Annual Report 2008-9 - The British School at Rome

L I B R A R Y A N D A R C H I V E
the Italian Ministry for Higher Education and Research and
involving five Italian universities.
This project also includes the creation of a new
website: BSR Library and Archive Digital Collections. The
digitised images from the catalogued photographs will be
accessible on this site and it is hoped that, in the future,
other material — including maps, prints and engravings
and manuscripts from the Library collection and
documents from the Archive — will also be available.
Two pilot projects have already been completed: a
selection of maps of Rome digitised by the Bibliotheca
Hertziana as part of the Catalogo Illustrato delle Piante di
Roma Online project and 100 miscellaneous prints from
the Thomas Ashby collection funded by the Australian
Research Council. The material has been catalogued by
Beatrice Gelosia, Deputy Librarian.
The Getty Foundation Grants, therefore, have been
fundamental for the development of the BSR Library and
Archive over the past seven years, not only funding the
cataloguing of over 25,000 images from the Photographic
Archive and a new dedicated website, but also stimulating
our participation in related international projects, facilitating
our fundraising activity, and creating opportunities for
outreach: exhibitions, publications, seminars and courses in
the history of photographic techniques organised by the
BSR Archivist, Alessandra Giovenco. We are profoundly
grateful.
The Librarian was honoured to receive an invitation to
spend a week at the Getty Research Institute in October,
meeting curators and staff and discovering the wealth of
remarkable resources, which was a very useful and
stimulating experience. This followed the symposium Sir
William Gell and the Topographical Imagination, held at the Getty
Villa, at which both the Director and the Librarian gave
papers on the manuscripts held in the BSR Library.
Other news. The number of outside readers using the
Library has continued to rise and the graph clearly shows
the dramatic increase. It is, once again, only thanks to David
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The numbers of outside readers using the BSR Library
Packard’s generous support, through the Packard
Humanities Institute, that we can continue to provide an
efficient service and welcome all scholars to the Library.
The lack of space is also a recurrent problem and some
areas of the Library are already full. However, we have
exceptionally agreed to accept a bequest from the estate
of Piero Lugli, son of Giuseppe Lugli (the archaeologist
and friend of Thomas Ashby), who expressed the desire
that part of his Archive, mainly relating to his father,
should come to the BSR. This will be housed in the BSR
Archive office.
We were saddened by the news that Michael Mallett,
Rome Scholar in 1957 and Assistant Director/Librarian
from 1962 to 1967 passed away in September 2008. The
BSR Library has been named as a beneficiary and we have
selected a number of books from his library. It is with
pleasure that we have incorporated these into the Library’s
collections and our sincere condolences and thanks go to
Luke and Alex Mallett.
Valerie Scott
Librarian