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ASLIB: The Association for Information Management.

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ASLIB News

ASLIB news.

>>> Seventh podcast episode from Library and Archives Canada now available (Canada)

Author and hockey expert Paul Kitchen joins us to discuss the origins of the game, its evolution, and what our love for it says about the Canadian character. Mr. Kitchen also speaks to us about the wealth of hockey-related resources held by LAC.  

Subscribe to podcast episodes using RSS or iTunes, or just tune in at: Podcasts - Discover Library and Archives Canada: Your History, Your Documentary Heritage.
2013-03-26

>>> 'A History of Ireland in 100 objects' experience now available (Ireland)

The project includes four objects from the NLI, including a 13th century manuscript and an anonymous threatening letter from 1842.  

The book, by Fintan O'Toole, has just been published. The content is also available as an interactive app for Apple iPhone and iPad, for most Android tablets and on the Kindle Fire, from www.eu2013.ie/100objects, as well as associated app stores. You can also experience the book via computer, smartphone or eReader.
2013-03-26

>>> E-NewsIrish Times Microfilm - now on open access (Ireland)

Microfilm of The Irish Times (1823-1825 & 1859-2012) is now available on a self-service basis in the microfilm room, adjacent to the Main Reading Room. Microfilm of the Irish Independent (1891-2011) is also available through self-service. 

2013-03-26

>>> British Library sounds to feature in new Radio 4 series, Noise: A Human History (UK)

Noise: A Human History is written and presented by Professor David Hendy from the University of Sussex and produced by Matt Thompson.  It takes the listener from prehistory to the present, encompassing the shamanistic music of our cave-dwelling ancestors, the babel of ancient Rome, the massacre of noisy cats in pre-revolutionary Paris, the nerve-destroying din of trench warfare, right through to the cacophony of the modern metropolis, using sound and listening to bring the past to life.

The writer and presenter of the series, David Hendy, collaborated with curators from the British Library's Sound Archive to create the series, drawing on the Library's sound collections which span from wildlife, environment and nature, world and traditional music, and oral histories. Sounds from the British Library's collections, including Canadian frogs, shamans and recordings of Florence Nightingale and Robert Browning will be dotted throughout the programmes, contributing to the story of how sound plays a central part in human history.

David Hendy, the creator of Noise, said "Without the British Library's Sound Archives, there's no doubt we wouldn't have been able to give the radio series its rich, layered quality - or, indeed, its global range. Sound is horribly ephemeral. So capturing the sound of the past a challenging task. Thankfully, the extraordinary collections of the Library, the pioneering work of early sound-recordists, and the expertise of its current curators, have combined to provide for us a brilliant cacophony of noise."

Noise: A Human History  is a Rockethouse Production for BBC Radio 4. To listen to episodes of the Noise series, go to www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rglcy

Blog posts are also available to read from British Library Sound Curators on BBC Radio 4's blog.

2013-03-26

>>> Rare historic recordings of Irish poets and writers are published for the first time in a new Spoken Word title from the British Library (UK)

Sourced mainly from the BBC Sound Archive, highlights on the CD include the first ever publication of all the surviving audio extracts from Belfast and London BBC broadcasts by W B Yeats. Only one programme survives complete - 'In the Poet's Pub', broadcast in 1937, which preserves Yeats's singular idea of presenting English poetry readings on the radio as if in a pub atmosphere. But the surviving parts of the other broadcasts include readings by Yeats of his own poems and those of Cecil Day Lewis and T S Eliot, as well as a hitherto little-known two-minute extract, held by the British Library, of Yeats setting the political background to some of his poems.

Also featured are the only two surviving recordings made by James Joyce, including a newly restored version of his well-known reading from Ulysses, taken from one of the rare original copies, as well as Frank O'Connor, reminiscing about his only meeting with Joyce, and Sylvia Beach, whose English-language bookshop in Paris, Shakespeare and Co, published Ulysses in 1922, recalling the crucial role she played in getting Joyce in front of the microphone.

Other highlights of the 3CD set include: a substantial extract from an extensive interview with Sean O'Casey, taken from a private recording held by the British Library; a previously unpublished performance of 'The Auld Triangle' by Brendan Behan made for the Theatre Royal, Stratford, in London, where Behan's play The Quare Fellow made his name; Frank O'Connor reading extracts from his short story 'Guests of the Nation'; complete short stories read by Edna O'Brien, Liam O'Flaherty, Mary Lavin and Sean O'Faolain; and further previously unpublished recordings by O'Connor, O'Faolain, Eavan Boland, Elizabeth Bowen and Patrick Kavanagh.

The 3CD set is available from the British Library Shop online at www.bl.uk/shop as well as other bookshops throughout the UK. 

2013-03-26