> ENGLAND: Lambeth Palace library to go online
> Posted: Thursday, February 22, 2007
> One of the oldest public libraries in the country is set to go into
> cyberspace. The printed book collection of Lambeth Palace Library -
> the historic library and record office of the Archbishops of
> Canterbury, and the main repository of the documentary history of
> the Church of England - will be added to an online catalogue for
> the benefit of the national and international research community,
> it has been announced today.
>
> The Library's printed book catalogue will be loaded onto 'Copac',
> which provides free access to the merged online catalogues of the
> major research libraries in the UK and Ireland. Lambeth Palace
> Library's holdings make it one of the key collections for Church
> history for researchers exploring the early Church to the present
> day, and the Library forms a major part of the national collection
> in the field of theology.
> Declan Kelly, director of libraries, Archives and Information
> Services for the National Institutions of the Church of England,
> says that the Library's users will benefit greatly from this
> development: "Researchers who discover Lambeth Palace Library are
> constantly amazed by the richness and value of the collections for
> their research. While many users already access the catalogue via
> our own website, exposure of the Library's collections in this way
> will raise the Library's profile enormously, not just to the
> research community, but also to the wider public."
> Copac is coordinated by the Consortium of University Research
> Libraries (CURL), a body that aims to increase the ability of
> research libraries to share resources for the benefit of the local,
> national and international research community. By building a
> 'one-stop' resource, researchers - wherever in the world and
> whatever their disciplines - are able to locate resources easily
> from their own desk.
> The addition of Lambeth Palace Library's catalogue over the next
> year was announced following an assessment of the Library's
> application to the CURL/British Library/Research Information
> Network Challenge Fund, an initiative designed to enhance the Copac
> scheme by significantly extending the range of research material it
> covers. From a pool of 60 responses seeking a presence within
> Copac, 12 successful applicants – including the Kew Royal Botaniic
> Gardens and the Natural History Museum - have been selected as new
> additions to the catalogue.
> Robin Green, executive director of CURL, said "I am delighted that
> through the Challenge Fund, CURL has been able to provide the wider
> community with this opportunity. Inclusion of the Lambeth Palace
> Library data in Copac makes it a much richer resource and increases
> access to relevant materials to all researchers, wherever they are
> based."
> The Library's catalogue is expected to be fully loaded into the
> Copac system by early 2008.
> Notes to Editors
> About Lambeth Palace Library
> The Library was founded as a public library in 1610 and is freely
> open for all to use. The Lambeth collection was formed from the
> private collections of archbishops of Canterbury and is
> particularly rich in terms of provenance and rare and unique items.
> In its early years the Library also acquired parts of the libraries
> of John Foxe (1516-87) the martyrologist, Robert Dudley, Earl of
> Leicester (1532-88) and Sir Christopher Hatton (1540-91). The
> Library contains some 120,000 books and 40,000 pamphlets from the
> 15th to 21st centuries. Included is one of the foremost national
> collections of early printing from the Gutenberg Bible onwards. The
> collection forms the leading national collection in the history and
> affairs of the Church of England, alongside a great diversity of
> other subjects.
> A 2004 assessment of Lambeth Palace Library by the British Academy
> states that: "Lambeth Palace Library … contains one of the most
> important colllections of early printed books in any of the great
> national libraries, recently enriched by the large pre-1850 printed
> holdings of Sion College. It would be difficult to overstate the
> value of the Lambeth Palace Library."
> In 2005, the entire collections held in Lambeth Palace Library were
> awarded Designated status under the MLA Designation Scheme. The
> scheme identifies and celebrates the pre-eminent collections of
> national and international importance held in England's
> non-national museums, libraries and archives.
> About CURL
> The Consortium of Research Libraries in the British Isles - is a
> consortium of 29 institutions in the UK and Ireland. CURL's mission
> is to increase the ability of research libraries to share resources
> for the benefit of the local, national and international research
> community. Further information about CURL, including COPAC - a
> freely available service allowing the catalogues of CURL Member and
> other libraries to be searched from a single point - is availableÂ
> here.
>
> © 2004, The Episcopal Church, USA. Episcopal News Service content
> may be reprinted without permission as long as credit is given to
> ENS.
This is the blog of The Heroic Age, http://www.heroicage.org, an online journal dedicated to the study of European Northwest from 400-1100 AD. This space will be used to make announcements about news items, books, and other related medieval news of interest to The Heroic Age readers.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Lambeth Library Online
Forwarded by Bob Schacht to the Ecchst List:
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