University of Glasgow Library: Archives and Special Collections Annual Report: August 2015-July 2016 Contents 1. Highlights of the year .......................................................................................................................... 2 2. Delivering excellent research support ................................................................................................. 4 2.1 Knowledge exchange ................................................................................................................ 4 2.2 Impact and research outputs .................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Enhancing research resources ................................................................................................. 6 2.4 New acquisitions ....................................................................................................................... 9 2.5 Digital engagement ................................................................................................................. 10 3. Delivering excellent student experience ........................................................................................... 12 3.1 Work related learning .............................................................................................................. 12 3.2 Skills training and teaching sessions ...................................................................................... 12 3.3 Academic supervision ............................................................................................................. 13 4. Delivering excellent services ............................................................................................................. 15 4.1. Public services ....................................................................................................................... 15 4.2 Reprographics ......................................................................................................................... 15 4.3 Conservation and Preservation ............................................................................................... 15 4.4 Records Centre ....................................................................................................................... 17 5. Enhancing the global reach and reputation of the University ........................................................... 18 5.1 Exhibitions and displays .......................................................................................................... 18 5.2 Friends and other partnerships ............................................................................................... 20 5.3. Heritage Engagement Project ................................................................................................ 21 6. Fit for purpose infrastructure ............................................................................................................. 25 6.1 Special Collections environment ............................................................................................. 25 6.2 Thurso Street and Dunaskin Street environment .................................................................... 25 6.3 Efficiency, effectiveness and innovation ................................................................................. 25 6.4 Our staff................................................................................................................................... 25 7. Appendix: Facts and Figures 2015-16 .............................................................................................. 27 7.1 Reading Room visits and Henry Heaney Seminar Room use ................................................ 27 7.2 Enquiries ................................................................................................................................. 30 7. 3 Reprographics ........................................................................................................................ 31 7.4 Staff and staff activities ........................................................................................................... 34 7.5 Engagement and outreach ...................................................................................................... 36 7.6 Exhibition loans ....................................................................................................................... 41 7.7 Cataloguing ............................................................................................................................. 42 7.8 Major acquisitions ................................................................................................................... 42 7.9 University Records Centre ...................................................................................................... 43 7.10 Website and Social Media..................................................................................................... 44 1. Highlights of the year 3296 reading room visits with 20000 consultations and 8000 hours of research 7000 enquiries answered and 5000 copies supplied 107 sessions for 57 classes delivered including 13 entirely new for 2015-16 58 UofG student internships hosted 8000 followers over 2 Twitter accounts with 4000 tweets 132 blogs posted and 17 new image sets on Flickr 3,776,512 page views across websites 170 early printed books catalogue records created/upgraded 3698 manuscripts/archives/STA catalogue records/descriptions created 92 linear metres of archives acquired and initial processing undertaken £254,000 project income from diverse sources to supplement the core allocation Public engagement There was great media interest following the announcement in September that an anonymous businessman had stepped in to purchase the papers of Benjamin Clapp, assistant to John Logie Baird for the nation, and wished to donate the archive to the University of Glasgow. The Friends of the Library generously supported the development of supporting research materials with the purchase of the first five volumes of Television: The Official Organ of the Television Society (March 1928- December 1932) On campus we partnered with The Hunterian to showcase University collections in three Night at the Museum events (attracting external sponsorship and attended by 2000 people) and in a major exhibition in the Gallery where 17 key items featured in Professor Lawrence Grove’s Comic Invention exhibition. We exhibited the Library’s First Folio and other Shakespeariana at Dream On!, the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. We enhanced the University’s global reach and reputation with significant loans of 19th century photographic material to exhibitions to the Prado (Madrid), National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh) and Tate (London). Items from the archive of the Scottish Council for Research on Education were centrepieces in Professor Ian Deary’s exhibition on the forgotten IQ pioneer Godfrey Thomson held at Edinburgh University Library from July to October 2016 as part of the University’s contribution to the Fringe Festival. Now into its third year the Glasgow University’s Great War: A Centenary Project with the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology and the History subject area continues. This has two main aims of enhancing the Roll of Honour website and building a community history project to enhance understanding of the impact of the Great War on Gilmorehill. The HLF funded Digging In Project to create WW1 Trenches in Pollok Park as a space to undertake schools and public engagement activities has routinely drawn on ASC materials and Glasgow students have been participating in the project making use of the digitised materials paid for by the Friends last year. A further spin out of the Great War Project is the Wellcome Trust funded Erskine Archive Project which has been cataloguing the records of the veterans’ charity Erskine and assisting the organisation to make use of its history in its Centenary year. In June the team showed the archive to HRH The Princess Royal at a service to celebrate 100 years of the charity’s work. A day was also spent in the summer filming with the BBC for an Erskine documentary to be shown in November. Inspiring research and learning We continue to diversify income streams beyond the core allocation in order to maximize discoverability of the University’s collections, to provide high quality services to support current University research and to enhance the reputation of the University and its Library. The total project funding secured this year was £254,000. In 2015-16 funding allocated to our work by the University Trust totalled £164,000. £50,000 was allocated to the project to develop our Heritage Engagement service to further support the University’s Strategic Plan. The remainder was income from generous donors who requested the funds support the work of the Scottish Business Archive and the acquisition of the Benjamin Clapp archive. Our Wellcome Trust Research Resources Scheme projects progressed well this year thanks to their £70,000 investment. The catalogue of the papers of Victor Webb (1915-c2004), relating to the Scottish Allotments and Gardens movement in the 20th century was completed and the project to catalogue and make accessible the archives of Erskine Hospital was also successful will run to December 2016 when an exhibition and public engagement event in The Hunterian will mark the end of the Hospital’s