Normally the Library is open by appointment on the first Saturday of the month from 10.00-16.45, but because of Easter, this year the Library will be open on Saturday 10 April, rather than Saturday 3 April. Details of last order dates for Saturday 10 April are on the website, as well as how to make an appointment and pre-order material in advance.

Eleanor Gawne (Head of Archive & Library)

It’s a bonus month for Archive and Library research as we’ve published two items this month, and they really couldn’t be more different.

In the rare books corner we have an introduction to one of the stars of our collection: Theodor de Bry’s A briefe and true report of the new found Land of Virginia. This is one of the first and most well-known titles in the Grand Voyages collection. The text and images published by the engraver de Bry form one of the earliest anthropological accounts of Native Americans.

And so from Roanoke Island in the sixteenth century to Gravesend Reach at the end of the nineteenth: from the archive collection we have a diary kept by the clergy of St Andrew’s Waterside Church Mission. The mission was responsible for serving the spiritual needs of those who worked or passed through the lower Thames area, and the diary reveals some interesting connections to other museum collections and key figures in the Museum’s history.

Renee (Digital Resources Libarian)

As the building and plans for the new research and reading room in the Sammy Ofer Wing have developed, we wanted to alert you to some information about the project’s progress which has just gone up on the website. The information will be updated every two months, so please watch this space.

Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)

Shipindex.org is an online resource that gives references to ships in books, magazines and other websites. It’s been around for a few years so you may have come across it before, but what you may not know is that it’s recently entered a new development phase and is looking more and more useful to maritime researchers.

What it provides is something that everyone wants – the ability to put the name of a ship into a database, and find out where to find information on it. Ideally that information would come straight back out of the database (and maybe it will one day, if Google have their way with copyright), but as you will know if you’ve spent time here at the Caird Library, typically the information likes to hide. In books. So being able to find out which books it’s hiding in really is the next best thing.

Shipindex now has 143,937 entries free to view, with an additional 1,278,431 entries available as premium content, accessible by subscription. We are currently running a trial of the premium content, so if you’d like to try it out, come and visit us here at the Library or E-Library sometime before March 17. We’d love to know what you think, and I’m sure the people behind Shipindex would too.

Renee (Digital Resources Librarian)