Search results

LOCAL history achieved academic respectability in 1947 with the establishment of the Department of Local History at the University of Leicester. No longer need the local historian feel ashamed of his craft or regard himself as a writer of footnotes to another's history.

Discusses the development of local history collections within libraries in Sierra Leone.

The article is a reflective viewpoint.

That there is a growing interest in local history collections in libraries in Sierra Leone, and that more formal structures should be put in place to safeguard these materials for the future.

Proposes some ways forward for ensuring the long term viability of local collections in Sierra Leone.

The article is the first on the topic of local history collections in Sierra Leone's libraries, and should be of interest to librarians around the world who have an interest in local history librarianship.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relevance of local studies collections and contributions from local studies librarians to a Norwegian local history wiki.

The paper focuses on access to metadata in the form of bibliographies, databases and catalogues, in addition to general articles on local history. The methodological approach is qualitative and comparative based on semi‐structured interviews with librarians in charge of local studies collections and with the administrators of the wiki. The study includes an analysis of a selection of local studies collections and criteria for inclusion into the local history wiki. A short comparison with history wikis in other countries is added.

Local studies collections contain valuable and unique material for the wiki, especially metadata resources. The expertise of librarians could increase the value of the wiki. Generally, librarians are not active contributors. Strategies for involvement are needed.

The paper may encourage and inspire local studies librarians to contribute actively to the wiki and incorporate relevant parts of their collections.

1. Introduction Victorian librarians saw the public library as a place where citizens could find material relating to their contemporary community — its health, finance, welfare and educational organisations; it would also be a depository for items relating to its past. By 1901 the Cambridge Free Library had taken so much care in this regard that “the historian of the future will find here all that he will need and that is as it should be”. But priorities changed within the library service. Within 50 years 60 per cent of that material had been dispersed and the remainder moved out of public view where it lay largely unused and unremembered. It had no place in the post‐war priorities of the public library service which had turned instead to “current information”, lists of societies, tourist information and the development of a general reference service concentrating on areas of comprehensiveness such as bus and train timetables from across the country. Today, community information and computer databases are the current information priorities, and although the unique, comprehensive local collection has been revived, invigorated and republicised, it remains an oddity, non‐conforming to the pre‐ordained management structure, an “albatross inheritance”.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

AS J. L. Hobbs shows so clearly in his recent book, the interest in local history is growing enormously at present. The universities, training colleges and schools, as well as the institutions of further education, are all making more use of local studies—geographical, economic, social and historical—in their regular courses, in their advanced work, and in their publications.

History teachers are continually seeking new ways in which they can actively involve their students and allow them to think more creatively. Creating local history projects allows students to look beyond the information on the pages of their text and forces them to look deeper into the history of their local environment. Properly constructed community and local history projects assist students in “actually doing history” and engage them in authentic activities directly related to the study of history. As educators, we need to utilize the communities in which we live, because they offer a wealth of opportunities for learning and continue to be one of the least tapped resources for social studies teaching (Martorella, 1998). Presented in this paper are methods and resources that can be used when conducting local histories in the K-12 classrooms in a manner encouraging students to engage in historical inquiry in authentic and meaningful ways.

THERE ARE TIMES, you know, when I feel that there is nothing new to be said about technical college libraries. Perhaps in another few years we shall have some progress to report, but, in the remote event of there being at present some development which has not been fully described, the person to do the job is probably not the librarian who is speaking to you now. He is very conscious that neither by years of experience nor by acquaintance with many different colleges is he qualified to survey technical college librarianship. Yet there may be some point in taking another look at fairly familiar territory, because some of you may have had little contact with college libraries, while others may have had relations with them different from those enjoyed by the librarian.

ALTHOUGH the first Public Libraries (Scotland) Act was placed on the Statute Book in 1853, it was not until 1899 that the Corporation of the City of Glasgow was empowered to establish and maintain public libraries throughout the city. Between 1876 and 1897 four attempts were made to secure public approval for the adoption of the Public Libraries (Scotland) Acts, but when all these efforts proved unsuccessful, the Corporation decided in June, 1888 to include in a Local Bill for submission to Parliament, certain clauses conferring upon themselves the power to become a library authority. Promoted in 1899, the Bill became known as the Glasgow Corporation (Tramways, Libraries, etc.) Act 1899, and the library clauses passed through Parliament without opposition and received Royal Assent on 1st August, 1899. The powers conferred by this Local Act empowered the Corporation:

Good library service means providing information that will satisfy the needs of patrons. Developing a sound collection of materials is best achieved by assessing user demands. Requests for materials are not always for specific titles, but rather for information related to a certain subject area. This is often the situation for state and local history. When developing a collection in local history, the librarian is faced with deciding what types of materials should be obtained to best satisfy patrons' needs. Examining materials actually used provides a valuable selection tool to aid in the collection development process.