Balfour Library Conservation Project - there's window cleaning too, of a sort ...

One very neglected area of the special collections storage has been the old wooden cases with glass sliding doors, where some of the more precious items are shelved.

The glass is very dusty and, along with the rest of the cabinets and shelves inside, has not been cleaned for decades. The NADFAS volunteers have been tackling these recently.

The dust makes the glass appear dull.

The amount of dust is clearly visible here. It's on the inside and the outside of the cabinets.

Inside, the books are also very dusty, and show signs of damage through incorrect handling when being removed from the shelves.

The cabinet doors slide open and shut. There is a huge amount of detritis from books that has accumulated over the years.

The volunteers have been cleaning the glass by wiping with a very slightly damp microfibre cloth, then wiping it with a dry one, and leaving to dry completely. The same method is used for the shelves. Getting in between the sliding doors to clean the glass is still problematic though, despite Pam's magic feather duster (unfortunately I don't have a photo of that!). We cannot use special glass cleaner or indeed any liquid around the books and shelves either.

Diane vacuums the shelves and sliding mechanisms (after having checked that nothing significant from a book is there first of course!) using our amazingly quiet Nilfisk vacuum cleaner.

The result? Well, lovely clean shelves, books and cabinets!

You can actually see what's behind the glass!

Looking much smarter.

The books themselves look much cleaner and neater, and have been repaired slightly with the black cotton tape, securing loose bindings.

The books won't have to sit on dust or detritis anymore.

Another problem is how many of the books have been shelved so that they lean over to one side. This is very damaging. After the books in these cabinets have been cleaned library staff will re-shelve all of them so that there are no gaps where books can lean over, or if there are, adding suitable book ends.

Now I have to decide what the volunteers should tackle next...

Balfour Library Conservation Project - the volunteers have now cleaned 2,000 books!

There are around 6,000 books in our special collections that require cleaning, so this is a real milestone!

The 2,000th book to be cleaned was a volume of Descrizione e notomia degli animali invertebrati della Sicilia citeriore : osservati vivi negli anni 1822-1830, by Stefano delle Chiaje. Tome 1-8. Published in Naples, 1841-44. Balfour Library shelfmark: qHL (3). 

Susan and Diane removing the 2,000th book from the shelves for cleaning!

Title page of the book.

Lovely book bindings.

The volume is from the collection donated by Alfred Merle Norman (1831-1918), a clergyman in Co. Durham. He began studying marine biology during the early 1850s and during the 1860s was an important participant in John Gwyn Jefferys' expeditions to the Shetland Islands. 

Norman collected specimens from all over the British Isles and also dredged in Norwegian fjords. He published major work on Protozoa, Porifera, Coelenterata, Mollusca, Crustacea, and other invertebrates. His collection was acquired by the British Museum (Natural History). 

Norman's library, which incorporated John Gwyn Jefferys' library on molluscs, is now part of the special collections here at the Balfour & Newton Libraries. 

An article on Norman can be found in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 68, pp. 69-98 (1980), which includes a bibliography of his publications. 

A short biography of John Gwyn Jeffreys, 1809-1885, can be found on the Royal Conchological Society website at: http://www.conchsoc.org/ (click on the Molluscan Interests tab, then click on History, then on Eminent Conchologists).

Alfred Merle Norman's impressive bookplate.

Me with the 2,000th book - the volunteers got their own back for all the photos I've published of them!

Well done and thank you very much to all of the volunteers for their hard work so far.

Audubon Mobile Field Guide Apps

If you research North American species, or work or holiday in North America and need to know what that insect / bird / mammal / fish / plant / amphibian / spider / marine organism you just saw was then maybe the Audubon Mobile Field Guide apps are for you! 

According to the National Audubon Society the apps feature "high quality photographs, range maps, animal sounds and and the ability to create your own lifelists and record sightings".

The apps can be downloaded to iPhone and iPod touch, iPad, Android, NOOK Color and Kindle Fire devices.

There's also an African wildlife field guide app. 

There is of course a fee for all of these. Find out more at: http://www.audubonguides.com/field-guides/mobile-apps.html

The Audubon Society also provides field guides online on their website. You need to register (for free) to access the online guides, which, as well as the apps, provide: information on 5,548 North American species, species identification by quick guide, family/taxonomic/common name, and advanced search; reference content including 2,300 bird songs and calls; 8,000+ photographic images; natural history, family descriptions, taxonomy, habitat, endangered species, community etc.; the ability to create lifelists and record sightings.

See their website for more information at: http://www.audubonguides.com/home.html

New MyiLibrary ebook download service

ebooks@cambridge is pleased to announce that almost 300 MyiLibrary ebooks can now be checked out and downloaded by Cambridge staff and students. Downloadable titles will increase in number over time, as publishers sign up to this service with MyiLibrary.

Downloading to popular e-readers is supported, including the Sony e-readers, the Barnes & Noble Nook, and the Apple family of mobile devices, the iPad, the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as Android devices.

Please see this blogpost for further details of this new service: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/eresourcesblog/?p=669

Find out more about ebooks@cambridge here: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/ebooks/ 

National Libraries Day 2012

National Libraries Day is devoted to all types of libraries, library users, staff and supporters across the UK. 

Join in by organising a celebratory event, contributing to our forums, tweeting with the #NLD12 hashtag and visiting your local library on the 4 February or the week leading up to it. How will you get involved?

Find out more at: http://nationallibrariesday.org.uk/

New acquisitions

 

New books purchased

The animal kingdom: a very short introduction, by Peter Holland. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2011. Balfour Library shelfmark: EO (333i-iii). (2 x Overnight Loan shelves, 1 x Open Shelves).

Birds of North America and Greenland, text and illustrations by Norman Arlott. London: Harper Collins Publishers; 2011. Balfour Library shelfmark: KZ.7 (92).

Solid biomechanics, by Roland Ennos. Princeton, NJ: Oxford: Princeton University Press; 2012. Balfour Library shelfmark:  EAD (14) (Overnight Loan shelves).

New theses

Chemical genetics to study how cells enter mitosis, by Paola Marco-Casanova. Cambridge; 2011. Balfour Library shelfmark: Thesis (506) (Library Office).

Food theft by deceptive alarm calls in the fork-tailed drongo, by Thomas Patrick Flower. Cambridge; 2011. Balfour Library shelfmark: Thesis (505) (Library Office).

The role of morphogenetic protein signalling in zebrafish vascular development, by John Edward Cannon. Cambridge; 2011. Balfour Library shelfmark: Thesis (507) (Library Office).

Book donations

Multi-system endocrine disruption, by Jean-Pierre Bourguignon ... [et al.]. Berlin: Heidelberg; 2011. Balfour Library shelfmark: GEK (56).