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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Scholarly Favourites. Researching in Special Collections. Online exhibition
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
18th May 2016
Contributor
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Special Collections, University of Otago
Creator
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Special Collections, University of Otago
Abstract
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Who uses Special Collections? And why? And what research results emanate from physically examining books and manuscripts? It was these questions that prompted the development of this ‘engagement’ exhibition, now called <em>Scholarly Favourites. Researching in Special Collections</em>. We certainly have a wide variety of readers. After filling out the appropriate registration forms, they settle into our Reading Room. A brief wait and they get the requested item. The type of materials used is equally varied, ranging from a single sheet Medieval manuscript and a 17th century herbal, to an issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine or a Pulp Fiction book. The actual research and the publication of the end-result can often take a long time; indeed sometimes years. It can be circuitous. The time spent poring over the books also varies: three hours to three weeks, and sometimes more. And importantly, it is just not about research. Many readers use a particular book or manuscript because it is a favourite; a work that resonates with their sense of being. It has become important to them. Readers from inside and outside the University of Otago were contacted to choose a Special Collections item. They were each asked to write 150 words on ‘their’ chosen book; their favourite, or that one item that assisted their research. <em>Scholarly Favourites. Researching in Special Collections</em> is the result. In most cases, it meant a re-engagement with the item. A new handling of an old friend. The exhibition offers true variety, with items selected from the diverse collections within Special Collections: Brasch, de Beer, Shoults, Truby King, Pulp & Science Fiction, Monro, Stack. Items on display range from Albinus’s spectacular <em>Tabulae Sceleti et Musculorum Corporis Humani</em> (1747); Augustus Hamilton’s <em>The Art Workmanship of the Maori Race in New Zealand</em> (1901); and Johannes Wolleb’s <em>Compendium Theologiae Christianae</em> (1642); to Gregory M. Mathews’s <em>Supplement to The Birds of Norfolk & Lord Howe Islands and the Australasian South Polar Quadrant</em> (1928); the scurrilous <em>Alvin Purple</em> (1974); and <em>Egypt and the Sudan: Handbook for Travellers</em> (1929). Please enjoy what others have researched and enjoyed.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Letter from Thomas Jeffery Parker to William Aitcheson Haswell
Creator
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Thomas Parker
Identifier
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Parker Letterbook 1895-97, Special Collections and Archives, Arts and Social Studies Library, (416/4), Cardiff University
Type
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Correspondence
Publisher
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Unpublished
Abstract
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In a letter of 20th July 1896, evolutionist, Thomas Parker (1850-97) urges fellow evolutionist, William Haswell (1854-1925) to consider a diagram to show ‘the changes in capacity of the brain cavity … I did it with a series of actual skulls … once and it was really nice.’ The letters reveal how they pinned zoology to the page.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
20th July 1896