The all seeing eye

The telescope: a short history has just been catalogued.

Richard Dunn’s book offers an illustrated overview of the history of the telescope. He writes that the telescope’s true inventor may never be known. Surviving records suggest 1608 when Hans Lipperhey and others applied for a patent. The name ‘telescopium’ was formally announced in 1611, two years after Galileo began making telescopes.
Dunn’s lively narrative chronicles Galileo’s first astronomical observations and Draper’s moon photographs of 1840. He describes the 1957 Jodrell Bank radio telescope dish as Britain’s post-war national pride and tourist attraction. The epilogue looks to the future, building on the legacy of the Hubble Space Telescope and Large Binocular Telescope. The telescope has developed from small instruments to giant radio arrays; beginning as an extension of human sight it allows man to see in previously unimagined ways. From looking out at space to understanding the origin of the universe, this book shows both history and potential of this remarkable instrument.

Vanity Fair portraits and other coffee table books

Sometimes a book comes in that we can all drool over (not literally - we are much too preservation conscious for that), and Vanity Fair Portraits is a beauty. It was published to accompany a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, last year, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, earlier this year. If you missed it you can always hop over to Australia to catch it at the Portrait Gallery in Canberra, 12 June-30 August 2009...

Lived in London is all about those "blue plaques and the stories behind them", and is another richly illustrated official publication (English Heritage this time). A bit too hefty to carry with you on a London walk, nevertheless it is full of fascinating stuff about famous London inhabitants. In Bedford Square alone you can find such diverse figures as the Indian scholar and reformer Ram Mohun Roy, Anthony Hope (who wrote the Prisoner of Zenda), Thomas Wakley, founder of The Lancet,the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and, just round the corner, Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett, pioneer of women's suffrage.

We get lots of "art" books, usually exhibition catalogues from government-funded institutions, both UK and overseas, so don't think it's all "dry" government statistics here!

The Pound in your pocket

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today (Thursday 9th July) decided to keep interest rates at .05%. If you're in the dark about how they reach their decisions, and wonder if black magic and possibly chicken's entrails are involved, then you can find out all about them on the Bank of England website (where you'll also read all you ever wanted to know about quantitative easing...).
We get lots of publications by the Bank and about the Bank, including those from the House of Commons Treasury Committee on appointments to the MPC, such as the scrutiny of Spencer Dale's appointment.

2009 influenza pandemic

Last week the World Health Organization announced the first flu pandemic since 1968.
The Lancet's H1N1 flu resource centre has free resources, pdf documents, video and links and is well worth a visit. You can sign up for email updates, too.

(Photo credit: The Lancet)

Knitty gritty

Knitting has become a very fashionable pastime; perhaps it is a bid to step out of our hi-tech busy lives and create handcrafted items and gifts at home or with others. This feature on the Victoria and Albert Museum's website includes 1940's knitting patterns and knitting podcasts.
A fine example of Official Publications white propaganda on the NLS Propaganda web feature shows a booklet of patterns. Dating from 1941 (see photo opposite) the booklet encourages women to do their bit for Britain by knitting for the army.

OPU also collects publications from the V&A. Recent acquisitions include:

Art Deco fashion
Hats: an anthology
Japanese art and design.

If you are feeling inspired to do your bit with yarn and needles, this month celebrates World Wide Knit in Public Day, with "knit-ins" happening all over the globe starting this weekend (13th June).

(Photo credit: National Library of Scotland)

Of germs and men

The third edition of Communicable disease epidemiology and control by Roger Webber has just been catalogued in OPU.
The steady progress of avian influenza and now the emergence and spread of A(H1N1) influenza ("swine flu") mean that communicable diseases are not just a concern for the medical fraternity. Disease seems to be in the headlines daily.
If you wish to find out more about disease, epidemics, sanitation and public health, this revised and updated book is a comprehensive guide. Clearly laid out, it features causes and characteristics of diseases along with methods of transmission, and includes the essentials of parasitology and entomology. New threats to health such as pox diseases, arboviruses and hospital infections are covered as well as bioterrorism.
Summary tables of clinical presentations, diagrams and maps, plus an extensive list of diseases make this book useful to health professionals, epidemiologists and the casual reader.

You are what you eat

In March 1919, the Royal Society Food (War) Committee published Report on the food requirements of man and their variations according to age, sex, size, and occupation. This fascinating study on diet, energy requirements and food quality has just been added to the online catalogue.
The average height of a man in 1883 was 5 ft 7.4 inches. Women averaged 5 ft 2.7 inches. American and Canadians, measured in 1912, were slightly taller.
Energy and food requirements are divided into job type. A stonemason was deemed to have the most food/energy requirements, at 5,500 calories, a tailor 2,750 calories per day.
"Brain workers" - as the report dubs those who did paperwork and "abstruse calculations" - required more consideration than that of the bodily labourer. It recommends providing these workers with "more expensive animal foods" than "the man who earns his living by the work of his muscles." The reason given was that the food consumed by the desk bound employee has to be light and digestible. This holds true today - most people know that sluggish feeling after a large carbohydrate-based lunch..!

Human Trafficking

The Trade in Human Beings : Human Trafficking in the UK
Sixth report of the Home Affairs Committee
HC paper 23 I-II


This two volume work has recently landed on my desk and as I was cataloguing it I was appalled at the key facts that were mentioned.
Some of the facts are :
1. At a conservative estimate there are at least 5,000 trafficking victims in the UK.
2. There are about 8,000 women work in off-street prostitution in London alone.
3. It is also estimated that 330 child victims will be trafficked into the UK each year 4. That each sex trafficker earns on average £500-£1000 per woman per week.
5. There are only 100-300 prosecutions for trafficking across the EU each year.
6. About 60% of suspected child victims in local authority care go missing and are not subsequently found.
In the introduction it mentions that although we are becoming more aware of human trafficking as we read in the news about the Chinese cockle-pickers that died in Morecombe Bay in 2004. It seems that although slavery has been abolished the insidious form of trading human beings for forced labour and sexual exploitation still takes place in this developed country.
What is Human Trafficking?
The Un defines human trafficking as: the recruitment, transportation, transfer harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat to use force of other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, or deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

It boils down to the victims are in effect “owned” by the traffickers.

Bulletin of the World Health Organisation (WHO)

The Wellcome Library has digitised the WHO Bulletin right back to when it began in 1948 and it's now freely available on PubMed Central.

New Chief Veterinary Officer

It was announced today that Simon Hall has been appointed Chief Veterinary Officer for Scotland. Simon is currently Head of International Animal Health at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and will succeed Charles Milne in July.

It shouldn't happen to a vet

I’ve just read The Several lives of a Victorian vet by Jean Ware and Hugh Hunt, covering the career of Griffith Evans.
Evans arrived in Bombay in 1877 at the instigation of Queen Victoria’s Principal Veterinary Surgeon, and began work on anthrax at Sialkot. He was the first man to diagnose the disease in India and went on to discover the pathogenic trypanosome which caused the disease surra (meaning “gone rotten”). In 1880 he wrote his Report on surra disease, but his colleagues regarded him as a “crank”, and the Governor-General lamented that Evans had not managed to find a cure in the 4 week period he’d been given to research the disease.
Evans’ hope of being promoted to Principal Veterinary Surgeon of India was dashed when he was effectively banished to Madras.
Evans was serving as a Veterinary Surgeon in poor, hot conditions and trying to promote his findings on surra. Evans describes his daily work in trying to locate the surra parasite, “I had to work with the microscope for many hours a day out-of-doors at the sick lines, or else in a stable, when the thermometer was 82 degrees within a cool bungalow, and the sun pouring down its rays through a cloudless sky…very few investigators know what that means.”
However in the early 1880’s John Henry Steel (pictured courtesy of BVC), of Bombay Veterinary College, hailed Evans as the discoverer of the surra microbe. Abroad, Pasteur and Koch had also taken notice of Evans’ work and in 1883 Evans was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, leaving India a year later. Steel’s own report on a fatal disease among transport mules in Burma contains Evans' original surra findings and is part of the Veterinary project I am working on.

Beavering away

After a 400 year absence, eleven beavers have been re-introduced in Argyll, Scotland. This is part of Scottish Natural Heritage's Species Action Framework, but is also the culmination of a 13-year investigation by SNH into the practicalities of the re-introduction. There were public consultations, and reports on possible risks to public health (apparently beavers can carry giardia and cryptosporidium bacteria).

There has been opposition, mainly from angling enthusiasts and some landowners, who are concerned at possible disruption to fisheries and damage to the landscape, but the scheme will be constantly monitored by a group including SNH and the Argyll Fisheries Trust.

I hope it's a success - people wiped out beavers through over-hunting, so it'd be great to see them back where they belong.

Rogue states

On Monday North Korea tested a nuclear device reportedly as large as the Hiroshima bomb (picture from U.S. National Archives and Records Administration), and has since then tested short range missiles, restarted its nuclear reactor and declared it is no longer bound by the terms of the ending of the 1953 Korean war.

North Korea objects to the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), a grouping initiated by the Bush Administration in 2003 to prevent weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from "reaching or leaving states or sub-state actors of proliferation concern" - in effect, to stop and search ships suspected of carrying WMD. The grouping is outwith the authority of the United Nations, reflecting the Bush's disdain for the UN. South Korea on Wednesday became the 95th member of the PSI.

"Starter for 10" answers

Passing the Life in the UK test

How did you get on with the questions? Could you have passed the test to live permanently in the UK or apply for British Citizenship.
What is a quango? - a non-departmental body.
Why did the Huguenots come to Britain? - to avoid religious persecution.
How many days a year must schools be open? - 190.
In which year did married women get the right to divorce their husband? - 1857.
How many parliamentary constiuencies are there? - 646.
and how many senior MPs make up the cabinet? - 20.

Order! Order!

The Official Report [Hansard] House of Commons publication "Centenary volume 1909-2009:
An anthology of historic and memorable House of Commons speeches to celebrate the first 100 years" makes an interesting read.
The Rt. Hon. Michael J. Martin (Speaker) says in his foreword that he thinks that it was Tony Benn who described Hansard as the “only uncensored newspaper in Britain”. It starts with a concise history of how Hansard came about and then goes on to famous speeches that have been chosen by various people.
There are a few gems from unfortunate mps that have managed to say the wrong thing, for example:-
“It took the trees some time to recover as they had been chopped down.”
“The number of firearms offences has shot through the roof.”
“I have the misfortune to represent more irradiated sheep than any other hon. Member.” (Chernobyl Nuclear disaster).

Snouts in the trough, or legitimate expenses?

Extensive media coverage means we're all aware that MPs' "Claims must only be made for expenditure that it was necessary for a Member to incur to ensure that he or she could properly perform his or her parliamentary duties. Allowances are reimbursed only for the purpose of a Member carrying out his or her parliamentary duties".

However, public opinion on this matter means that certain MPs have not carefully considered the following:
"Members must ensure that claims do not give rise to, or give the appearance of giving rise to, an improper personal financial benefit to themselves or anyone else"

And they may have to be reminded that "Members are committed to openness about what expenditure has been incurred and for what purposes".

You can read all about it in The Green Book, or guide to MPs' expenses.

Scrimp and Save

As well as the little piece I did for Discover NLS on "make do and mend" (on page 9, entitled "Three publications intended for hard times"), I noticed that the Imperial War Museum had done something similar with their "Top Tips for Hard Times" on their website. They also have Tweets from "Mrs Sew-and-Sew"!

One illustration that couldn't be fitted into the Discover NLS article is the one featured here, which was meant to show that ‘growing your own’ added to the war effort by lessening the need to import food, therefore freeing up ships to load cargoes of weapons and other wartime essentials instead. This is in the publication Food from the garden. The other 2 publications featured are "Make Do and Mend and Wise eating in wartime.

Pandemic influenza

Flu is topping the headlines this week as the [swine] influenza A (H1N1) virus has spread from Mexico to other countries.
In our Official Publications collection we have a good selection of documents and leaflets aimed at professionals and the public about pandemic influenza. The fascination and value of official publications is that it is information direct from the agencies themselves, such as the Department of Health , the Health Protection Agency and the Chief Medical Officer.
Some titles we hold are:

Pandemic flu : facing it together : an influenza pandemic will be the biggest test of planning and preparation you are ever likely to face / Department of Health (2008)
Pandemic flu : important information for you and your family / Department of Health (2005)
Explaining pandemic flu : a guide from the Chief Medical Officer (2005)
Pandemic flu : planning for pandemic influenza in community care : an operational and strategic framework / Scottish Government (2007)
Faith communities and pandemic flu : guidance for faith communities and local influenza pandemic communities / Department for Communities and Local Government (2008)

Shrinking the malaria map

25th April was World Malaria Day and today I was listening to the excellent Lancet podcast about the latest global programmes to control and eliminate malaria. Pam Das and Sir Richard Feacham discuss why, in the last 2 years, funding has made significant effect on controlling malaria particularly in the malaria heartland of tropical Africa and in other areas such as Sri Lanka, China and Latin America. Goals have been set to eradicate malaria by 2050. This involves a 3 pronged "Roll Back Malaria" programme: aggressive control in malaria heartlands; progressive elimination in endemic margins (also known as Shrinking the Malaria Map); intensive research.
World Malaria Day was the start of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership's "Counting Malaria out" campaign, which aims to provide effective intervention in 100% of the population of endemic countries by 2010. This will involve indoor spraying of 200 million homes annually, the installation of 700 million insecticide-treated bednets, 1.5 billion annual diagnostic tests and more than 200 million doses of treatment.
Online documents and multimedia resources are on the World Malaria Day website.
The WHO's World Malaria report 2008 is available in our Official Publications collection.

All horses great and small

The Civil Veterinary Department of India had 3 main duties: horse-breeding; animal disease research and control; instruction in veterinary medicine and animal husbandry.
While adding metadata for several India-wide CVD volumes (this is one example from 1893-94) I came across interesting correspondence between Veterinary Officers about procurement of good quality horses in the early 1890's. Troop horses from Arabia and Hungary were particularly sought after as they could work for longer in the hot climate on less food than UK horses. "[Hungarian horses] are strong, with great stamina and stand fatique...better than any other horse," wrote J.B. Hallen.
Transit from Buda Pesth to Bombay by rail and steamer cost £10-15 per horse, including the groom's wages and expenses, so it wasn't cheap to import the animals.
Australian Thoroughbreds were also recommended as excellent breeding stock for cavalry mounts.
There are many tables in these volumes recording Government stallions and mules. Some of the names are fascinating - there are occupational names like The Doctor, The Butler and The Lawyer, royal names such as Silver King, Black Prince and His Grace, Imperial names like Colony Boy and East Indian, men's monikers such as Stanley, Stuart and David, and funny ones like Martini Henry, Sinbad the Sailor and Not Beaton. The Arabs were more exotically christened; there are Pasha, Silvermane, Khushnuma and Ali Abdoolah. My favourites are Wigwam, Safety Valve and Leotard!

Starter for 10

Life in the United Kingdom
Passing the life in the UK test - official practice questions and answers.

This book is based on the content of the Official Home Office Life in the UK handbook. It is a guide to the questions asked in the Life in the UK test, so if you want to live permanently in the UK or apply for British Citizen, you need to take the test.
It contains over 400 questions in a variety of formats such a multiple choice, true or false statements, etc. and maybe more importantly has the answers to the questions.
The instructions are simple to follow and each test should be answered in 45 minutes. The pass rate is 18 out of the 24 questions in each test which is a 75% pass mark.
Some of the questions are:
What is a quango?
Why did the Huguenots come to Britain?
How many days a year must schools be open?
In which year did married women get the right to divorce their husband?
How many parliamentary constituencies are there?
And how many senior MPS make up the cabinet?
Do you know the answers to these questions?
I will post the answers on the blog next week.

Photo feature

Have a look at our new feature, our Flickr badge, which has photos of some of our collections, an exhibition launch party, and the Kolkata Book Fair (more to come). You'll find it on the right hand side under the "Subscribe" information. Just click on any of the wee boxes in the "badge" and you'll be taken to the Flickr page with my photstream where you can view all the pics.