Competition uncovers national treasures
Shortlist announced for British Library competition for public libraries
The British Library has announced the shortlist for its national competition to make spectacular treasures from public libraries available via the web. Between last May and the closing date, at the end of June, librarians across the UK sent in some 82 entries that have dazzled the judges with their uniqueness and variety.
Shortlisted items range from a twelfth-century legal work containing the earliest record of the English language to the handwritten details of abandoned babies and children admitted to the Foundling Hospital; from illuminated medieval manuscripts to albums of Victorian watercolours and photographs displaying long-lost landscapes and buildings.
The Library, in collaboration with the Society of Chief Librarians, Scottish library authorities and Microsoft, launched the competition to help public libraries in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland uncover the items in their collections that most deserve to be transformed into Turning the Pages 2.0 'virtual texts'. (See: www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html)
Four winning libraries will each have their nominated item digitised, converted into Turning the Pages 2.0 format and shared with the world via the British Library website for three years, giving these treasures a far wider audience than would have ever been possible through traditional exhibition. Highly commended libraries will receive discounted Turning the Pages 2.0 production and hosting packages. Each Turning the Pages 2.0 package is worth £10,000 and is sponsored by Microsoft.
Highlights of the shortlist include:
- The Edith Southey Album, 1820-1830 (entered by Bristol Central Library) - given by Bristol-born Poet Laureate Robert Southey to his daughter Edith and including contributions by Dorothy and William Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, and sketches by George Cruikshank and Constable;
- The First (Kilmarnock) Edition of the Poems of Robert Burns, 1786 (entered by East Ayrshire Libraries) - iconic first edition of Scotland's greatest poet;
- Dorset Federation of Women's Institutes War Record Book 1939-1945 (entered by Dorset Library Service in partnership with Dorset History Centre and Dorset School Library Service) - stories of evacuees, jam making, enemy air men, barrage balloons and the coming of the American army, illustrated with photographs and beautiful drawings by hand;
- The Diaries of William Searall of Beddgelert, Caernarfonshire, 1844-1846 (entered by Conwy County Borough Council: Libraries, Information & Culture Service) - begun when the author was 14 and providing vivid and unique insights into mid-nineteenth century Welsh rural life;
- The Exeter anthology of old English poetry, c. 965-975 (entered by Devon Library and Information Services on behalf of Exeter Cathedral Library) - remarkable tenth-century manuscript which is the largest existing collection of old English poetry;
- Ars Moriendi 'The Art of Dying', c. 1491 (entered by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council) - a Dutch item with terrifying woodcut images illustrating the medieval preoccupation with death from diseases such as the plague;
- An Hibernian Atlas, 1798 (entered by Armagh Library) - a visual interpretation of pre-Famine Ireland and a beautiful example of Peter Bernard Scale's cartography, completed whilst working with his master John Rocque;
- The Arbuthnott Manuscripts, 1491 (entered by Renfrewshire Council) - a spectacular illuminated missal which was one of the few Scottish items of its kind to survive the Reformation, includes beautiful paintings and a blood-curdling rite of excommunication;
- Foundling Hospital Billet Book, c. 1760 (entered by City of London Libraries) - each page records the admission of an abandoned baby and details of clothing or items in their possession at the time, along with heart-breaking 'love tokens', often no more than scraps of ribbon, that the parents left as mementoes.
[See Notes for Editors, below, for the complete shortlist.]
"We have been bowled over by the sheer range and quality of the entries that have come in," says Chloe Tait, project manager for the national competition for public libraries. "We received 82 in total: 56 from England, 14 from Scotland, 5 from Wales and 7 from Northern Ireland."
The British Library's Chief Executive, Lynne Brindley, chaired the judging panel for the competition: "The shortlist gives an idea of just how many treasures of regional, national and international importance are held in public library collections across the UK. By using Turning the Pages 2.0 to make four winning items available online in three-dimensional digitised format, we want to raise the profile of these items and of the public libraries that look after them, and also to demonstrate the potential of digitisation technology to make locally-held treasures available to a worldwide audience."
The winning treasures will be announced at a high profile awards ceremony to be held at the British Library's flagship St Pancras site on September 4 2007.
For further information and images please contact: Ben Sanderson at the British Library Press Office (telephone +44 (0)1937 546126, email: ben.sanderson@bl.uk) or Chloe Tait (telephone +44 (0)20 7412 7112, email: chloe.tait@bl.uk)
Notes for Editors
- The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The British Library's collections include 150 million items from every era of written human history beginning with Chinese oracle bones dating from 300 BC, right up to the latest e-journals. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk
- HIDDEN TREASURES BROUGHT TO LIFE: national competition for public libraries - short-listed entries:
Scotland
The Arbuthnott Manuscripts, 1491 (Renfrewshire Council)
David Patton's 'Dilaogue betuext the Old and New Burgar Kirk of dunfermlne' (sic) (Fife Council Libraries / Dunfermline Carnegie Library)
The First (Kilmarnock) Edition of the poems of Robert Burns, 1786 (East Ayrshire Libraries)
Photographs of Edinburgh's Old Town 1866-1871 (Edinburgh City Libraries and Information Services)
Maps drawn by children attending the Parish School of Abercorn 1848-49 (West Lothian Libraries)
Wales
Bacon Sisters pencil drawings of the Aberdare Valley 1827-1828 (Rhondda cynon Taf Library Services)
Fischbuch, Konrad Gesner (1516-1565); a German translation of the author's Historia Animalium, Book 4; The Founders' Library of the University of Wales Lampeter (Ceredigion County Library Service on behalf of local partner Saint David's University College, Lampeter)
Rolls Family Archive (Monmouthshire Library and Information Service).
The Diaries of William Searell of Beddgelert, Caernarfonshire, aged 14, 1844-1846 (Conwy County Borough Council: Libraries, Information & Culture Service)
England
[Owing to the large number of high quality entries received from England, the panel felt that the judges should consider a shortlist of 10]:
Richard de Jersey's Book of Navigation 1737 (The Priaulx Library, Guernsey)
The Textus Roffensis (Medway libraries, Kent)
Dorset Federation of Women's Institutes War Record Book 1939-1945 (Dorset Library Service in partnership with Dorset History Centre and Dorset School Library Service)
Foundling Hospital Billet Book, circa 1760 (City of London Libraries)
Liber Horn, 1311 (City of London Libraries)
The Exeter Book or The Exeter anthology of old English poetry, circa 965-975 (Exeter Cathedral Library - submitted by Devon Library and Information Services, Devon County Council).
The Edith Southey album, 1820-1830 (Bristol Central Library)
Hereford Cathedral Manuscript P.1X.2 (Herefordshire Libraries)
Ars Moriendi (art of dying, circa 1491) (Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council)
The 'Blackburn' Psalter, 1250-60 (Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council)
Northern Ireland
An Hibernian Atlas, 1798 (Armagh Library)
Le Grand Atlas, Joan Blaeu, 1667 (Belfast City Library)
Maps of the Roads of Ireland, 1777 (Ballynahinch, County Down)
Sir George Leonard Staunton's Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, 1797 (Belfast City Library)
The Marcus Ward collection (Belfast City Library)