| a bibliographical newsletter Issue 5 November 2018 |
Since the last newsletter work has continued with the Devon Bibliography on various fronts. Updating of recent and forthcoming books has been undertaken by reference to the British National Bibliography, Amazon, COPAC and from reports by various collaborators. Visits to the excellent Crediton Community Bookshop, the Devon and Exeter Institution and the recent Exeter Literary Festival have also been fruitful - more on the latter below. It has become clear that the British National Bibliography misses many local publications and does not identify all items that are of Devon interest. There is also considerable delay in the recording of many items, for example Green Books of Totnes obviously delivered a backlog of their publications during the year and on a recent visit to the bookshop in Totnes of six items on Totnes and Dartington that looked unfamiliar none appeared in BNB and only a couple could be located on Amazon.
Attention has also been devoted to periodical articles and an integrated spreadsheet has been set up with more than 6,000 records. Many of these will be duplicated in the books section as offprints and these will be merged as time permits. Periodical articles are a rich source for detailed studies, as are theses and these are also being isolated into a separate spreadsheet.
Chronological arrangement, as is done for the books, is not suitable for all items and a thesaurus is being developed to provide a thematic presentation. This will be a classified listing of subject terms more suited to local studies than the Dewey decimal classification used by BNB, An earlier version of this has been used for the Devon Digital Archive which also attempts to list earlier archived versions of Devon websites some no longer maintained.
A record structure has been devised which aims to be compatible with standards such as AACR, MARC and Dublin Core while avoiding their complexities of coding. The structure also has to be adaptable enough to accommodate a wide variety of formats, from broadside ballads to multi-volume works to maps, to illustrations, to periodicals and the articles they contain. The result is a bibliography where the content is actually archived on the web. Records are stored as tab delimited files on spreadsheets which are directly uploaded to the web pages. Flat files are employed rather than relational databases. Content can be freely downloaded and integrated in many spreadsheets and databases either by highlighting the records as displayed or doing the same from the HTML source code. Individual records can be used as templates for supplying new or amended records to the editor.
There have been discussions with the Devon and Exeter Institution as a possible institutional base for the Devon Bibliography which might make application for funding and other support easier. As a first step they will make a link to the bibliography and it is hoped that it will be possible progressively to migrate listings to their website. There is an immense amount of work to be undertaken on standardising the records and obtaining software to enable all records to be interrogated to provide integrated listings. The bibliography is a useful resource for local libraries, booksellers, publishers and authors as well as researchers, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for a single individual to maintain it.
Exeter Literary Festival
Attention has also been devoted to periodical articles and an integrated spreadsheet has been set up with more than 6,000 records. Many of these will be duplicated in the books section as offprints and these will be merged as time permits. Periodical articles are a rich source for detailed studies, as are theses and these are also being isolated into a separate spreadsheet.
Chronological arrangement, as is done for the books, is not suitable for all items and a thesaurus is being developed to provide a thematic presentation. This will be a classified listing of subject terms more suited to local studies than the Dewey decimal classification used by BNB, An earlier version of this has been used for the Devon Digital Archive which also attempts to list earlier archived versions of Devon websites some no longer maintained.
A record structure has been devised which aims to be compatible with standards such as AACR, MARC and Dublin Core while avoiding their complexities of coding. The structure also has to be adaptable enough to accommodate a wide variety of formats, from broadside ballads to multi-volume works to maps, to illustrations, to periodicals and the articles they contain. The result is a bibliography where the content is actually archived on the web. Records are stored as tab delimited files on spreadsheets which are directly uploaded to the web pages. Flat files are employed rather than relational databases. Content can be freely downloaded and integrated in many spreadsheets and databases either by highlighting the records as displayed or doing the same from the HTML source code. Individual records can be used as templates for supplying new or amended records to the editor.
There have been discussions with the Devon and Exeter Institution as a possible institutional base for the Devon Bibliography which might make application for funding and other support easier. As a first step they will make a link to the bibliography and it is hoped that it will be possible progressively to migrate listings to their website. There is an immense amount of work to be undertaken on standardising the records and obtaining software to enable all records to be interrogated to provide integrated listings. The bibliography is a useful resource for local libraries, booksellers, publishers and authors as well as researchers, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for a single individual to maintain it.
Exeter Literary Festival
It seems unbelievable that a city like Exeter has not had a literary festival in recent years, but the success of the festival held from the 16th to 18th November shows that such an event was long overdue. A steering group of Maggie Bonfield (events co-ordinator), Emma Dunn (Devon and Exeter Institution), Todd Gray (historian and publisher, University of Exeter), Cathie Hartigan (author, Creative Writing Matters and Exeter Writers), Lee Rawlings (author, Libraries Unlimited), Simon Timms (archaeologist, Exeter Cathedral Library and Archives Board) and Rob Turner (web design and publicity) were funded by Exeter City Council, Millbrook Retirement Village and the Devon and Exeter Institution. Events were organised and hosted by Exeter Cathedral, Devon Libraries, Waterstones, Exeter Phoenix, Cygnet Theatre, Barnfield Theatre and Exeter Writers. Bills, Prezzo and On The Waterfront restaurants, Creative Writing Matters and others donated the prizes for the Writing Competition for over 60s in support of AgeUK Exeter which were presented at the festival launch. St Thomas Community Association also supported the Festival. Altogether about thirty events were put on often to packed audiences.
The opening event on Friday morning in the Cathedral Chapter House set the scene with seven speakers each presenting their own Great Exeter Book, resulting in a wide-ranging selection from the Exeter Book of Old English poetry, through histories of Exeter, to medieval fiction, children's books and a recent publication on Exeter witchcraft. Members of the audience also threw in their choices. The audience of about seventy was rivalled in the afternoon with an amusing presentation by two Canadian scholars and a poet on the riddles in the Exeter Book. The other events on Friday and Saturday can be seen on the Festival website.
Sunday saw a series of events at the Barnfield Theatre with books for sale by local authors. There was a discussion "Sharing ideas on Exeter's literary future" with Maggie Bonfield, Helen Chaloner (Literature Works SW), Daniel Clarke (Libraries Unlimited) and Simon Timms. There was a small but select audience, including a representative of the Arts Council, but everyone present had the opportunity to contribute. One exciting prospect was a bid for Exeter to become a UNESCO city of culture - which would mean that there would have to be more literary festivals in Exeter. To judge by the reception of this first one, that is highly likely any way.
Local authors
Coming from the world of local studies, where the emphasis is on matters historical, it was opportune to be immersed in the literary community and see to what extent the Devon bibliography was covering the output of the local writers of today. Much interest was expressed, especially when it became clear that many local authors are not properly represented. It was hoped to produce a list of local authors in time for this issue similar to the listing of local publishers prepared for an earlier one, but it is proving a longer task than anticipated. If author websites can be located it may form part of the Devon Digital Archive rather than forming a separate list.
Kent Kingdon Bequest
Over more than a century the charity has been assisting acquisition of works of art for the Royal Albert memorial Museum and books for the "Free Library" in Exeter. After a restructuring it is now back in business and its website has been updated. If help is required to acquire rare and unusual items for the Museum or for public library collections in Exeter, please contact the trustees c/o the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, the Devon Heritage Centre or Libraries Unlimited.
Gouldiana
The opening event on Friday morning in the Cathedral Chapter House set the scene with seven speakers each presenting their own Great Exeter Book, resulting in a wide-ranging selection from the Exeter Book of Old English poetry, through histories of Exeter, to medieval fiction, children's books and a recent publication on Exeter witchcraft. Members of the audience also threw in their choices. The audience of about seventy was rivalled in the afternoon with an amusing presentation by two Canadian scholars and a poet on the riddles in the Exeter Book. The other events on Friday and Saturday can be seen on the Festival website.
Sunday saw a series of events at the Barnfield Theatre with books for sale by local authors. There was a discussion "Sharing ideas on Exeter's literary future" with Maggie Bonfield, Helen Chaloner (Literature Works SW), Daniel Clarke (Libraries Unlimited) and Simon Timms. There was a small but select audience, including a representative of the Arts Council, but everyone present had the opportunity to contribute. One exciting prospect was a bid for Exeter to become a UNESCO city of culture - which would mean that there would have to be more literary festivals in Exeter. To judge by the reception of this first one, that is highly likely any way.
Local authors
Coming from the world of local studies, where the emphasis is on matters historical, it was opportune to be immersed in the literary community and see to what extent the Devon bibliography was covering the output of the local writers of today. Much interest was expressed, especially when it became clear that many local authors are not properly represented. It was hoped to produce a list of local authors in time for this issue similar to the listing of local publishers prepared for an earlier one, but it is proving a longer task than anticipated. If author websites can be located it may form part of the Devon Digital Archive rather than forming a separate list.
Kent Kingdon Bequest
Over more than a century the charity has been assisting acquisition of works of art for the Royal Albert memorial Museum and books for the "Free Library" in Exeter. After a restructuring it is now back in business and its website has been updated. If help is required to acquire rare and unusual items for the Museum or for public library collections in Exeter, please contact the trustees c/o the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, the Devon Heritage Centre or Libraries Unlimited.
Gouldiana
Work on the Sabine Baring-Gould collections continues. The material transferred from Killerton to the University of Exeter is being recatalogued - or rather properly catalogued for the first time and this work is almost completed. There only remain a few massive folio items to be hauled from the shelves. The results of the University's cataloguing are best seen if you click here. It is hoped that relevant records will be integrated into the Baring-Gould union listing. It has become evident during recataloguing that several sets of volumes are split and others perhaps better located elsewhere and it is hoped to exchange them in the near future. The Lew Trenchard Preservation Trust which owns the volumes is most supportive in seeing that this is done.
