CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Newsletter Issue 116 March 2021 Dante and Beatrice: Paradiso 26. Dante, La comedia di Dante Aligieri (Venice: Marcolini, 1544) UCL STRONG ROOM C 1544 Image courtesy of UCL Special Collections Issued March 2021 © CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group and contributors. ISSN 0959 1656 1 Contents Editors notes 2 News from the Committee 3 Day Events update 5 Obituary: Robert Donaldson 6 Upcoming Events 7 Reviews 9 CILIP RBSCG Committee Members 12 Editors’ notes Welcome to the Spring 2021 issue of the Newsletter and we hope you are all well after a challenging twelve months. Since our last issue in the autumn exploring the exciting opportunities of reopening and lockdown working, many of us have once again been working away from our collections, staying at home and experiencing furlough. With this in mind, we have a slightly lighter issue for you, particularly aware that many colleagues are experiencing restructures, job cuts and the continuing uncertainty which the pandemic brings. At the time of writing, all UK nations are looking forward to a gradual reopening which we hope bodes well for the future. Despite the challenges (or perhaps because we’re getting used to them) the Committee has continued to be active. In these pages you’ll find an update on advocacy from our Chair, Sarah Mahurter, who has been leading the robust and speedy response of the Group to various threats to collections. In our ‘new normal’ or digital get togethers, there are updates about our much missed annual conference which will go ahead online, and the continuing success of ‘In Conversation’ day events. We would also like to thank Brian Hillyard for contributing an obituary for Robert Donaldson, past Chair of the Group. We wish you a hopeful spring and would love to hear about your collections plans for the year ahead, or any interesting activity you’ve been able to work on through the lockdown. Please do let us know if you would like to advertise any exhibitions or events, which we can also share via our social media platforms. Keep safe and well! Jane and Karen (co-editors) [email protected] [email protected] 2 News from the Committee Advocacy for Collections at Risk Advocacy is a core value of the CILIP RBSCG. It has never been so necessary to live out this value and champion rare book and art collections and the expertise of staff who care for them. Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, we have witnessed reviews considering the role of expert staff and access to rare collections across major and national institutions including The National Trust, The Wallace Collection and The National Art Library at the V&A Museum, as well as National Library of Wales and some university library and archive services. Members will see from the open letters published on our web pages that we have actively joined the campaigns for these staff and collections. Whilst professionals across the GLAM sector understand that change is an ongoing force in our lives, bringing us opportunity for development and new vision, we strive to preserve the fabric of the heritage embodied in our collections and the roles of skilled staff who make them available as a reference point for knowledge and learning. Each of the institutions that RBSCG has written to has revisited its plans and travelled from its original position in response to the campaigns to which we have added our voice. There is some further distance to travel and I suspect that there will be many more campaigns to join, as we emerge from the pandemic and fully understand its legacy across our sector. I am heartened by the shifts in position that we have seen, which vindicate the work and values to which our profession is dedicated. Through our advocacy, this Group has contributed to conversations with Nick Poole (CEO CILIP), ARLIS/UK & Ireland, RLUK and SCONUL to bring a strength of unity to the advocacy. Together, we will influence the direction of the developments that we see around and before us. Advocacy remains a core value of the Group and we will continue to be active in supporting the skills, expertise and collections that we want to hand on to future generations. Sarah Mahurter Chair, RBSCG You can see the letters on the RBSCG website at: https://www.cilip.org.uk/members/group_content_view.asp?group=201312&id=690468 Conference update The CILIP Rare Books & Special Collections Group 2021 annual study conference, “The appliance of science: what might developments in science and technology mean for Special Collections?” will take place online via Zoom on 7th and 8th September, with attendance free to all. The conference will consider how developments in technology, and new techniques in heritage science and biomedical science, are adding to and changing our understanding of our collections. It will shed light on recent developments and will consider the implications for our collection knowledge, collection stewardship, and how we preserve and share these collections into the future. Confirmed speakers include Paola Ricciardi (Fitzwilliam Museum) and Lora Angelova (National Archives) on different analytical techniques and their applications; Kathryn Rudy (St Andrews University) and Eileen Tisdall (University of Stirling) on the possibilities of pollen analysis in recreating past journeys of books and manuscripts; and Martin Hamilton (independent writer, 3 futurist, and innovation adviser) on Artificial Intelligence and special collections. Other topics include passive preservation, ethical sampling and destructive testing, and ink analysis in forgery detection. A full programme and instructions on how to register will be published on the web and social media ahead of the conference. Bob MacLean Conference Organiser 2021, RBSCG New IFLA Competency Guidelines produced In December 2020, IFLA published their new ‘Competency Guidelines for Rare Books and Special Collections Professionals’. These guidelines are intended to form a basis for training to ensure that professionals can develop the relevant competencies and continue to uphold stringent ethical standards as stewards of cultural heritage materials. “These guidelines outline the competencies developed for all library professionals who work with special collections materials, both analog and digital. They provide direction and focus for special collections professionals to facilitate their own career development, as well as to manage their special collections in line with their institutional policies and user needs.” IFLA, 18 December 2020 The full Guidelines can be downloaded via the IFLA website at www.ifla.org/publications/node/93544. 4 Day Events update: In Conversation: Tech Tools for Engagement 25 February marked the return of the RBSCG in Conversation series of online events with a discussion of Tech Tools for Engagement led by Tabitha Tuckett, Rare-Books Librarian: Academic Support And Events at University College London. For those who have not yet attended an “In Conversation” event, they are an informal discussion forum for members of the rare books and special collections community to share questions, concerns, and creative solutions to current issues. The events are free and open to all, regardless of membership status or geographic location. February’s session looked at various methods of showing collection items live online, whether for teaching, events, readers, or other purposes, and producing and hosting videos and asynchronous resources to support teaching and engagement. There was clearly an appetite for information on this topic; the session attracted approximately 130 participants from the UK, USA, Europe, and even India, making it RBSCG’s largest online event to date. The discussion included a comparison of various platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams for holding live events, and the pros and cons of different types of equipment such as visualisers, webcams, and even smartphones for capturing video of collections materials. Other topics included techniques for conveying the materiality of collections, and ways of engaging audiences and collecting feedback in a virtual environment. At the end of the session, participants were invited to try connecting to Zoom with a smartphone or other second device to use as a document camera. The notes from the discussion, including directions for connecting additional devices, generating attendance reports in MS Teams and Zoom, and enabling automated captioning and transcripts, as well as a list of additional resources, are freely available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y11EkimC4nJWhXfyT-2d6VO7zBQ2- rNzj10ivqVhIIU/edit?usp=sharing The following RBSCG in Conversation event, at 3:30-4:30pm on 25 March, was a discussion of why and how we document provenance information, led by Hugh Cahill, Senior Librarian at Lambeth Palace Library. Notes from this event will be shared in a future newsletter. The notes from other past events can be found here: ● Remote Work for Special Collections: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vK1PGvCT29tR04ZssA0T5qIwqF8hnBRecDwJsHoNb7 0/edit?usp=sharing ● Re-opening Reading Rooms: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SevfqV5htTlPu6hKY8rFYFwekSwjWdXP_R0MJ3FKIBc /edit?usp=sharing We are always looking for discussion leaders and note-takers for RBSCG events. To get involved, get in touch with Christine Megowan, RBSCG Day Events Coordinator, at [email protected]. If there is an event or training session that you would like to see from RBSCG in the future, you can email Christine directly or use our Day Event Suggestion form here: https://forms.gle/XgSNQ4Psp8vqTmYN6 Christine Megowan Day Events Co-ordinator, RBSCG 5 Obituary: Robert Donaldson, 1926-2021 Robert Donaldson died in Edinburgh on 11 January this year, aged 94. Robert was a stalwart of the Group's Committee, from 1975 until 1988, holding the offices of Vice-Chair in 1980-1982 and Chair in 1983-1986, all this involving frequent travel between Edinburgh and London. His time as Chair was particularly memorable as he oversaw the publication (1984) of the first edition of the ground- breaking Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.