Desert Island Discs – Iain from Edinburgh and Scottish and Reference collections

Iain Duffus is our newest member of staff joining us recently to head up the Reference Libary and Edinburgh and Scottish Collection. Starting a new job can be exhilarating, daunting, exhausting and more, there are many pressures on Iain’s time, but he found a spare moment to give us his Desert Island choices.

Music For Eighteen Musicians by Steve Reich 
The first disc I will take to the island is by Steve Reich. Reich’s works were a real gateway for me into the realisation that orchestral music has a modern and interesting direction. I have chosen Music for Eighteen Musicians as it has so many strands and seems infinite in its detail. Even after repeated listens of this record, each time reveals something different. It is hypnotising, welcoming and at the same time intriguing and bursting with energy. Perfect for losing yourself in and (trying) to forget about space and time.

Brief History: The best of the Penguin Café Orchestra
This music reminds me of doing two things; one is studying late at night trying to cram as much as possible in before a test. I thought the calming music would help, but it often turned out to just be a distraction because it is so beautiful. The other is cooking breakfast on a Sunday morning. Penguin Café was often the soundtrack, the Penguins were consistently good – my recipe attempts were not! This is the best of CD but I would happily just take their first album Music From The Penguin Café also.

Selected Ambient Works Vol II by Aphex Twin
I actually wanted to choose the first volume ‘Selected Ambient Works 85-92’ as that has many of my favourite tracks on there. However, it’s probably just as well I couldn’t find it because I did it to death when I was a teenager. So Volume II is coming to the island with me instead. Aphex’s early material has really stood the test of time. It still feels unique, strange and other worldly whilst not forgetting the conventions of pop and dance music that his later material did.

My luxury item would have to be suntan lotion or a pair of reading glasses.

 

More library staff instructions from days gone by

As promised in an earlier post here are more rules for library staff from yesteryear. First, a cunning method for catching out bogus ‘art students’.

And these weren’t the only suspicious types to watch out for. We think the following missive probably dates from the war.

And whatever you do, don’t mention the blacklist:

We’ll finish with this message from a former city librarian. Wonder how long this system lasted?

If you missed the first part of this series you can catch up here.

Instructions for library staff – a trip back in time

All workplaces have their rules and procedures for staff, and libraries are no different.

We recently came across some very strange instructions for staff in our archives.

How about this for starters:

Our procedures for new members of staff have changed over the years as well:

And woe betide you if your essay was written in a slovenly hand:

That would be me shelving books then…  though I’d have to treat the dusty ones properly and not be ‘foolish’:

There’s more here, including guidance on dealing with young people. And ‘foreigners’.