Annual Report 2001-2002 - Cambridge University Library ...

The ManuscriptsReading Room inthe newly openednorth-west cornerextension.representing a collection of outstanding interest for thehistory of geology and related subjects.Ordnance Survey no longer publish their large-scalemaps on paper and, since the end of 2000, they havesimilarly been unable to provide microform ‘aperturecards’ of these maps. This initially left a gap in thetopographic history of the country but, happily, thesituation has now been resolved, with the agreement byOrdnance Survey to supply the legal deposit librarieswith an annual snapshot of their digital database. Thefirst three of these (for 1998-2000) are now available inthe Map Department. The Department’s database ofgeographical headings in the card catalogue – almost17,000 entries – has been computerised and providesmuch more flexible searching possibilities; a recentexample of this was the production of a list of all theLibrary’s maps of the whole, and of parts, of Antarctica,for a reader wanting to trace the fluctuation in ice cover.The Royal Commonwealth Society Library has amagnificent and important collection of around 70,000photographs, taken all over the Empire over a period ofmany decades. The only catalogue at present is atypescript list, but, thanks to a bequest from the late MrF. C. Goodyear, a new project was started in January2002 to convert the list into electronic form and mountit on a database compatible with that being used forother Cambridge archives. The project is expected tobe completed in 2004, and it is hoped that sufficientfunding will be available to digitise some of the images.Some of the rarer materials from the RCS collectionsare being microfilmed for inclusion in Adam MatthewPublications’ Empire and Commonwealth project.On a less happy note, during the late 1980s andearly 1990s the Library, along with the LondonLibrary, suffered some serious thefts of rare books. Thethief, a member of the University, was caught afterextensive police investigation and, during the year,was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.Carter StudioOriental collectionsThere has been growing concern at the number ofpaperback Chinese books awaiting binding. Followinga review of the capacity of the Bindery to handle thesematerials, it was decided that the only way to makethem available to readers was to create a new class inwhich they could be shelved as paperbacks, and, infuture, to bind them only selectively. As part of theRSLP Chinese Research Materials project, the backlogof such materials awaiting cataloguing (some 7,000volumes) was largely eliminated. That project and theimminent arrival of the ‘Newton’ system provided acatalyst for the conversion to Pinyin of the remainingrecords for Chinese books in Wade-Giles romanisation.As a result, the Chinese card-catalogue is now closedand all new accessions will be catalogued online only.Purchases in Hebrew and Arabic have increasedsubstantially, reflecting the need to fill gaps that haddeveloped in the collections. Interest in the Library’simportant collection of Near Eastern manuscriptscontinues; some significant additions were made tothat collection during the year and it is hoped thatprogress can be made with making catalogues of somesignificant parts of the Near Eastern manuscriptcollection more widely accessible.The Soka Gakkai, of Japan, published a splendidfacsimile of two of the Library’s Oriental treasures, theSanskrit Lotus Sutra manuscripts Add.1682 andAdd.1683, edited by Mr Jamieson.The collection of essays entitled The CambridgeGenizah collections: their contents and significance, editedby Stefan and Shulie Reif (Cambridge 2002), waspublished as number 1 in the Genizah Series andProfessor Reif’s book A Jewish archive from Old Cairowas reprinted in paperback. The Cambridge Genizahcollection provided the central focus for a major yearlongexhibition at the Spertus Institute in Chicago, andseventeen fragments were loaned in three batches overthe course of the year.Stefan Reif’s book on theLibrary’s Genizah Collection,A Jewish archive from OldCairo, was reissued inpaperback.7