Tag: Leighton Library
A Short Poem Inspired by the Leighton Library’s Water Drinkers
This week, we are happy to present another work in our Highly Commended series, which features creative work inspired by the Books and Borrowing materials. Gillian Mellor’s poem, ‘Extracts from the Leighton Library’, was inspired by the Water Drinker’s Register from the Leighton Library in Dunblane. Our judging panel enjoyed Gillian’s poem, which evokes the […]
Books, Books, More Books (and some Borrowers)! Two Library Excursions at the Books and Borrowing Conference
Today is the last day to register for the Books and Borrowing conference in April – don’t miss out, and make sure to sign up now at Reading and Book Circulation, 1650-1850 | University of Stirling Online Shop. We are excited to announce that there will be two excursions during the Books and Borrowing conference, […]
Bruce, the Bible, and a Borrowing: James Bruce of Kinnaird and the Leighton Library, Dunblane
Working with historical borrowing records provides you with a host of names. In an earlier blog post, I wrote about the challenges of researching the biographical details of our library borrowers. In the modern age of scholarly research, the first step in such an endeavour is often a trusty web search in the hope of […]
Forgotten Best-Sellers: Mary Brunton’s Self-Control (1811)
In her blog last week, Katie Halsey introduced the first of a new series within the Books and Borrowing blog: the ‘Forgotten Best-Sellers’. These best-sellers must ‘either top the charts in a single library, or…appear frequently across a large number of different libraries’; they are works that ‘were clearly popular and important in their own […]
Forgotten Best-Sellers: John Moore’s Zeluco (1789)
In this blog, I am initiating a new thread in our blogposts, which we’re calling ‘Forgotten Best-Sellers’, in homage to Robert Darnton’s great work The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France (1996). While the work of the ‘Books and Borrowing’ project focuses more on what we might more accurately call ‘Most-Borrowed’, rather than ‘Best-Selling’ works, the […]
William MacGregor Stirling: Minister, Historian, and Antiquarian
It may seem facile to remark that behind each borrowing record is a borrower. Library records alone often tell us little of their identity. Typically, this may include the price of admission paid by a library borrower, perhaps a signature signed into the subscription book, or details of their occupation or address. For most library […]
The Leighton Library’s Water Drinkers: An Exhibition
When I applied for my scholarship from the Carnegie Trust earlier this year I committed to creating an exhibition displaying some of my findings. I’m so pleased to share that the exhibition has officially launched! Hurrah! It’s located in the Pathfoot Building at the University of Stirling in the A corridor (immediately to the left […]
Novel Reading in Post-Enlightenment Scotland: a PhD
Hello! My name is Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman, and I am delighted to be joining the Books and Borrowing team as I begin my SGSAH/AHRC-funded PhD this month, co-supervised by the Universities of Stirling and Glasgow. My PhD project centres upon analysing the relationships between novel reading and forms of ‘improvement’ within Post-Enlightenment Scotland. By combining […]
Romantic Period Book Circulation: Our BARS Salon, 18 August 2021
Which books were really circulating in the Romantic Period? We will be hosting a salon at Romantic Disconnections/Reconnections, BARS’ International Digital Conference which is taking place from 12-20 August 2021. Our salon on ‘Romantic Period Book Circulation’ will take place on 18 August 2021 from 11:30-13:00 (BST) and is limited to 20 participants. Registrants will […]
The Most Borrowed Books of the Leighton Library’s Water Drinkers
by Jacqueline Kennard I’m thrilled about my temporary placement with Books and Borrowing and to be writing my first blog post! Funded by the Carnegie Trust’s Undergraduate Vacation Scholarship, I’ll be spending twelve weeks comparing and analysing early-nineteenth-century book borrowings from five libraries in provincial Scotland, namely the Leighton Library, St Andrews University Library, the […]