Series 4, no. 42 Summer 2018 ISSN 1744-3180 NEWS FROM THE CHAIR Welcome to the second Library & Information History Group newsletter of 2018, which hopefully will bring with it some more summer-like weather. While our previous newsletter heralded the arrival of some new members to the LIHG Committee, this time I am pleased to announce that from September 2018, Jill Dye will be joining Professor Peter Reid as joint editor of the LIHG Journal. We look forward to seeing what new developments will come out of this partnership. In this issue, Rosie Al-Mulla shares with us the Campbelltown Library exterior. Donald MacDonald / The old progress on cataloguing the Peter Mackay Library and Museum, Campbeltown / CC BY-SA 2.0 archive at Stirling, whilst LIHG stalwart John Crawford adds to our knowledge of early library management systems. There is news of our recent and upcoming bursaries, as well as of a selection of events, conferences and exhibitions. CONTENTS Don’t forget that booking is still open for this year’s LIHG conference, “The Allies of Books: FEATURE ARTICLE: PETER MACKAY ARCHIVE P. 2 Keepers, Curators & Collectors in Victorian FURTHER NOTE ON EARLY LMSS P. 6 Britain”, to be held at the St. Bride’s NEWS P. 9 Foundation in London on Saturday 7 July, and LECTURES, SEMINARS AND EVENTS P. 11 it is looking to be one of our best yet. CONFERENCES P. 15 Delegates will also have an opportunity to go AWARDS AND BURSARIES P. 20 on tours of either the St Bride’s Foundation EXHIBITIONS P. 21 or Middle Temple Library on the Friday. PRINTED RESOURCES P. 23 Details of our conference and the tours can be found on p.XX or online via our website. BACK MATTER P. 24 Dan Gooding Chair LIHG Newsletter Series 4 no. 42 Summer 2018 FEATURE ARTICLE We Have Tomorrow (2008) that ‘one hopes that Peter’s own papers will become available’. UNKNOWN HERO NO MORE: PETER These papers provide a comprehensive record MACKAY'S ARCHIVE AT THE of Mackay’s journalism, political activism, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING travel, photography and charity work. His journals, notebooks and correspondence Rosie Al-Mulla is Archivist & Research Support preserve relationships with some major Assistant at the University of Stirling. In this political figures of the period, while the large article, she shares her experiences of working on collection of photographs taken by Mackay Peter Mackay's archives, which tell a fascinating during his travels story of the struggle for independence in around Southern Southern Africa. Africa provides a OUR CHALLENGE WAS TO stunning visual FIND THE RIGHT WAY TO SHARE Peter Mackay was the son of a Scottish family record of a THIS FANTASTIC RESOURCE with strong links to Doune, just north of continent during a Stirling. He abandoned a promising military period of great change. career in 1947, having been the youngest man Mackay was active in a number of countries to become a Captain in the Scots Guards. from his arrival in Africa in 1948 until his Instead, he emigrated to what was then death. He fought for independence in Malawi, Southern Rhodesia to become a tobacco ran Freedom Road to Botswana, worked for farmer. Before long he felt that this too was the International Refugee Council of Zambia, not the career for him and he left farming in published for the National Development favour of journalism, though he remained in Corporation as they built a brand new capital similar circles for a while, debuting his city in Tanzania and finally retired to Omay journalistic skills in Rhodesian Farmer in a where he worked tirelessly to improve health team that he was sorry to leave. and education for the region. But Peter Mackay had long since felt Peter Mackay died at his home in Zimbabwe in uncomfortable with the colour bar in Southern 2013 and his family, taking his wishes into Rhodesia and so after becoming involved in account, ensured that his archive was donated David Stirling’s Capricorn Society he became to us at the University of Stirling. an active member of the anti-colonial independence One of the great challenges movements which were that confronted us when we sweeping Southern received such a fascinating Africa at the time, and collection was how we were he turned his new going to share this resource profession towards adequately. We are so aiding that cause. fortunate to have this collection with us in Stirling, His important but it contains such important contribution to the material for the study of struggles for African politics, history and independence was nationalism that we wanted to highlighted by the be able to open up access to historian Terrence as wide a range of researchers Ranger, who described Fig. 1: Peter Mackay, dog lover, avid gardener and as possible, particularly in freedom fighter. Image credit: University of Stirling Africa – not only to satisfy him as ‘an unknown Archives and Special Collections. hero.’ Ranger also ourselves that we were doing noted the importance of Mackay’s personal our best by the collection and the research archive, writing in his preface to Mackay’s book community but also because fostering this 2 LIHG Newsletter Series 4 no. 42 Summer 2018 kind of knowledge exchange seems like exactly reflected in the varied content it produced. the kind of thing Peter Mackay would have Our run of Concord spans the years 1954-1958 strived for himself. and includes the ‘Royal Number’ which celebrated the visit of the Queen Mother to So on 29th November 2016 – Giving Tuesday – Southern Rhodesia in 1957. we launched a Crowdfunding Campaign to raise money to open up access to the Unlike Concord, Malawi News was geared solely collection. We aimed to raise £8,000 which towards politics. This periodical was the would enable us to digitise the photographic mouthpiece of the Malawi Congress Party – collection we hold in the archive along with a the party which was established by Orton remarkable set of Central African anti-colonial Chirwa to replace the Nyasaland African periodicals that Mackay was involved with Congress after its key members had been either as editor, publisher or journalist – and imprisoned during Operation Sunrise in 1959. often a combination of the three. The £8,000 Our run of the initially fortnightly and also made some provision towards eventually weekly run of Malawi News spans appropriate storage for the collection and January 1960-January 1961. The newspaper is some dedicated archiving time. a fascinating source of information on the political climate from a very singular point of With tireless tweeting, match funding from view, offering an interesting look at a reporting HLF and the generosity of 64 supporters – style that was at times unpolished and often some friends and some friendly strangers – we displayed open bias. The insight it provides raised a little more than our target in 56 days, into the propaganda surrounding and closing the campaign in January 2017. Later in sustained by the MCP and its leader, Hastings 2017, the crowdfunding project was short- Banda, is remarkable. listed for Campaign of the Year at the Herald Higher Education Awards and in July we were thrilled to win a special commendation in this category. After this we were eager to get started on the digitisation aspect of our project so that our supporters could have the satisfaction of seeing the tangible change they had made to the collection and we were no less keen to start opening up the archive to the wider world. Aside from some 3,000 photographs that Peter Mackay had made into albums (goodness knows how many more thousands Fig. 2: A view of Zomba from the plateau, with Mlan'e of negatives await us still in boxes – our next Mountain breaking the horizon. Image credit: University of challenge!), we also selected three different Stirling Archives and Special Collections publications from the collection to digitise: Concord, Tsopano and Malawi News. Lastly, we chose Tsopano, a periodical that was wholly Peter Mackay’s own, from concept to Concord was the journal of the Interracial publication. Mackay published and edited 13 Association of Southern Rhodesia, founded by issues of this anti-Federation publication Hardwicke Holderness, an MP who supported between 1959 and 1961, because he felt that full equality between races. Mackay was with something was needed to counteract the one- the publication from the very beginning and sidedness of press coverage in and about helped move it from an idea to reality. Concord Nyasaland, that Africans should have an open was intended to be the first multi-racial forum to express their opinions and that publication in the colony and this ideal was something had to be done to articulate what 3 LIHG Newsletter Series 4 no. 42 Summer 2018 he felt to be the little-known and certainly were key figures in Malawian politics. Dunduzu misunderstood cause of African nationalism. served as the Secretary General of the Malawi Congress Party and was a prospective Minister Because of this last aim, Tsopano was for Finance for Nyasaland. He died in a car produced in English so that influential English crash in 1962, leaving his brother Yatuta, who speakers could be better informed of the true had previously been involved in the party and feeling among Africans. Indeed, Harold was working as a security guard for Hastings Macmillan was counted among the magazine’s Banda, to pick up his political mantle. readers. Less than nine months after Dunduzu’s death, Meticulous production files are kept in Yatuta was reporting to Banda as the the archive for each of these Parliamentary Secretary for the issues and they provide a ZINDABA CHISIZA'S Ministry for Labour and he staggering insight in what it QUESTION ABOUT HIS became a Cabinet Minister was to publish politically GRANDFATHER AND GREAT-UNCLE under Banda’s government.