News 2004

New Scheme of Group Membership
At the Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh in November 2004, the members of the Consortium approved a revised scheme of Group membership. It is now possible for libraries to obtain a reduced rate of membership of the Consortium by forming a self-administering group of two or more libraries. The discount subscription rate is especially advantageous for large groups. Further information can be found here.

CERL Seminar, 12 November 2004, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh
This year’s Seminar was on the theme ‘Books and their owners: provenance information and the European cultural heritage’. The speakers were

Dr Marianna Czapnik (Warsaw University Library)
Dr Anette Hagan and Ms Helen Vincent (Rare Book Collections, National Library of Scotland)
Dr James Knowles (Scottish Institute for Northern Renaissance Studies, University of Stirling)
Mr David Pearson (University of London Research Library Services)
Dr Marina Venier (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Rome)
Dr Bettina Wagner (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek)

Full details can be found here.

The Duchess Anna Amalia Library, Weimar, Germany
Libraries in the Consortium of European Research Libraries have been deeply saddened by the recent fire in the historic Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, and the loss of part of the Library’s important historical collections.

At their Annual General Meeting held in Edinburgh on 13 November 2004, members of the Consortium of European Research Libraries resolved to do what they can to assist, and to convey their strong support to the Director of the Library, Dr Michael Knoche, and his colleagues.

Dr Knoche has confirmed that the most important priorities for the Library at present are: (1) the restoration of the building; (2) the preservation of the books that have been damaged where this is possible; and (3) the replacement of the books that have been completely lost, where possible. Substantial progress is already being made on the first two of these priorities, and it is hoped that progress on the third – the provision of replacement copies for the Library’s collections – may be assisted through co-operation with other libraries with historical book collections within Europe and internationally. A number of libraries have already helped by offering duplicate copies to the Library.

The Library’s website at (www.anna-amalia-library.com), hosts a database of the books that have been lost in the fire which can be found at http://weias.ub.uni-weimar.de:8080/DB=2.2/LNG=EN/ or http://weias.ub.uni-weimar.de:8080/DB=2.2/LNG=DU/. Libraries are encouraged to consult this list and, if they can help, to contact our colleagues in the Duchess Anna Amalia Library direct at Hilfe-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek@swkk.de.

More information is also available from the Library’s own website (www.anna-amalia-library.com). News about further developments will also be made available through the CERL website. Ann Matheson, Chairman

Dr John Michael Smethurst
It is with deep regret that we announce the death on 18 October 2004, after a short illness, of Dr John Michael Smethurst, Chairman of the Consortium of European Research Libraries from 1994 to 2000. With Dr Franz Georg Kaltwasser, Michael Smethurst was the initiator of the conference on European co-operation on the online cataloguing of historical collections held in Munich in1990 that led ultimately to the formal creation of the Consortium in 1994. He led the Consortium purposefully and deftly through its early years, and continued to be actively interested in its progress after he stepped down as Chairman.

Michael Smethurst had a long and distinguished career in UK librarianship. He worked in Lancaster, Durham and Newcastle before coming to Scotland, first to Glasgow University Library and then, as University Librarian in the University of Aberdeen, from 1972 to 1986. In that year, he joined the staff of the British Library as Director-General for London Services and in 1995 until his retirement he was Deputy Chief Executive. Upon his many public offices, he was President of LIBER from 1990 to 1995, and Chairman of the International ESTC Committee from 1986 to 1995.

The deep sympathy of the Consortium and all its members is conveyed to Mrs Mary Smethurst and family members.

CERL Papers IV
CERL’s fourth collection of conference papers has been published under the title European Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age: Creation, Access and Preservation (David Shaw, ed.). The papers are by Ludmilla Kisseleva (National Library of Russia, St Petersburg), Natalia Elagina (National Library of Russia, St Petersburg), Vladimir Mazhuga (University of St Petersburg), Jan Bos (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague), Luisa Buson (Centro di Ateneo per le Biblioteche, Padua) and Kai Ekholm (National and University Library, Helsinki). The papers were presented on 13 November 2003 at a conference hosted by the National Library of Russia, St Petersburg. ISBN 0-9541535-2-9. Price £15.00 plus postage. To purchase a copy please contact secretariat@cerl.org.

CERL Invites your Feedback
The HPB database is used by a large variety of users. In order to get a better idea whether different user groups use the database differently, and to find out whether each user group is equally satisfied with their search results, the Consortium of European Research Libraries has developed a brief online questionnaire.

Your responses should be sent by email to the CERL Secretariat and will help CERL to map the use that is made of the HPB database, which will in turn inform their choice of future additions to the HPB. A link to the online questionnaire can be found on Eureka on the main page for the HPB or can be accessed on the CERL web site at http://www.cerl.org/HPB/Eureka_Questionnaire.htm

Printers’ Devices and the CERL Thesaurus
In collaboration with the Bibliographical Society in the United Kingdom, CERL has embarked on the digitisation of Ronald B. McKerrow’s Printers’ & Publishers’ Devices in England & Scotland 1485-1640 (London, 1913). The first results of this project are now available at http://www.kb.dk/elib/bhs/mckerrow/.

CERL very warmly thanks the Royal Library in Copenhagen for undertaking to digitise McKerrow, create links between images and text, and for creating the indexes that will enable the CERL Thesaurus to link to this data. The Royal Library has also most generously undertaken this work without charge as a contribution to the work of CERL.

CERL/ENSSIB workshop, Chantilly, 15 May 2004
CERL and ENSSIB (the French national school for information and library sciences) jointly organised a one-day workshop for French rare books libraries in the Maison de Sylvie at the musée Condé, Chantilly. The workshop was entitled ‘Le livre ancien en France: patrimoine français, patrimoine européen’ (Rare books in France: cultural heritage from a French and a European perspective). The day was organised by François Dupuigrenet Desroussilles, head of ENSSIB and one of CERL’s directors, and David Shaw, Secretary of CERL.
Speakers included Jean-François Gilmont, Dominique Varry (ENSSIB), Malcolm Walsby (University of St Andrews), Raphaele Mouren (Bibliothèque Méjanes, Aix-en-Provence), Elisabeth Coulouma (ABES), Claudia Fabian (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich), Kristian Jensen (British Library, London), Istvan Monok (Hungarian National Library, Budapest), Patrick Bazin (Bibliothèque municipale, Lyon) and Gilles Eboli (Cité du Livre, Aix-en-Provence). Delegates were given a tour of the library of the château de Chantilly by its librarian, Emmanuelle Toulet.

LIBER Security Network: Royal Library, Copenhagen
CERL members are reminded that LIBER has now established the LIBER Security Network, which is run and maintained by the Royal Library in Copenhagen. The aim of the Network is to assist national, university and other important libraries with rare and valuable collections to anticipate and deal with potential thefts, and many European libraries have already joined the Network. Libraries seeking further details about joining the LIBER Security Network can find them at www.kb.dk/liber/news/library.security.htm, along with an application form.