Annual Report 2009 - Department of Zoology - University of ...

Balfour & Newton Library
The Balfour & Newton Library is a vital resource for
teaching and research in the Department, widely used
by academic staff and students in all three years of the
Natural Sciences Tripos. It houses special collections of
approximately 6,000 volumes which date from the 15th to
the mid-20th century, as well as over 100,000 reprints and
over 450 theses, manuscripts, photographs and several
paintings.
In 2009, the Museum of Zoology’s exhibition ‘Darwin:
Beetles, Finches, Barnacles’ celebrated the bicentenary
of the birth of Charles Darwin and featured the Library’s
first edition copy of his book, ‘On the origin of species’.
This copy was originally owned by Professor Alfred
Newton, a contemporary and correspondent of Darwin,
after whom the Library is named. As only 1,250 copies
of the first edition were ever published, this book is quite
rare and precious. Advised by the Librarian, TV presenter
John Craven was filmed handling the book for an episode
of ‘Countryfile’’, which also celebrated the bicentenary.
For more details on the exhibition see www.museum.zoo.
cam.ac.uk/exhibitions.displays/.
The Library also lent a copy of Gerald H. Thayer’s
‘Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom’ (1909)
to the Cambridge Fitzwilliam Museum for its exhibition
‘Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the
Visual Arts’. An illustration from the book was published in
the exhibition catalogue: a stencilled card showing dried
leaves covers plate XI of Thayer’s work and reveals the
shape of a copperhead snake when you lift it up. The
overall effect demonstrates the camouflage of the snake.
The exhibition explores the impact of Darwin’s theories on
late 19th century artists. More information can be found at
www.darwinendlessforms.org/
A colour CCTV monitoring system was purchased to
replace the old black-and-white one. The new set-up
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allows Library staff to easily interrogate data online. The
system protects the collections by not only acting as a
deterrent to thieves but also by preventing the absentminded
removal of items from the Library.
The Library purchased a three-year subscription to
the ‘Birds of North America (BNA) Online’, published
by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the American
Ornithologists’ Union. This resource provides
comprehensive life histories for each of the 716+ species
of birds breeding in the USA (including Hawaii) and
Canada. It contains image and video galleries showing
habitats, behaviors, nests, plumage, and eggs, as well as
recordings of bird songs. There is much demand for this
resource from research groups within the Department,
and it has been well used so far. ‘BNA Online’ can be
accessed from throughout the University at http://bna.
birds.cornell.edu/bna/ (off-campus access is via Raven
password).
For more information on the Library, please visit www.
zoo.cam.ac.uk/library/index.html and the Balfour Library
News Blog at www.balfourlibrary.blogspot.com/, to which
readers can subscribe for the latest information on library
services.
Museum of Zoology
The University Museum of Zoology holds collections
designated as being of outstanding national and
international significance. The collections are particularly
strong in fossil vertebrates, birds, molluscs and insects.
They contain material of historic significance associated
with great collectors of the past, and many ‘type
specimens’ that define species.
The Museum is an integral part of the Department, and is
used extensively for teaching not only by this Department,
but also by other departments within the University,
and by other local Universities and Colleges. The
‘Demonstration Room’ continues to be used for practical
teaching for much of the year, allowing final year students
to examine in detail hundreds of specimens from the
reserve collection.
The Museum also serves as the major natural history
museum for Cambridge and the local area, and is open
to the general public six days a week. It attracted over
60,000 visitors in 2009, including over 200 visits by school
groups. From June 2009 the Museum has been open
on Saturdays throughout the year, and not just in the
summer, as previously.
Six members of the academic staff work within the