Tag: politics

Highlight on some CAIRN ebooks purchased by CUL in 2023

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, French, New AcquisitionsLeave a comment

In 2022, Cambridge University Library made its first large purchase of selected French and Francophone CAIRN ebooks, based on reject statistics from the previous few years (i.e. books that readers with a University of Cambridge IP address tried to access unsuccessfully). This provided a valuable addition to the library’s ongoing subscription to the CAIRN French Studies Collection of about 150 periodicals in the Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences. This blogpost highlights some of the ebook titles we recently acquired, based on last year’s usage reports (in addition to direct reader requests sent throughout the year).

In terms of subjects, history was well represented, with titles including several works on exploration, colonisation, and independence of former French colonies:

Continue reading “Highlight on some CAIRN ebooks purchased by CUL in 2023” →

Frederick Justen and ‘Il Gallo di Alfredo il Piccolo’: An intriguing Italian print in Cambridge UL’s 1870-71 collection

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, French, German, Italian, Special collectionsLeave a comment

Frederick Justen (1832-1906), working at Soho-based Dulau & Co. booksellers, produced different sets of caricatures from the Franco-Prussian and the Commune (1870-71), including some at Cambridge University Library, at the British Library and Heidelberg University Library. A close inspection of one of the prints in the sixth and final volume of Cambridge University Library’s 1870/71 caricatures (KF.3.9-14) shows the challenges raised by the identification of the subjects of the caricatures and suggests that Justen updated the collection as late as October 1878. Digitised in late 2020 and the subject of an online display, some of these prints are currently exhibited in the Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics Library. One of the particularly interesting facets of this collection is the existence of similar sets, all produced by Justen. Despite sharing the same red binding, title page and 1872 article from the Atheneum advertising the sets, the various Justen collections are not identical. This diversity provides ample room for investigation, and one entry point is the case of an Italian print in Cambridge’s sixth volume entitled ‘Il Gallo di Alfredo il Piccolo’, which appears to have been printed much later than any other print found in this compilation.

‘Il Gallo di Alfredo il Piccolo‘, Cambridge UL, KF.3.14, p. 148

Continue reading “Frederick Justen and ‘Il Gallo di Alfredo il Piccolo’: An intriguing Italian print in Cambridge UL’s 1870-71 collection” →

Ukraine in new electronic resources

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, English, New Acquisitions, Russian, UkrainianLeave a comment

A tranche of funding from the UKRI and other sources earlier this year has allowed Cambridge University Libraries to buy large amounts of electronic material that had been flagged for purchase but had not previously been feasible for us to buy.  This blog post looks at Ukraine in some of these resources (but you can also see a summary of all the resources available here: https://ejournalscambridge.wordpress.com/2023/05/03/new-data-rich-research-resources-for-cambridge-in-2023/).

Banner of issue one of the Kharkiv anarchist periodical Khlieb i volia

There are three obvious candidates to search for Ukraine and Ukrainian material in amongst these new purchases:

  • Russian Anarchist periodicals of the early 20th century (Brill)
  • Soviet Woman Digital Archive (1945-1991) (East View)
  • Soviet Cinema Online. Archival Documents from RGALI, 1923-1935 (Brill)

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Dame Margaret Anstee Collection: a Newnham alumna in South America

On By europeancollectionsIn English, Latin American, SpanishLeave a comment
A profile picture of Margaret Anstee wearing a blue UN cap and light blue shirt. She is looking towards the left down and smiling to someone outside of the frame.
Dame Margaret Joan Anstee (image from Wikimedia Commons).

Dame Margaret Joan Anstee (1926-2016) was a remarkable Newnham College graduate who had special ties with Bolivia and who in 1987 was the first ever woman to become Undersecretary-General of the United Nations, the third most senior position at that institution. During her life as a UN official (which we can read about in Never learn to type: a woman at the United Nations), she spent several years working in different parts of the world, including many countries in South America and also Angola (see Orphan of the Cold War: the inside story of the collapse of the Angolan peace process, 1992-93).

It was Bolivia though, where she was the UN representative from 1960 to 1965, that would become a prime focus in her life. In her 1970 work Gate of the sun: a prospect of Bolivia, she recounts her first experiences in a “country to which one cannot remain indifferent”. She not only became special adviser to its government after leaving the UN in 1993 but also chose it as the place to spend part of her retirement (read The house on the sacred lake: and other Bolivian dreams – and nightmares).

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New CAIRN Francophone ebooks available through Cambridge University Library

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, French, New Acquisitions1 Comment

CAIRN is a Francophone online platform originally founded by four French and Belgian publishers: Belin, De Boeck, La Découverte and Erès, focusing on social sciences and humanities periodicals. More recent partners include the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the University of Liège and the Centre National du Livre. In the past few years, especially since COVID (when the platform offered the library free access to all their ebooks for the month of May 2020), we started acquiring CAIRN ebooks, as well as receiving statistics about our readers’ attempts to access ebook titles on the platform.

CAIRN ebooks

Based on these information, and in order to continue diversifying the range of French and Francophone material available to our readers, while also taking into account the pricing of the ebooks, we recently made a bulk purchase of more than 200 titles selected from the Cairn catalogue, including both new and older publications that we did not already have in print. Members of Cambridge University Library now have access to about 450 CAIRN ebooks titles, available through Raven, either on iDiscover, or directly on the CAIRN platform and other websites, if you use the Lean library plugin. We are now in the process of upgrading online catalogue records for the newly acquired ebooks, which includes adding subject headings.  Continue reading “New CAIRN Francophone ebooks available through Cambridge University Library” →

Gorbachev’s collected works : the August 2016 Slavonic item of the month

On By europeancollectionsIn New Acquisitions, Russian, SlavonicLeave a comment

201608_Ports_long
The portraits from v. 1 and 26 of the newly acquired set

This month, we look at a recent political addition to the collections – the works of Mikhail Gorbachev – and examine the publications of his Soviet leader predecessors.

The University Library already holds dozens of titles by Gorbachev, chiefly from his 1985-1991 time in office.  The earliest is the 383-page ‘Izbrannye rechi i stat’i’ (Selected speeches and articles; 231.c.98.626) which is followed by a mixture of very short printings of speeches and much longer books.  The majority of our Gorbachev material is in English.  Russian comes a fairly distant second, and Chinese, German, and Belarusian account for the remainder.  Among our stock are biographies (Russian at 586:95.c.95.297-298; English at 586:95.c.95.315) as well as Soviet and post-Soviet political writings.

By the time Gorbachev’s works started to be published as a collected corpus, Politizdat (short for Izdatel’stvo politicheskoi literatury) – the official Soviet political publishing house – had long ceased to exist.  The set is instead being published by the private Ves’ Mir publishers in Moscow in conjunction with the Gorbachev Foundation.  Between 2008 and 2015, 26 volumes were published, covering the period of November 1961 (starting with a speech by the 22-year-old Gorbachev to the Stavropol’ Komsomol committee) to July 1991, with the Foundation’s preface to volume 1 stating clearly the intention for the set to cover the post-1991 period too.  The Library has managed to pick up 24 of the 26 volumes this summer, with volumes 22 and 25 lacking at the time of writing.  We intend to fill these gaps and order future volumes as and when they are published.  The volumes we have already can be ordered through the Reading Room from C211.c.5890- .

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General elections in Latin America

On By europeancollectionsIn Latin AmericanLeave a comment

A major focus of the University Library’s collection development policy for material in Spanish and Portuguese is the history of Central and South America, as explained on the Latin American & Iberian Collection webpages on the UL website. Coverage of specific periods in history varies from country to country. Contemporary history and in particular politics and government, however, are areas where our collections are particularly strong. Continue reading “General elections in Latin America” →

‘Krokodil’ and ‘Literaturnaia gazeta’ electronic backfiles

On By europeancollectionsIn E-resources, New Acquisitions, Russian, Slavonic2 Comments

Front cover of the 1/1946 issue of 'Krokodil', showing the eponymous crocodile.
Front cover of the 1/1946 issue of ‘Krokodil’, showing the eponymous crocodile.

Thanks to vocal support from researchers across the University following trial access earlier this year, the Library has now purchased permanent access to the electronic backfiles of Krokodil and Literaturnaia gazeta.  These purchases provide our readers with full accessibility to these very important titles for the first time. Continue reading “‘Krokodil’ and ‘Literaturnaia gazeta’ electronic backfiles” →

Will Catalonia follow in the steps of Scotland?

On By europeancollectionsIn CatalanLeave a comment

on Catalan independence
A selection of the books on the topic we have recently received.

In light of the Scottish referendum on independence next week, it is worth remembering that other parts of Europe are currently faced with a similar dilemma. Catalans have long been agitating for the right to have their say in regard to independence and are observing the Scottish vote with much expectation and perhaps a little envy – considering their central government’s blocking of a discussion on the topic, let alone grant permission to the consultations scheduled for November this year.

In the last few years the Catalan publishing market has of course abounded with publications on the matter and we have recently ordered many of the most relevant ones. At the time of writing, Cambridge University Library is the only UK institution (soon to be) holding many of these titles. These books deal with various aspects of Catalan independence: to name just a few, they include titles concerning the Church’s view on the matter (Ser independentista no és cap pecat: l’Església i el nacionalisme català, 2014.8.5092), the potential economic consequences of independence (Economia de Catalunya: preguntes i respostes sobre l’impacte econòmic de la independència, 2014.9.3489) and the positions held by prominent Catalan intellectuals (¿Per què volem un estat propi? : seixanta intel·lectuals parlen de la independència de Catalunya), as well as Albert Pont’s acclaimed Delenda est Hispania : tot allò que Espanya ens amaga sobre la independència de Catalunya (584:33.c.201.13). If you are interested in any of these titles or wish to have a full list, please contact the Hispanic Specialist.

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