Find of the Week (10)

This find of the week came from a tweet; angefitzpatrick sent links to two articles on trident, a reflection of life on board and the future of trident under a coalition government . The Trident home, Faslane Naval Base, Gare Loch, is just outside my boundary line but these are interesting article, which I'll pass on to the  reference librarian in Helensburgh. The tweet led me to ask, had any of the Dumbarton shipbuilders built submarines? I know of famous boats built down this end of the water, The Cutty Sark, The Shamrock II & III, The Rob Roy. However, I’d never had cause to wonder if they built submarines. A seach of resources held in the library resulted in an answer.

Submarines were built by Denny during the First World War, the order being placed verbally. Denny’s were new to submarine building so the admiralty aided in the plans and rough castings for the hulls. They were known as ‘E’ type submarines and were the standard design at the outbreak of the war. The first two completed by Denny’s were the E.55 and E.56 built in 1916. The final cost of the submarines was £144,600 with Denny &Co’s profit being £2,314. The price per ton was £10.98. They remained navy vessels until 1922 and 1923 respectively when they were sold. The last E type that Denny’s built was the E.52 in 1917, it left Denny’s March 1917. The final price was £70,500 with Denny & Co profiting by £876. The E.52 submarine was sold for scrapping in 1921 and used to fill a mud bank on the River Dart in 1923.
The final submarine that the Denny yard built was the ‘L’ class, L.54. This submarine replaced the older ‘E’ class due to design and armament changes. Its original deliver date was March 1918, however work came to a stop during the build and she was completed circa 1919. The total cost of the build was £124,911 with Denny receiving about a 10% profit. She was sold for scrap in 1939 just before the outbreak of war.

©West Dunbartonshire Libaries

Shaving, remember the adverts in the 80's for Remington fronted by Victor Kiam ? Or Gillette  using the silky smooth, Federer, Henry and Woods. It's all come a long way since this little advert, no million dollar stars just 'four good points'.

Move

I've moved. I haven't moved far, but the views are different and the air is fresh. I've taken five days to move fifty feet, its been a slow process and I'm still not finished. I started the move on Tuesday at 9.01am, I didn't even have my morning coffee.  I had a plan, a visual one in my head, I could tweak and adjust as I went along. I piled books on and under tables, the bookcases being easier to move empty! I even had a dedicated removals volunteer who helped me move cases and place books back on shelves. By 11am I had moved the bookcases and identified some new map tables. Coffee. Placed the remainder of the books back on the bookcases, taking a little longer than necessary when two piles fell over, scattering dewey all over the floor. The afternoon meant moving the heavy equipment, a 2 person job. We moved the microfiche and microfilm machines form one room to another and rejoiced that they fit in their allocated spot. First day of move complete.
Wednesday, day off. So, Thursday morning, time to move the desks and navigate the stairs from the basement. It looked really easy, wrong!  We got stuck twice, jammed fingers once, swore several times. It's amazing how many positions the human body can achieve when trying to squeeze a desk up through a narrowing turning stairwell. Desks done. Publications group meeting, short. Friday, my mantra for the day was, 'email Irene', should have worn an elastic band or wrote it on my hand, forgot to email. So, not sure when my PC can be moved. Saturday, managed to enjoy the view from the window. Oh, my view, a roundabout, the sheriff court and some lovely green trees. After working in a basement with artifical light and no air, I'm enjoying the change.

Find of the Week (9)

This ‘find of the week’ deals with the library itself, well the 1922 catalogue. I had spent an afternoon looking for some old photographs and came across a set of the library interior from the 1950’s. The first photograph that caught my eye was one of the large indicator panels. The panels were located where our learning suite and reference sections are now situated. The large panels held records for each book in the library, they had blue and red indicators to inform customers which books were in stock or on loan. The boards made it look more like a ticket office than a library, due to the fact that all of the stock was located behind the counter on stacks.

©West Dunbartonshire Libraries

I don’t have the actual catalogues from the 1950’s but I do have the 1922 edition where the arrangement of the catalogue was known as the ‘dictionary catalogue’. This edition of the catalogue had 7,987 entries. Each book was entered in alphabetical sequence under the author’s name, its subject, and, where distinctive its title. Fiction however was only added under the author.

An example from the catalogue;

Austen (Jane) – Persuasion …….E.W……F2277
Australia. Hill (R. and F.) What we saw in Australia, 1875……B1979
The E.W. after the Austen title is an abbreviation for Eminent Women Series and the number before each book number is one of the seven main classes;


A – Philosophy and Theology
B – History, Travel and Biography
C – Law, Politics and Economics
D – Science and Art
E – Poetry & Drama
F – Prose Fiction
G- Language and Literary Miscellany

The catalogue also had 25 abbreviations listed and a separate section at the back for the local collection. The actual book itself is bound in hardback and fits the hand, a little like a modern e-reader, nice size. The interest for me though isn’t the actual arrangement of the catalogue but the ‘local studies’ collection mentioned within. I’m sure some of the local studies books I use as reference tools, are the ones mentioned in this catalogue. Thankfully due to these titles being closed access they have been preserved well.

Find of the Week (8)

Whilst listening to and reading about the debates surrounding the forthcoming General Election, I thought I’d travel back to the 1910 elections. My interest stems from being the local history librarian and a constituent. The first election of 1910 was held from January 15th to February 10th, the votes counted, a hung parliament was announced with both the Liberals and Conservatives sharing the spoils. The conservatives racked in the most votes however Asquith’s Liberals has 2 additional seats. To resolve this situation an additional election was held in December between the 3rd and 19th , at which the Liberals formed a Parliament with the aid of the Irish Nationals. You knew that already, right?!

In West Dunbartonshire the contest was between the Liberal candidate Mr. James Dundas White and Colonel Henry Brock, Conservative. At previous elections in the county, the Conservatives had taken the seat. This was not to happen in 1910, when the liberals snatched a victory by 1033 votes. The second election in December had two new candidates, but a similar result. Standing for the Liberal Party, Mr. Arthur Acland Allen and for the Conservatives Mr.William Thomas Shaw. The Liberals again won the seat by 1312 votes.
I spent some time trawling though the local newspapers during the election months and I found that the local papers were favouring the Liberal candidate. Comparing the characters of both men in the run up to the polling days. However the funniest thing I found during my search was the following advertisement.

The advertisement is self explanatory; however my interest was on the word ‘patriotic’. Did the owner of the store call the corset the ‘patriotic corset’? If so, was he/she a Liberal or Conservative supporter? If the owner was a Liberal supporter then he/she must have known that Mr.Asquith was apposed to the women’s suffragette movement. How could any decent young woman of her time have bought a corset from a man who supported the Liberals? They might not have had the vote but they could have voted with their wallets.  However, to be fair,other political parties were apposed to women gaining the vote and not many women had their own wallets let alone a disposable income. Maybe I’m just thinking a little too much about a simple advertisement campaign.

Rhudie the wonder dog

I said from time to time I'd mention Rhudie the dog. It was her 6th birthday yesterday, our pup is growing up. She's lying next to me now, sleeping with teddy caught in her teeth. She's just back from a long weekend at nona and pops' house where Bennie and I ran about after her, even when that meant a toilet call at 7am. Our niece Millie (3 years) affectionately calls her Rhudes, she knows that Rhudes can only be kissed on the white spot on the top of her head and that her tail isn't a toy! Millie's teaching her kid brother Harris (6 months) these rules to ensure happy dog and stress free aunties. Rhudes is in recovery tonight, after a long weekend of playing with her throwy thing in Pops garden.
Bennie and I both love the fact that at the end of a long day that smiling (she does) hairy face is the first thing that greets us, followed quickly by a wiggly bottom. I love the way she makes me smile.

Happy Birthday pup.

© Photograph Sam Moore

Find of the Week (7.1)

I arrived back at my desk after Easter, silently placing a bet as to how many emails I'd have in my inbox. I skimmed headings and authors in no logical order, until one caught my eye. Mike Davis from Helensburgh Library had replied to an email I sent him before the holidays. I'd sent him a query asking if he had an image of Eunice Murray and he came up trumps. Due to local council boundary changes, much of the information on Eunice Murray is held by Helensburgh. I was excited reading Mike's email and very eager to open the attached .jpg. Mike mentioned having coffee the next time I'm through in Helensburgh, I think I'll be buying!
I had certain images in my head as to how Eunice would look, they were all lost the moment I opened the .jpg. For those interested here is the picture of Eunice Murray, sister, suffagette, parliamentary candidate and councillor.

Courtesy of Mike Davis, Librarian, Helensburgh

  

Dirty Dancing, Elephants and the Census

It’s been a strange week, firstly I managed to last the course. The course was part of my induction training, the lovely trainer from HR&OD put some effort into making the mundane a little more stimulating. Or it may have been the chocolate bars she was giving out. My break times however were disturbed by the sounds of Dirty Dancing. To some that might have been akin to the eye scene in Clockwork Orange,all I could think about was Jennifer Gray in white tight jeans, dancing atop a wooden bridge. It was however conducive to some good day dreaming during the less dynamic parts of the day.
It’s amazing how some enquires come to us. We were asked this week about the Elephant on the Dumbarton Coat of Arms, after some theories on the Fred MacAuley radio show. The elephant is there as some say it is similarity in shape to Dumbarton Rock and Castle, especially if you look at the castle from the north east. Another theory is that it is regarded as a mythical, almost invincible animal.


The Census from 1911 will be released in Scotland early next year. With the opportunities it represents to both family and local historians, the Scottish Local Studies Group are using it as the theme for Local Studies week, 2011. The amount of social history that is documented in census enumeration books is immense; they are still studied today by local historians, PhD students, genealogy enthusiast and librarians to name a few. So, the frustration felt today by Scottish Local Studies Librarians was understandable. It was explained that there would be no microfilm copies of the 1911 census for public libraries to purchase. Scotland's People would be our medium. Most will wonder then where our concerns lie, that would be with the access to this information. Previously we paid a fee to have the microfilm copies, which we use in public libraries. The cost to library users is minimal, the cost of an A4 print. With the introduction of the Scotland’s People site, as the medium for the 1911 census, we will all have to pay to access the records. Are we then contributing to cover the costs for the 2011 census by paying for historical access? Income Generation by another name? However, not a bad thing in the present climate of recession and public sector reductions on spending.


Previously we could use the enumeration books to find social trends within towns, villages or particular streets, this will be made more difficult by the way that Scotland’s People displays results. You could write to the Register General and request to view records, however make sure that you give enough evidence to support your application.
The light at the end of the tunnel may be the talk today of having license agreements to access Scotland’s People records. However the General Register office seems to be concentrating on the new Family History Centres. The city of Dundee has a centre which operates a great service and their local studies librarians praised the service, however where is the money to be found to open more of these centres? Yes, shared services do work; we are becoming accustomed to them in the library sector. However do many public libraries have the space to accommodate the registrar’s service and the local history provision within their libraries? I’d be interested in a similar style of service within my own authority, to increase the customer experience of those looking for information on family/local history.

No Find of the Week as due to courses and Easter I've only been in the basement/local studies section one day this week. The Bennie, Rhudie and I are heading up to Inverness for the weekend, if the A9 is open tomorrow afternoon.