 taken from the original paintings, and GWW in black & white The Library has several 16th and All A4 size, mounted and sealed in 17th century editions of cellophane bag Boissard’s works but not this £17 particular text. What is particularly important and significant is the quality and range of the illustrations, thus of value to History of Art within the University and more generally for Renaissance studies and research. The engravings by Jean-Theodore De Bry and his father are held in high regard and found in many public collections.

The book also includes depictions of the Sibyls, the 17th century paintings in Marischal Museum and which have been the subject of considerable art- historical research. None of us who were at Dr Mary Pryor’s talk to the Friends a few years ago will forget that enthralling evening.

9 Donations Friends of Aberdeen Jennifer Beavan University Library

We are delighted and most grateful to have been receiving from Executive Committee a former member of staff regular donations to the Friends. President Many of you will recognise the name and many more would Mr Jack Webster recognise the face of Jennifer Beavan, a member of the Library staff for the more than 30 years of her professional life. Jennifer Chair always worked in a ‘front-of-house’ post, ideally suited to her Mr Roy H Thomson friendly manner and years of knowledge and experience of the whole Library system and its idiosyncracies. Honorary Treasurer Mr Graham Hunter Latterly Jennifer was Head of Reader Services in QML but over Honorary Secretary the years she had a remit also for many aspects of behind-the- Miss Christine A Miller scenes work, which the Library depended on for its smooth running such as staff training, implementing disability and health Honorary and safety legislation, and planning the Ground Floor Membership Secretary information and circulation points. Miss Sheona C Farquhar

Her ready wit and vast knowledge of literature, history, cinema Members and almost anything else which was required of her made Mrs Chris Banks Jennifer a bedrock of the University Library for years and she University Librarian left a very obvious gap on her retiral two years ago. Professor Chris Gane Vice-Principal Sadly, since then, Jennifer’s ill-health has caught up with her (Library and Information Services) Professor Michael C Meston but she is always keen to hear the latest news of the Library and Professor Bill Nicolaisen the many staff she knew here. Professor Derek Ogston Miss Eilidh M Scobbie We much appreciate Jennifer remembering the Friends in this Mrs Helen F Stevenson way and send her our very best wishes.

QML, Taylor and the Medical Library Monday - Saturday 9.00 am - 10.00 pm Friends (all close at 8.00pm on Fridays) Sunday 11.00 am - 10.00 pm (QML) Web site 1.00pm - 10.00pm (Taylor and Medical)

Special Libraries http://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/friends/ Monday - Friday 9.30 am - 4.30 pm The Friends of Aberdeen University Library produced by QML Reprographics Unit