No. 19 9 March 2000

Editors Joanna Dodsworth, Bodley, Gail Merrett, Directorate
Assistant Editors Stuart Ackland, Bodley, Julia Crawley, Music
John Duffy, Bodley, Kirsten Schouten, Bodley

Editorial Assistant (Vacancy)

Deadline: 10.30am Wednesday
Tel: (2)77216
Fax: (2)77218
Email: newsletter@bodley.ox.ac.uk

Contents

Please send all material for the Newsletter, addressed to "Newsletter", in the Clarendon Building (by email [newsletter@bodley.ox.ac.uk ], or Fax [277218]) by 10.30 am Wednesday

Fire Alarm Tests

The fire alarm will be tested between 11.00 and 11.15 am on Fri 10 March: Old Library Fri 17 March: Clarendon Building

Appointments

Eamonn Kelly, Part-Time Library Assistant, Clerical Grade 2, Social Studies Faculty Library, from 6 March 2000.

Caryn Paladina, Part-Time Library Assistant, Clerical Grade 2, Social Studies Faculty Library, from 1 March 2000.

Regrading

Post No. BH6831, Bodleian Map Room, has been regraded to Library and Clerical Grade 6 from 1 May 1999. The present post-holder is Nigel James.

Transfers

Murray Priest, to Temporary Library Assistant, Library and Clerical Grade 2, Bodleian Bookstack, from 13 March 2000.

Resignations

Gary Tomlinson, Social Studies Faculty Library, from 10 March 2000.

Vacancies

University Archives

Temporary Archives Assistant, Clerical Grade 3

There will be a vacancy in September for a Temporary (one year) Archives Assistant, Clerical Grade 3, in the University Archives. This post is based in the Bodleian Library but work is also carried out at other sites within the University. Duties include dealing with enquiries, production of documents, sorting and listing, labelling and boxing documents, and assistance with the general administration of the archives. Applicants should be physically fit as the Archives office is situated at the top of a narrow staircase and some lifting and carrying of heavy volumes is involved. The post would be suitable for someone wishing to gain experience before seeking professional archive qualifications. Prospective candidates should first obtain further details from the Archivist, University Archives, Bodleian Library. Tel: (2)77145. Letters of application with CV and the names and addresses of two referees should be sent to him to arrive by 6 April 2000.

NB Although the University Archives is situated in the Bodleian Library it is a separate University department.

Library Trainer

(Senior Librarian Grade 2, £18,915 - £ 24,479)

Applications are invited for the position of library trainer. The post-holder's main responsibilities will be the organisation and delivery of training to OLIS library staff, and the provision of supporting documentation. Initially, these responsibilities will focus on the use of OLIS. There will also be opportunities to become involved in training in other areas. Responsibilities include liaising with libraries joining OLIS or taking up new modules of the OLIS system, problem solving and assisting with a helpline service provided for OLIS libraries.

This post is a fixed-term appointment for three years in the first instance.

Applicants should have aptitude for and experience in the provision of training in the use of computer software. Knowledge of library procedures is essential. A postgraduate qualification in library and information science, or a teaching qualification (PGCE), would be extremely advantageous. Experience in the operation of Geac systems would be particularly relevant, as would knowledge of the Oxford library environment. Excellent oral and written communication skills are important, as are word processing and other IT skills.

The successful candidate will have ample opportunity for further professional and personal development within the University.

Further particulars may be obtained from Maria Castro, Libraries Automation Service, Tel: (2)78276, Fax: (2)78175,

Email: maria.castro@las.ox.ac.uk. These are also available on the website http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/las/fp.html

Closing date is 10 April 2000.

Bodleian Merit Award Scheme

I would like to confirm arrangements for this year's merit award scheme. Heads of Departments and Heads of Dependent Libraries are asked to make recommendations to the Director and Deputy Director by the end of May with decisions on merit awards to be made and announced by the end of June. It is also open for individual staff to make their own direct application for consideration for a merit award if they so wish. If this is done then the relevant Head of Department should be notified.

The overall process to be followed and Merit Award criteria, are set out below for reference.

1. The scheme will take place on an annual basis using the criteria set out below.

2. Heads of Departments and Heads of Dependent Libraries will be asked to make recommendations to the Director and Deputy Director of Staff who they feel meet these criteria and to provide evidence in support of this.

3. Individual members of staff may also make separate applications, in which case comments would be sought from the relevant Head of Department or Library.

4. There will be an overall limit to the number of awards made, based on financial considerations.

5. Awards can be made on a recurrent or non-recurrent basis and will be open for all staff where increments (either in-scale or above-scale) are available, including fixed term and part-time staff.

6. Lower priority for awards will be given to staff appointed within the last two years or who have received a promotion within the last two years.

7. Recommendations and submissions should be made to the Director by 31 May.

8. The results of merit awards will be published in the Staff Newsletter by the end of June.

9. Some merit awards may require the endorsement of the university Staff Committee.

Merit Award Criteria

Academic-Related Staff ALC4 and below

Evidence of outstanding personal contribution to the Library which is of a level well above that expected of an individual in the substantive grade but which does not necessarily justify promotion to the next higher grade.

Academic-Related Staff ALC5

Evidence of outstanding contribution to the work of the University either through special ability or special responsibility, made over a number of years and which is of a quality beyond that normally expected of staff in that grade; and usually, but not necessarily, was also of wide significance within the University community.

Clerical and Library Staff

Evidence of above average performance and ability on the following criteria:

Job Performance: Quality of work – thoroughness, accuracy, level of competence.

Quality of work – volume and speed. Knowledge of job – understanding of procedures and routines.

Job Development: Adaptability – speed of learning, adaptability to change. Initiative (relevant to level of post). Interest in job.

Co-operation: With colleagues and members of the public (where appropriate).

Organisational Ability: Ability to work effectively in a group.

Judgement: Quality of supervision exercised (where appropriate).

Technical Staff

Evidence of above average performance in any of the following: Job performance in terms of thoroughness, speed and accuracy. Industry and dependability.

Disposition and attitude in terms of teamwork and co-operation. Judgement and resourcefulness in relation to supervision received.

Aptitude and ability to comprehend as shown by adaptability and breadth of understanding.

Steve Waterman, Bodley

Bodleian Readers' Guides

Revised editions of Readers' Guides `The Modern Papers & John Johnson

Reading Room (Room 132)' and `Modern Political Papers' printed in the new

format (burgundy colour) are available from Stationery Stores.

Vanessa Corrick, Bodley

The Bodleian Library Record

With the publication of volume XVI, number 5 (April 1999), Dennis Porter's editorship of the Bodleian Library Record came to an end. He had taken over the post `temporarily' in September 1982, when still a member of the staff of the Department of Western Manuscripts, and had continued to do the job after his retirement from the Library.

Throughout his editorship Dennis was tireless in maintaining the high standards of the BLR's contents, as well as the regularity of its publication. These are features of which, as Dennis's successor as editor, I am keenly aware!

The delayed volume XVI, number 6 (October 1999) is about to be published, and we shall attempt to get back on schedule during the course of publishing this year's issues. An enlarged editorial committee, chaired by Mary Clapinson, is sharing in the task of seeking and assessing contributions; Joanna Dodsworth remains in charge of the publishing and distribution side. Though the news and accessions sections of the Record are explicitly related to the Bodleian, the scholarly articles which make up the bulk of each issue are traditionally concerned with the history and contents of library collections from any part of the University. Members of staff in all libraries are invited both to submit such articles themselves, and to bring the BLR to the attention of readers who may have articles suitable for consideration. If the BLR is to reflect the breadth of Oxford's library collections, I shall be heavily dependent on the help and advice of colleagues.

Martin Kauffmann, Bodley

Oxford University Libraries Bullentin

The Spring issue of the Bulletin will be out within the next two weeks. It's another bumper issue containing lots of interesting articles and including an insight into libraries and OUCS facilities, reports of conferences and courses, information about initiatives such as the DNER, Network Library Program and OS digital map data. It will also make you consider cataloguing things you don't own, becoming more evidence-based and whether it's time to sample that new restaurant in town!

If your library does not currently receive a copy of the Bulletin, please contact Gail Merrett. (N.B. We regret that copies are not sent to each individual)

Bulletin Editorial Board

Visitor Management

This year we are implementing a two-phase visitor management scheme in the Old Library quadrangle in order to assist with the control of congestion during the peak tourist season:

From 13 March, new signboards will advise visitors (including tour groups) to enter the quadrangle via the Great Gate in Catte Street. The signs will be placed to the right (as you enter) of the Radcliffe Square archway; just within the quadrangle at the top of the Catte Street steps; at the left of the north archway, and in the triangular space between the Sheldonian Theatre steps and the Clarendon Building. The Great Gate will be fully open, and a sign just inside the entrance will read: Visitor's Entrance to Divinity School, Guided Tours, Bodleian Shop, Exhibition. The signs will be taken down at 5pm until April, and then at 6pm.

From 17 April until September, we will again have `stewards' or `custodians' in the Old Schools Quadrangle between 10am and 4pm (Sats 10am to 1pm) whose duties will be to control congestion in the quadrangle and in the Divinity School by timing entry for tour groups. The proposed permanent Visitor Programme plan is now with the Heritage Lottery Fund and we should have confirmation of progress with this bid in early April.

Joanna Dodsworth, Steve Waterman, Bodley

Credit for Teaching and Learning Support

Last week I attended a very useful meeting between the ILT (Institute For Learning and Teaching), the LA and a mixed group of librarians from higher education institutions.

The ILT, established as a result the Dearing Report, is a membership organisation open to all those engaged in teaching and learning support in higher education. There will be two grades of membership: full and associate. Until the 30 September 2001 there is an initial entry into the ILT for full membership for experienced staff. This involves writing an application to meet specific assessment criteria. Although the criteria are geared towards active teachers, they can be interpreted fairly flexibly.

There was much discussion about the role of library staff in the area of `learning facilitation' and it is clear that the ILT now recognise the role library (and computing) staff have in the educational process. They were extremely encouraging to all of us and expressed a desire to see more applications from librarians. (They have received two so far!)

If you are interested in the ILT, see their web site at http://www.ilt.ac.uk/ and obtain a membership pack. I would like to hear from anyone interested in this with the aim of having an informal `get-together' about it next term.

Gail Merrett, Directorate

The Monckton Papers

Staff arriving to work in the Old and New Bodleian last Wednesday morning, 1 March, were faced with an amazing number of journalists, broadcasters and TV film crews.

The press had gathered in force as a result of speculation (first voiced in the Sunday Telegraph of 27 February) about the lifting of the 26-year-old restriction on access to ten boxes in the archive of Walter Monckton, 1st Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (1891-1965), the eminent lawyer and politician, best known as the close confidant of Edward VIII during the abdication crisis of 1936 and the years immediately following. A barrage of photographers and journalists, confident (despite the library's statements to the contrary) that the Monckton papers would provide something sensational, assembled in the Bullard Room for a press briefing by Professor Vernon Bognador of Brasenose.

Lord Monckton had been an undergraduate and honorary fellow of Balliol. His papers were given to his old college in two sections, the first by Lady Monckton in 1971 and the second by his literary trustees in 1977. Both sections were deposited in the Bodleian in 1974, catalogued and in part made available for research. Ten boxes which related to the abdication and the royal family were closed, on the instructions of the trustees, although Frances Donaldson had access to all of them for her Edward VIII (1974), before they came to the Library. Other papers, official files of Lord Monckton's in a succession of government offices, were closed in line with the Public Record Office's 30-year rule, and gradually released (with no media attention!) throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

At the press briefing Professor Bognador set the newly-released papers in their constitutional context and made it clear that they contain little new. They are, nevertheless, of considerable interest in the light they throw on the difficulties, both public and private, encountered by all parties caught up in the unprecedented circumstances of an abdication. An unusual number of journalists, and a few historians, then rushed to the Admissions Office and, armed with their readers' cards, filled the Modern Papers and John Johnson Reading Room for much of the day, searching for a story. With, contrary to expectation, nothing sensational to report on the ten boxes of Monckton papers, the press chose to speculate that an eleventh, still embargoed, contained letters from Her Majesty the Queen Mother. It does not, in fact, contain any letters from or concerning members of the royal family, and the university's press office had, by the end of the day, to issue a press release to this effect on the library's behalf. Letters to Lord Monckton from King George VI and Queen Elizabeth had been given by Lord Monckton's trustees to the Royal Archives. They had never formed part of the Balliol collection and were therefore never deposited in the Bodleian. They were seen at Windsor by Philip Ziegler, (who was granted access to the Royal Archives in the course of writing his official biography of Edward VIII, published in 1990), and are extensively quoted in an article in last Friday's Daily Telegraph (3 March).

Lord Monckton's archive is only one of the very many collections of papers of politicians, writers, diplomats, scholars, churchmen, scientists and their families, which have been steadily accumulated by the Bodleian over decades and which place the library in the forefront of resources for the study of British society and government in the 20th century. But these ten boxes of correspondence and papers relating to the abdication and to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor attracted more media attention than all the other collections put together are ever (I hope) likely to generate.

Mary Clapinson, Bodley

Staff Conference - Thurday 16 March

Social event!

We are very grateful to all of our conference sponsors this year (so please go and see them on the day) and because of them are able to offer you some post-conference treats! At the end of the day (around 5pm), wine will be served in the Bernard Sunley area. Following that at 6pm, Blackwell's Bookshop will be opening their doors to us for `wine and nibbles'! Look out for more details of this on the conference day itself.

N.B. Conference confirmations have been sent out this week. Please contact us asap if there are problems or if you can no longer attend.

Gail Merrett, Directorate

 Editorial Miscellany

Note: Opinions and views expressed are the Editors' own and do not represent the official views of the Library.

South Africa in the Twentieth Century – From Boer War to Amandla!

As a South African, I've been looking forward to this exhibition since it was advertised last year. I was a little dubious at first as to how a country's history as complex as that of South Africa's could be contained in one small room. However, thanks to John Pinfold and other contributors (notably the Rhodes Trust and private collectors), the exhibition eloquently traces the steps from the Boer War to the New South Africa. We are introduced to the key events and players of South African history, names such as Mafeking, Ladysmith, Rhodes, Kruger, Smuts and Mandela, to name a few.

The Boer War necessarily provides the most material. Of particular interest are the strategies employed in the `White Man's War', the propaganda that manifested itself on all levels from satirical cartoons to children's games. Many of the diaries and letters on display show very different, and in many cases unfavourable, accounts of the battles to those disseminated by the British media at the time. Look out for the way the Afrikaners are represented by the British and the fact that the black population is hardly mentioned at all!

The Anti-apartheid material is recent enough for most people to relate to, especially with regard to the boycotting of South African products and sport. Linked with the propaganda involved in the 1994 election campaign we are exposed to the new struggles of South Africa at the end of the twentieth century and the possibility of peace.

This exhibition is open until the end of May and is well worth the visit for its superb collection of ephemera and the odd surprise.

Kirsten Schouten, Bodley

Letters to the Editors

Dear Editors,

Joanna Dodsworth misses my point. The staff of the Central Bodleian are free to communicate any way they wish. The problem is that the rest of us are being bored to tears by their internal bureaucracy.

The sudden vibrant exchanges on the OLIS list show that there are plenty of people with opinions to share who enjoy the spontaneity of electronic communications. They need a proper forum to express themselves.

Please feel free to take my name off the Distribution List, though I was not aware that I was personally on it. There are many more than enough copies in this building, and the staff of a Dependent Library would only need to know about Duty Officers etc. in circumstances too urgent to rummage through the waste paper and too rare to make it worth keeping a file copy.

Gill Cooper, Radcliffe Science Library

Reply: Whilst recognising your frustration with the apparently interminable Bodleian minutiae there is still no other viable way of distributing this information to all of the relevant members of staff, Bodley or otherwise.

Staff from dependent libraries who feel the Newsletter is still too Bodley-orientated surely cannot deny that there is an equal share of University-wide features. We are trying to extend the scope of the Newsletter's coverage but we are dependent on our correspondence and readership for articles.

The editors

We are pleased to publish these words of praise, passed to us by Penny Sturgis:

A Friend Indeed....

Mrs P. Sturgis

Friends of the Bodleian

Dear Mrs Sturgis

It was kind of you to take my 'phone call earlier this afternoon. I enclose my cheque for £30, made out to The Friends of the Bodleian, as a small donation to funds.

I was most impressed by the quality of assistance given in my time as a reader at the Bodleian in my (now far-distant) post-graduate days. This cheque is a small token of appreciation, and thanks, to the library.

With every good wish...

DIARY

Thu 9 March : BBOB AGM, 5:30 pm onwards at Rewley House (speakers: Graham Cornish (President of the LA) and Matthew Evans (Chair of MLAC)

Sat 11 Mar : End of Hilary Term

Mon 13 March: Art History BSC, Seminar Room, 2.15pm

Thu 16 Mar : OULS Staff Conference. 8.45am, St Catherine's.

Wed 19 Apr : AGM, Oxford Bibliographical Society, 3pm, Curators' Room, Bodleian Library. Speaker: Mr Peter Hoare—Sir Christopher Wren's Libraries

Fri 31 March : Coping with Copying and Copyright, 10:00am-2:00pm, Pickstock Room, Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square

Mon 1 May : First Week, Trinity Term

Wed 3 May : 1^st 2000 Lyell Lecture (Dr David McKitterick), St Cross Building, 5pm

Thur 4 May : 2^nd 2000 Lyell Lecture (Dr David McKitterick), St Cross Building, 5pm

Wed 10 May : 3^rd 2000 Lyell Lecture (Dr David McKitterick), St Cross Building, 5pm

Thur 11 May : 4^th 2000 Lyell Lecture (Dr David McKitterick), St Cross Building, 5pm

Wed 17 May : 5^th 2000 Lyell Lecture (Dr David McKitterick), St Cross Building, 5pm

Wed 17 May : PSALM

Wed 17 May : FOB, Oxford Lunch-Time Lecture, 1-1.30pm, Cecil Jackson Room, Sheldonian Theatre: Montaigne's own copy of Lucretius (The Rev. Professor M. A. Screech)

Thursday 18 May : ALM