Author: Katie Halsey
A Merry Christmas Post for 2022
Normally, in my now-traditional Christmas blog post, I reflect on Christmas borrowing in one or more of our libraries. This year, inspired by Linda Cracknell’s Creative Writing workshop back in August, I’ve decided to try to imagine the same story from the point of view of the books. I don’t think I’ll be giving up […]
Building the Books and Borrowing Digital Resource
Over the past few months, we have been busy thinking about how we can make all the data we have been accumulating available to other people. In other words, we’ve been thinking through the eventual front-end of our database, and working out with our wonderful developer Brian Aitken what will work best in terms of […]
Metaphors of Reading, 1760-1830
For the past few weeks, Cleo and I have been working together on an article that we hope to submit for publication fairly soon. We thought we would share some initial thoughts about it on this blog. The topic of the article is metaphors that we have spotted in a variety of different works from […]
Another Forgotten Bestseller: Edward Bulwer Lytton’s Paul Clifford (1830)
To celebrate Book Week Scotland this week, we are presenting another forgotten bestseller. “It was a dark and stormy night”. Inspired by Linda Cracknell’s Creative Writing workshop in August, I decided to read the book with that famous first line. The book is, of course, Edward Bulwer Lytton’s Paul Clifford, first published in 1830, and […]
Research Festival Call for Papers: Libraries, Lives and Legacies, April 2023
Libraries, Lives and Legacies Organised by the AHRC-funded ‘Books and Borrowing, 1750-1830′ and ‘Libraries, Reading Communities and Cultural Formation in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic’ projects. www.borrowing.stir.ac.uk http://c18librariesonline.org/ Split-Venue Research Festival 13-14 April 2023 – University of Liverpool and online 17-18 April 2023 – University of Stirling We are glad to announce a series of events on […]
Books and Borrowing Creative Writing Competition Announcement
Calling all creative writers! The Books and Borrowing project are delighted to announce the launch of the 2022 Books and Borrowing Creative Writing Competition. Entries may be in any genre (prose, verse, drama) but must not exceed 2000 words of prose, or 40 lines of poetry. They must be on the theme of books and […]
Books and Borrowing Creative Writing Competition: Materials
The materials here are provided in support of the Books and Borrowing Creative Writing Competition. Innerpeffray Library Transcription 1859 Nov 19 Chambers Journal John Edwards P[olice] Constable Muthill Returned 10 Jan 60 “ Men of the Line Hugh Campbell Labourer Gilmore Returned 21 Dec “ Brougham’s Sketches Vol 6 [?]McClean Niven Miller Mill of Earn […]
Event Report: Online Creative Writing Workshop: Books and Borrowing
On 31 August 2022, I had the pleasure of attending the Books and Borrowing Online Creative Writing Workshop, hosted in partnership with the National Library of Scotland, and led by the wonderful Linda Cracknell. The idea of the workshop was to inspire people to think about how they might use library borrowing records, and archival […]
Farewell to Gerry McKeever and Alex Deans
This week, I have the sad task of bidding farewell to postdoctoral research fellows Gerry McKeever and Alex Deans. Gerry leaves the Books and Borrowing team to take up a Lectureship in Modern Scottish Literature at the University of Edinburgh, while Alex returns to the University of Glasgow to work on a research project very […]
Why Do Libraries Matter?
This week, I’ve been reflecting on a theme which is, of course, very close to our Books and Borrowing hearts. Why do libraries matter? This was prompted by a conversation with the Chief Printer of the Pathfoot Press, project friend and supporter Kelsey Jackson Williams. Back in the dim ages of long ago (also known […]