Your source for what's new at Mizzou Libraries
Today we’re excited to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the first module (U1) of the University of Missouri Libraries Depository, and what better way to celebrate than to take a look at how our permanent UMLD location supports the wonderful campuses and libraries of the UM System! Happy birthday, U1, we hope you will continue to serve our students, faculty, and staff for many years to come!
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If you've used many materials here in Special Collections, you're probably all too familiar with these little yellow slips of paper. They're our call slips, and until recently, we required all readers to fill one out for each item being requested from the stacks.
This summer the MU Libraries transitioned over to a new computer system, and we took it as an opportunity to try a new way of requesting and paging materials. Instead of filling out your name and contact information multiple times, you'll be asked to do it once per year, on our new Patron Registration Form (you can even print it out from our website, fill it out in advance and bring it with you to the reading room if you want to save time). On subsequent visits, simply check in at the desk. We'll be able to complete the rest of your request electronically – no handwriting or carbon copies required!
Although we don't yet have the capability to take requests online, you can, as always, email us to place materials on hold. We're hoping that this system will prove easier and more efficient for everyone involved. No more repetitive request writing for you, and no more wrangling thousands of paper slips for us. Our call slip mascots, the Special Collections sheep, might have gotten a little excited when they heard about this.
The new registration system takes effect August 1. Although we've spent weeks practicing and trying to anticipate bugs, we'll probably need your patience as we learn this new way of doing things. Please feel free to contact us with any thoughts, concerns, or problems.
… we present Jesus and the Twelve Apostles.
In this collection of the Gospels from 1591, the text is written in both Arabic and Latin. It's inscribed "With compliments to my friend Dr. W. Burggraaf, Christmas 1931."
A beautiful example of works in translation, the book also contains 149 woodcut illustrations. They were, however, printed from only 68 blocks, so the careful reader can discern some copycat pictures in different places. Like the two below, both used to illustrate a version of the same story in Matthew and then in John.
Reusing woodblocks was a fairly common practice, particularly in bibles where multiple versions of similar events or themes are told by the various authors of the books of the Bible throughout. We've come across several other books in our collection where the illustrations give us deja vu.
That's it for the 12 Days of Christmas in July series! Have a merry holiday, and if you should feel like celebrating with us, stop by and see us next week – we'd be happy to show you any of the books featured here, along with any of the others in our collections!
Today marks the 400th anniversary of Thomas Bodley’s death. Although his name is not as well known on this side of the Atlantic, Bodley’s contribution to research and learning has had lasting impacts in the English-speaking world for centuries.
Though English, Bodley spent his childhood and adolescence abroad in Europe. He had the misfortune to be born into a Protestant family in the last year of the reign of Henry VIII in 1545. After the short reign of Henry’s son, Edward, Mary took the throne and spent the entire five years of her reign persecuting Protestants. His family escaped to mainland Europe, and there, Bodley studied under the tutelage of John Calvin in Switzerland and attended services by John Knox. When Mary died and was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth, the family returned and Bodley enrolled in Magdalen College at Oxford University.
After finishing college, his career took him to Parliament and eventually he served as a diplomat and sent on secret missions to the Netherlands, France, and Denmark. In 1596, he returned home and settled back in Oxford. Two years later, Bodley was given a large dinner in his honor. It is speculated that it was that fateful evening in 1598 when 53 year-old Thomas Bodley, while speaking to old friends and colleagues, came up with the inspiration to do one last project that would make his name live on 400 years later.
Over 120 years earlier, the main library at Oxford University had been presented as a gift from Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. However, after Queen Elizabeth had ascended to the throne, the library had been stripped and abandoned. In 1598, after the dinner in his honor, Bodley determined to restore the library and spend the rest of his life working in it. Oxford immediately and graciously accepted his offer. In 1600, Bodley began collecting books to donate to the library that would use his name.
To motivate others to donate money and books, he created a large book bound in vellum, a “Benefactor’s Book”, which would remain on display in the center of the library. The book would contain the names of all those who had contributed to the library. This novel idea is used to this day in libraries around the world.
The Bodleian Library is one of six legal deposit libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. A copy of every book, CD-Rom, website, and other public materials published in the UK and Ireland is deposited at the Bodleian. As such, space is limited and larger facilities are used as depositories to hold all of the materials the Bodleian possesses. Some of the treasures of the Bodleian include a copy of the Magna Carta, one of 42 complete 1455 Gutenberg Bibles still in existence, the Ashmole manuscripts, the Song of Roland, the Book of Hours (shown here) and the Codex Bodley.
Special Collections has various items relating to the Bodleian Library and its long history. The items depicted in this blog post are all materials you can find by visiting us up on the 4th Floor West in Ellis Library. We would be happy to help you and answer any questions you might have.