And a Happy New Year from the Caird Library!
We thought we'd get the new year rolling by introducing a few members of staff who have joined the Archive and Library team recently. It's also our sad duty to report that Richard Wragg, long time editor of the Caird Library Blog, has left the Museum and gone on to pursue his doctoral studies. We wish him all the best and will miss him- and we hope he keeps a good archival eye on the blog yet! Last year we welcomed Jean Kenny to the Library team, and here is Jean in her own words... (
I wanted to add Jean's photo but she was not so keen on that...)
A belated hello to all the blog readers! My name is Jean and I joined the National Maritime Museum as a Library Assistant back at the end of March.
I’m from Dublin originally, and studied archaeology and Irish there before moving to England and completing an MSc. in maritime archaeology at the University of Southampton. Working in the Caird Library is a far cry from the optimistic visions I had of myself diving for wrecks in the Mediterranean, however I love the variety of enquiries we receive here at the library, and enjoy the opportunity it gives me to fine tune my research skills and learn more about the fascinating collections we have here at the National Maritime Museum. Outside public duties in the reading room and dealing with enquiries, my main responsibility is managing the museum’s long list of scholarly and maritime journal subscriptions. We subscribe to a wide variety of journals and magazines on a range of subjects – art, antiques, clocks and horology, history, sailing/commercial shipping, and of course, boats of all varieties! Some of them are particularly niche and specific - my personal favourite is Knotting Matters, the Journal of the International Guild of Knot Tyers!
I have already been churning my way through a number of the books from the wonderful collection, and have made plans to build my own boat with the help of a friend and a number of the very practical boat building books we have here. Who knows, there may be a blog post in the near future with some interesting photos of the amazing things you can learn from our books!
Jean Kenny
Library Assistant
Item of the month readers can have a look at the story of a lesser known Trafalgar captain. Charles Tyler of HM ship
Tonnant had a musket ball go clean through his thigh while his ship grappled with the Spanish
Algeciras. Afterwards in Gibraltar he was encouraged by his Surgeon to drink quantities of Madeira to aid his recovery! Instead he wrote some rather tender letters to his wife. Pick up the story with January's Item of the month at:
http://www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/collections/by-type/archive-and-library/item-of-the-month/
Do leave a reply and let us know whay you think- we'd love to hear from you!
Martin
(Archive and Library)
I have already been churning my way through a number of the books from the wonderful collection, and have made plans to build my own boat with the help of a friend and a number of the very practical boat building books we have here. Who knows, there may be a blog post in the near future with some interesting photos of the amazing things you can learn from our books!
Jean Kenny
Library Assistant
Item of the month readers can have a look at the story of a lesser known Trafalgar captain. Charles Tyler of HM ship Tonnant had a musket ball go clean through his thigh while his ship grappled with the Spanish Algeciras. Afterwards in Gibraltar he was encouraged by his Surgeon to drink quantities of Madeira to aid his recovery! Instead he wrote some rather tender letters to his wife. Pick up the story with January's Item of the month at:
http://www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/collections/by-type/archive-and-library/item-of-the-month/
Do leave a reply and let us know whay you think- we'd love to hear from you!
Martin
(Archive and Library)