Made in Edinburgh (on an upturned washtub)

The latest chapter in the story of the Encyclopaedia Britannica unfolded today when it was announced that the current edition would be the last to be published in printed form.

Here in Edinburgh we’re very proud of our city’s association with one of the world’s most famous reference works. The Reference Library holds a copy of the current print edition, as well as copies of previous editions of a work that was first published in this city in 1768.

The story of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is itself a long and interesting one, peopled by characters like the remarkable James Tytler (1752 – 1808).

Radical, aeronaut, author and publisher, Tytler left university aged fifteen and worked as a surgeon on a whaling ship before taking up the post of editor of the second edition of the Britannica in 1776.

Under Tytler ‘s editorship the encyclopaedia was greatly enlarged, and Tytler himself wrote hundreds of the entries on his washerwoman landlady’s upturned tub.

Another of Tytler’s passions was flight, and he was in fact the first Briton to make a successful ascent in a balloon. Rather than being seen as a pioneer however, Tytler was in fact viewed in a rather more comical light – due in part to some disastrous ballooning escapades including crashing in front of hundreds of spectators at Comely Gardens.

You can find out more about Tytler’s other exploits, including his arrest as a radical and emigration to America, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which, like Britannica, is available free online to anyone with an Edinburgh Libraries card.

Happy birthday Mr Dickens!

After a steady stream of Dickensian period dramas and spin-offs it probably comes as little surprise that today marks the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. Dickens 2012 is a year-long and world-wide celebration of the novelist’s life and work.

Dickens’ writing is epitomized by the larger-than-life characters with their wonderfully onomatopoeic names, a sense of humour and the absurd, quotations now firmly established in our vernacular and most significantly, his examination of society’s inequalities.

Search our library catalogue and you’ll find a plethora of books both about and by Charles John Huffam Dickens to keep you enthralled throughout Dickens 2012.

This month, look out for the ‘Best of Times, Worst of Times’ displays throughout Central Library highlighting Dickens and the world he portrayed in his writing. The displays will feature gems from the Reference Library and Art Library collections including the original instalments from the serialised stories Dickens wrote for the weekly journal, ‘Household Words’ and a wonderfully evocative book entitled ‘London: a pilgrimage’ with illustrations of Dickensian times by Gustave Dore. 

Fagin and Oliver Twist

You can test your knowledge of Dickens favourites with our online collection of Character portraits. Do you know which book Mr Pumplechook appears in, or what role Grewgious plays in solving a mysterious disappearance? Or simply take a look and find some inspiration to try something a little less televised. Sketches by Boz, anyone?

Do you use library internet computers or wifi?

We are currently carrying out some work to improve the performance of the libraries’ Peoples’ Network computers. This means there may be no internet access in some libraries for a time.

We need to carry out this work in order to increase bandwidth and speed up the performance of these machines. This will improve response times for logging in and internet page loading.

If you need to know more please contact your local library for details of People’s Network availability.

Two great authors – one free event

We are pleased to announce yet another free Edinburgh Reads author event (we know, we are good to you…) on the 1st of December, at 6:30pm, in the Central Reference Library.  This time we’ve got some brilliant local talent discussing their debut novels.

Former Herald editor Mark Douglas-Home has written a gripping crime novel entitled The Sea Detective in which a haunted young woman appears on the doorstep of the protagonist, Cal McGill.  Cal is a PhD oceanography student with more than a passing interest in floating corpses…

‘Elegantly written and compelling, it introduces a new, thoroughly modern hero into the crime-fighting canon.’ – The Scotsman

‘Douglas-Home expertly balances the introduction of a new kind of eco-sleuth, the awful realities of the sex-slave trade and an intriguing case of yesterday’s crimes rising to the surface like doom-laden driftwood.’ – The Spectator

David Porteous’ novel Singular was inspired by the author’s misdiagnosis of cancer, and has been honoured with an award in the San Francisco Science Fiction competition.  The novel is set 35-40 years into the future, where dying humans can opt to transfer their consciousness into an online world, where they can exist without sickness.

“Porteous manages to blend science ficiton with a dose of sharp humor and pokes at some of the other areas of the science fiction world. The book is a nice blend of both the real and the surreal” – Rhodes Reviews

These books (both of which feature on our map of books set in Edinburgh) are sure to prompt some very interesting conversation, so register online or call 0131 242 8100 to book a place.

Refreshments will be provided, as will the opportunity to purchase the books.

Hispanic on the streets of Edinburgh!

Edinburgh’s 7th Hispanic Festival kicks off at the end of this month and Edinburgh City Libraries are delighted to once again be playing a key role in what is fast becoming a favourite fixture on the cultural calendar.

The splendid surroundings of the Reference Library play host to three events:

The Opening  Concert on Friday 30th September will be a fantastic evening of piping, flamenco, poetry and song, featuring the great Jean Redpath among others:

18.30: Doors Open
19.00: James Macdonald Reid, leading European bagpiper
19.05: Welcome by Festival Directors and Library Staff
19.15: Selected Poems by Douglas Dunn read in English and Spanish
19.50: Jean Redpath, great Scots folk-singer will present Spanish and Scots songs – in the fiftieth year of her international career
20.10: Break
20.15: Flamenco! Tote Conte and Flamenco Puro
20.45: James Macdonald Reid – Pipes the Retreat

Poetry, Spain and the Gaelic World: A Celebration of the Poetry of Luis Cernuda and Sorley Maclean takes place the following Friday (7th October):

18.00: Doors Open
18.30: Allan MacDonald leading Scottish bagpiper
18.35: A Celebration of the Centenary of the birth of Sorley MacLean: Filmmaker Timothy Neat, Gaelic singer Margaret Bennett and Scottish actor John Cairnie pay homage to the poet.
19.00: Professor Antonio Rivero Taravillo, a Spanish critic and authority, presents ‘Luis Cernuda – the Man, the Poet’
19. 50: Questions and Answers chaired by María Conte.
20. 00: Break
20:05:  Alison McMorland and Geordie McIntyre sing Scottish Songs with strong Spanish connections
20.25: Paco Ferdandez Flamenco Co from Seville showcases Salud & Libertad! programmed at the Queen’s Hall on Saturday 8th October
20.40 Allan MacDonald plays ‘A Salute to Somhairle MacGilliean’

Then on the 14th October author and broadcaster Alistair Moffat tells the story of the links between Iberia and Scotland in a lecture entitled ‘DNA – Iberia and Scotland – the Prehistoric Links’:

18.30: Doors Open
19.00: John Kenny Leading Pictish Carnyx
19.05: ‘DNA – Iberia and Scotland – the Prehistoric Links’: Author and broadcaster Alistair Moffat tells the story of our DNA – concentrating in the link between Iberia and Scotland
19.55: Q&A
20.05: Break
20.10: Valentina Montoya inVoces del Sur
20:30: Flamenco! Tote Conte, Inmaculada Montero, DiegoMorao Flamenco Jam
20.40: John Kenny – Salute to the ancestors.

Central Library’s Conference Room is the venue for a public debate entitled ‘Old Spain and New Spain: Looking Back, Looking Forward’ on Wednesday 12 October:

13.30: Session 1 | Looking Back: ‘20th Century Spain’ followed by Panel Q&A. Guest speakers: John Manson | Poet, translator and scholar of the Spanish Civil War period; John Elliot (Langholm Fair Cryer) | Geordie Mcintyre | Folksinger and specialist of the Civil War songs; David Featherstone | Academic and writer

15.30: Session 2 | Looking Forward: ‘21st Century Spain and the New Europe’ followed by Panel Q&A. Guest speakers:Alasdair Campbell | Poet and former director of the Tolbooth Arts Centre, Stirling; Mari Cruz García Vallejo | IT consultant, journalist and social activist

All these events are free, to book tickets call 0131 242 8100 or email readerdevelopment@edinburgh.gov.uk

Throughout the month Central Library will also host exhibitions of art with a Hispanic theme featuring works by by Steven Anderson, MarRubio Coderch, Marc Jennings and Timothy Neat.

To view the full programme including more details about the above events head over to the Hispanic Festival site.

Business Breakfast

Want to start up your own business or want to grow the one you’ve got?
Get free and professional help at a Business Breakfast in the Central Library on Wednesday 12^th October from 8am-9.30am. Pop in anytime during the breakfast to:

• Listen to informative business professionals
• Get advice from business advisors
• See demos and try out free start-up and marketing business databases
• Find out about the free support resources available from Business Gateway and Edinburgh City Libraries
• Have breakfast on us!

For more information or to book a place call 242 8047 or email informationdigital@edinburgh.gov.uk

Let there be light: The Bassandyne Bible

Edinburgh Central Library’s Bassandyne Bible – currently on public display in the Reference Library – is one of only 5 copies still in existence. It was the first Bible to be printed in Scotland after the Reformation.

Illustration from the Bassandyne Bible

In 1575 Thomas Bassandyne and his partner, Alexander Arbuthnot, proposed to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland that they produce a reprint of the 1561 Geneva Bible. Such a production was agreed and the price for sale was set at £4 13s 4d Scots.

The timing was ideal, as in 1579 the Scottish Parliament passed an act decreeing that ‘every householder worth 300 merks of yearly rent, and every yeoman or burgess worth £500 stock, [was] to have a Bible and Psalm Book in the vulgar tongue…under penalty of ten pounds.’

Thomas Bassandyne had worked in Paris and Leyden before returning to Scotland, and the typeface he used to print the Bible was Roman type, which was more commonly used on the continent at that time. Formerly Bibles were printed in Black letter, but the use of Roman type throughout saved on paper, and reduced the cost!

The Bassandyne Bible contains facsimiles of the woodcuts and maps of the original Geneva edition. Bassandyne died in 1575, and the New Testament appeared in 1576.  The Old Testament was printed by Arbuthnot in 1579.

When the Committee of Edinburgh Public Library purchased it in February 1892 it was a valuable acquisition for the Library as, of the five known surviving copies, it is the one in best original condition.

You can see this for yourself as the Bassandyne Bible will be on public display in the Reference Library, alongside an exhibition commemorating 400 years of the King James version, until October 1^st.

After the deluge – Reference Library reopens on Thursday

After a great deal of hard work following Friday’s flood the Reference Library is set to reopen tomorrow at noon.

A special thanks goes to those kind members of the public who so gallantly stepped in to help staff on Friday afternoon when the rainwater started seeping in – we salute you!

Reference Library still closed

The Reference Library remains closed while we clear up the damage from last Friday’s flood. We’ll let you know when we plan to reopen. The other departments of Central Library are all open as normal.

And this is summer…?

Torrential downpour closes Reference Library

Yesterday afternoon’s storm has taken its toll on the Reference Library in Central Library, which has suffered some water damage.

Because of this the Reference Library will be closed today (Saturday 9 July) while we get things cleared up.

The good news is that the rest of Central Library will remain open as normal.

Edinburgh Central Library hosts Book Festival Launch

“Libraries matter to everything we do” Nick Barley, Director,  Edinburgh International Book Festival

Edinburgh Central library was the venue for one of the most important events in the global literary calendar yesterday – the programme launch for this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival. A packed room heard that the theme of this year’s programme is ‘Revolution in the twenty-first century’.

Among the stellar list of names appearing at this year’s festival are exiled Chinese Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian, postmodern trailblazer Robert Coover and the genre-defying Neil Gaiman.

Scottish literary talent is well represented, with the world premier of Alasdair Gray’s Fleck read by a cast including Liz Lochhead, Will Self, A L Kennedy, Ian Rankin and Alasdair himself, promising to be one of the highlights. The children’s programme, with a series of events selected by newly appointed children’s laureate Julia Donladson, is also guaranteed to be wildly popular.

Tickets go on sale on 26 June so we suggest the following:

1. Pick up a copy of the programme from your library or view it online at the EIBF web site

2. Borrow books by the featured authors or find out more about them on the fantastic Literature Resource Center!

Read all about it

…. with our fantastic collection of online Newspapers. UK Newsstand gives you access to 175 UK and Irish national and local newspapers. Covering material close to home like The Scotsman, Edinburgh Evening News and Scotland on Sunday as well as farther away like the Birmingham Post or Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph! Fantastic for finding out about an area you are going to visit or for catching up on the news from your home town.

Want to research your family history or local area? Well how about searching a historical newspaper. The Scotsman Archive  lets you search every issue from 1817-1950. Use it to find significant moments in the history of  Scotland, major historical world events or discover if your ancestor appears in the births, marriages and deaths notices, or even in a news story. Pop into the Reference Library too and search  The Times from 1785-1985 and sift through 200 years of British history.

Easter holidays and Royal nuptials

Just a quick reminder that libraries will be closed on Good Friday (22nd April) and Easter Monday (25th April).  However, during the Easter weekend, libraries will be open on Saturday 23 April and Sunday 24 April if they are usually open on a Sunday.

We’ll also be closed for the Royal Wedding on Friday 29th April. To set the mood take a look our Royals in Edinburgh exhibition, featuring pictures of city streets and buildings festooned in decorations and bunting to welcome kings and queens to Edinburgh.

See the crowds thronging the streets to catch a glimpse of their monarch and check out some lovely pictures of a community in Gorgie celebrating the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 with a street party and dancing. There are also earlier images of the Queen, when as Princess Elizabeth, she visited the city with her parents in September 1945 to celebrate the victorious end of World War Two.

The Biggest Book Group Bash ever?

Bookgroupers were out in force on Monday 24th January in the Central Reference Library, to listen to a panel of ‘Edinburgh Reads’ authors (Sue Peebles, Laura Marney and Alan Bisset, with Stuart Kelly as Chair) discuss their ‘fantasy bookgroup’.

See more photos from the event on flickr

Each member of the panel got to choose a living auhor, an author from any time in history and a book to disuss at their fantasy book group. For those of you who couldn’t make it along or couldn’t quite manage to write down all their suggestions, please see the list below, of all the authors, titles, personalities alive and dead mentioned in the course of the discussion.  Happy reading!

Sue Peebles

Janet Frame (d.2004): one of New Zealand’s greatest writers.  Recommended autobiography -‘An Angel at my table’

Christopher Hitchens, author of  ‘Hitch 22’

‘Birds of America’ by Lorrie Moore –an ‘exquisite’ collection of 12 short stories which includes ‘People Like that are the Only People Here’ comparable to Raymond Carver’s ‘A Small, Good Thing’, a masterpiece of parental empathy and grief. Pablo Neruda’s ‘Twenty love poems and a song of despair’ was also mentioned.

Alan Bisset

Lady Caroline Lamb (d.1828) ‘the first celebrity stalker’, coiner of the phrase ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ about her erstwhile lover Lord Byron.  Her many letters are now available in the National Library’s ‘John Murray Archive’.

Martin Amis, author of ‘The Information’, and ‘The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000’- heavily recommended.

‘American Psycho’ by Bret Easton Ellis.  A controversial black satire on the bankrupt, money-driven world of the 1980s.

Laura Marney

Muriel Spark (d.2006) Famous Edinburgh waspish author of ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’

Marilynne Robinson, underrated author of ‘Gilead’ and ‘Home’, gracefully measured family stories.

‘The Cone Gatherers’ by Robin Jenkins.  A novel that deserves to be more widely read, and more widely spread.

Other recommendations- ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ by Margaret Atwood; ‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess; ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck; ‘Metamorphosis’ by Franz Kafka; ‘On Chesil beach’ by Ian McEwan and ‘Number9dream’ by David Mitchell.

Stuart Kelly

G.K. Chesterton (d.1936) witty, prolific, diverse English writer, often called ‘The Prince of paradox’.

Zadie Smith – award winning writer of ‘On Beauty’.

‘We have always lived in the Castle’ by Shirley Jackson. A mystery tale told by Merricat, an unreliable narrator.  Also wrote ‘The Lottery’.

Meet the author

Kirsten Tranter, author of The Legacy, will be joining us for a very special event on 20th January at Central Library (6.30pm start).

Sophie Cooke, author of Under the Mountain and The Glass House, will also be appearing.

Book your (free) place today:

readerdevelopment@edinburgh.gov.uk or 0131 242 8100

The 2010 Green Pencil Award winner is…

Congratulations to Owen Richards of St Mary’s RC Primary School who has won this year’s Green Pencil Award with his poem ‘ The city is wild’.

Owen impressed the judges with the power of his writing on this year’s theme, Nature on your Doorstep, and on Friday evening he was presented by Cllr Deidre Brock with the Green Pencil trophy and a range of sponsored prizes for himself and his class in the Central Library’s Reference Library.

With such a fantastic range of entries the judges had a very difficult task on their hands and they also awarded Highly Commended prizes for their very imaginative pieces to Anna Aitken of South Morningside Primary School for ‘Species in their millions‘ and to Louis Polson of Towerbank Primary School for ‘My squirrel‘. Here they are with Owen:

Congratulations to Owen, Anna and Louis and to all the talented young green writers – keep writing, keep reading and keep looking after the Nature on your Doorstep!

In the words of one of our bestselling local authors Vivian French – “Spoken words fly away like bubbles, but written words can change the world”

Organised by Edinburgh Libraries and Eco-Schools in Edinburgh, this creative writing competition is in its third year.

The big freeze – too much snow for the Big Book Group Bash

Festive the weather may be, but so much snow has kept our authors housebound…. and although we know you are all super-dedicated, we’re going to choose a more clement evening.

So lots of apologies but the Big Book Group Bash will be in the New Year….we will keep in touch and make sure you hear about the new date.

Short story week: in the jungles of the upper air

For short story week the Central Reference Library has dipped into their collection of original periodicals to tempt you with a few tales by well known authors.

Our final tale is “The Horror of the Heights” (which includes the manuscript known as the Joyce-Armstrong fragment), by A. Conan Doyle.

Taken from The Strand Magazine, November 1913.  Pages 551- 562.  Illustrated by W.R.S. Stott.

A blood-soaked notebook is found in a field near to Withyham upon the Kent and Sussex border. The first two pages and the last page are missing.  It is named the Joyce-Armstrong fragment after the “most daring and the most intellectual of flying men”.

Joyce-Armstrong curious about the strange deaths of fellow aviators trying to break the current height record of 30,000 feet takes his plane up higher. He hopes to prove that their deaths may be a result of “jungles of the upper air”.  Hit by meteors and surrounded by strange creatures he returns to earth but he needs evidence to prove his theory was right so he returns to the skies.

What creatures did Joyce-Armstrong find in the “jungles of the upper air” that led to only his notebook, pipe and binoculars being found?

To find out, why not come in and read the original story in the original splendour of the Central Reference Library Reading Room.

Short story week: cowboys and pancakes

For short story week the Central Reference Library has dipped into their collection of original periodicals to tempt you with a few tales by well known authors.

Today we head to the old west for “The Pimienta Pancakes” by O. Henry.  (McClure’s Magazine, December 1903.  Pages 141- 148. Illustrated by Frederic R. Gruger)

The Triangle-O cattle are being rounded up. One of the men innocently asks the cook, Judson Odom, for some pancakes. Putting down his six-shooter with which he was preparing to pound an antelope steak Jud fixes the man with a look “Say you” he said, with candid, though not excessive choler, “did you mean that straight, or was you trying to throw the gaff into me? Some of the boys been telling you about me and the pancake racket?”

Why does an innocent request for a baked good cause such a reaction and why did it lead to Jud, a cattleman, losing the affection of Miss Willella Learight to a sheepman?

To find out, why not come in and read the original story in the original splendour of the Central Reference Library Reading Room.

Green Pencil Award 2010

The standard of entries for this year’s Green Pencil Award was incredibly high, but the judges have made their final decision and the award ceremony will take place this Friday (26th November) in the Reference Library of Central Library. Check here next week to find out who won!

Our thanks to all who took part – it was a pleasure to read your work!