As a result of a successful bid for a Collaborative R&D and Partnership Award, Dr Jack Rhoden from the School of History (and one of the Library’s porters!) was employed to devise and manage the Chatsworth Library Project, part of which entails researching and cataloguing a representative portion of the 30,000 rare books. As the Rare Books Librarian, I have been engaged to help and advise Jack on this initial task and to review the challenges presented in bringing the Devonshire Collection catalogue up to current international standards, and ensure that any future research projects are cognisant of cataloguing issues.
I go to Chatsworth one day a month up until the end of May, by which time, Jack and I will have produced basic rare book catalogue entries for up to 400 hitherto unrecorded items from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries; and created enhanced records of a cross-discipline selection of items from the main Chatsworth library.
On my first day at the end of November 2012, James Towe, the Chatsworth archivist, and Jack, showed me round the libraries including the stunning library that you can see in Jack’s monthly blog and where the public is not allowed to enter. It was such a privilege to browse the shelves of this truly stunning private library and to see the great treasures among it.
This six month project is a huge task for Jack, but I hope the discoveries we make will enable a great future partnership in research between our academics from all departments and faculties, and Chatsworth.
by Guest Blogger - Amanda Bernstein, Rare Books Librarian
No comments:
Post a Comment