Category Archives: Research tips

Discovering the Landscape: how to use our collections in your research

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Are you an undergraduate, postgraduate, independent researcher or at school?

Are you studying history, geography, architecture, environmental science, ecology or design?

Then come and use our landscape collections in your research (if you’re an undergraduate apply for one of our landscape student bursaries).  We’ve even got topic and resource ideas listed here.

So why use our landscape collections?  And how?

3 reasons to use our landscape collections:

1. National significance

MERL now holds the best collection of 20th century landscape archives and library material in the UK.  Our Landscape Institute collections hold everything from plans, drawings, slides, books, journals and pamphlets to the LI’s institutional archive containing all of their corporate records, such as minutes and membership files.

So if you are interested in a particular project (from anywhere across the UK), a specific landscape architect (maybe Jellicoe, Crowe, Colvin?), the Landscape Institute itself or the emergence of landscape architecture as a profession then we have what you need.

Lots of our other collections support landscape studies too, such as The Land Settlement Association and the Open Spaces Society.

AR JEL DO1 S2/20

Geoffrey Jellicoe collection, Shute House, AR JEL DO1 S2/20

2.  Explore your archive

Every day we inhabit built and natural environments.  The landscape is all around us, all the time, shaping and informing our lives.

You can reveal all that our landscape collections have to offer by using them in your research.  You can draw out previously unknown themes, connections and discoveries.

We house the collections, keeping them safe and making them available to you.

But only you can bring them alive by using them in your research.

For the MERL and Special Collections teams to thrive, we need tea.  (Never near the collections, of course).  For our landscape collections to shine, they need to be accessed and used.

So be inspired by the National Archives Explore Your Archive week: come and find our more about our landscape collections.

Colvin inscription to the Jellicoe's, in the front cover of a 2nd edition of her Land and Landscape.

Colvin inscription to the Jellicoe’s, in the front cover of a 2nd edition of her Land and Landscape.

 

3. Visual delights!

Our Reading Room visitors are greeted by our beautiful peacock stained glass window

Our Reading Room visitors are greeted by our beautiful peacock stained glass window

We host a lot of reader’s in our wonderful Reading Room.  So we know that you could spend many studious hours looking at reports, minutes or papers.

All very good research that is too.

But you could be looking at this stuff:

(just saying)

Highlights from our Landscape Institute Collections

Highlights from our Landscape Institute Collections

 

How to search and access our landscape collections

We hope you have been inspired to use our landscape collections.  Here’s how you can find out more:

Students: your landscape archive needs you

If you are an undergraduate student, don’t forget you have until the end of February 2017 to apply for a bursary to support your use of our landscape collections.  Click here for more information.

Please feel free to get in touch with our Reading Room if you have any questions. We look forward to welcoming you and telling you more about our landscape collections.  

Written by Project Librarian: Claire Wooldridge

Rip Roaring Reading Room News: Full opening from Monday 28 September 2015

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Our Reading Room

Our Reading Room

Great news everyone! We have extended our Reading Room opening hours. Up until now, although you have been able to visit our wonderful Reading Room Monday-Friday, 9-5, we have operated a restricted service on a Monday. This meant that, on a Monday, we opened later (10am) and we were unable to retrieve material from our store.

But we are delighted to say that from (and including) Monday 28 September – our Reading Room will be ready for your visit and fully accessible, open and with staff making trips to the store to retrieve material throughout the day:

Every Monday to Friday – 9am to 5pm!

Retrievals take place until 4.15pm, and we collect all closed access material in at 4.45pm.

(Allowing for a brief hiatus in retrievals from the store while our Reading Room staff take a hard earned lunch break between 1-2pm)

Our Reading Room

Our Reading Room

So why not pay us a visit?  You can find more information on using our Reading Room here.  If you have any queries or would like to order up material in advance, you can contact us at merl@reading.ac.uk.

Research tip #4: Confused by codes?

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Confused by codes?

All archives use reference codes to identify their collections, files and individual documents. These are often confusing, even for the archivists, but they are necessary to help us find things quickly and to make sure that items don’t get lost. Sometimes codes are completely meaningless, sometimes they can help to guide you through a collection – for instance document “A/1/1” is usually going to be part of a group of documents called “A/1”.

For the MERL archive there is quite a strict system of codes, which depend on the type of archive being described. When MERL first collected farm records, these had a three-letter code based on the county, e.g. “BER” for Berkshire. Occasionally you will see these codes still, but usually we put the code “FR” on the front of all our farm records, e.g. FR BER 1/1. The other major groupings are TR (for Trade Records), CR (For Co-operative Records), SR (for Society and Association Records), P (for photographic collections – although you’ll find photos in other collections as well) and D (for Documents, including the archives of individuals). Sometimes you’ll come across slight variations, but this scheme covers most of the MERL archive.

Our recent acquisition of the Archives of the Landscape Institute (which you can read about in this post) has led us to introduce a new code, AR (for Architectural Records). This is being used for the records of any architects and landscape architects, whether individuals or businesses. We think this is the first new code for about 15 years – believe it or not, we do try to keep things simple for our users!

If you’re struggling to understand an archive reference number, our enquiries team will be glad to help – merl@reading.ac.uk

By University archivist, Guy Baxter.

Research Tip #3: Easy as A, B, C

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written by Hayley Whiting, Reading Connections Digital Content/Online Engagement Officer

Advert for Ransomes

Advert for Ransomes

Finding out about what is held in the MERL Archive just got a whole lot easier! The A-Z index of archive collections is now available. This is an extremely valuable resource for users looking for information on specific collections and a great way to gain an overview of what is held here at MERL.

This is a work in progress and is constantly being added to by the Arts Council England funded Reading Connections Project team (link to blog). The A-Z already contains over 250 entries on major archive collections. Each entry provides an overview of the collection and has a link to the relevant entry in our online database. Details are also given on how to request items for consultation.

There is a handy search facility where you can browse by subject category or do a keyword search, so why not take a look and explore the wealth of archives available!

Research tip #2: a secret MERL library resource …

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Although they are known as the Classified Information Files, the MERL library’s collection of cuttings does not contain top secret information and is not kept under lock and key either, but is freely available for readers to browse in the Special Collections Service reading room! The collection contains articles and cuttings from local and national newspapers and periodicals, including some titles which the library does not hold. The cuttings are kept in folders in the filing cabinets in the reading room, and are organised by the MERL subject classification in alphabetical order. This scheme is used for objects and photographs: it is different from the MERL library classification scheme. A subject card index to the cuttings is available in the reading room.  The collection is currently being reorganised into the MERL library classification number order (with subject names added) but is fully accessible and available to browse during this work.

Exploring the MERL library’s cuttings files in the reading room

Exploring the MERL library’s cuttings files in the reading room

Although the collection is only added to occasionally, it is a useful way of retrieving information published in periodicals and newspapers which don’t justify the full cataloguing treatment and which might otherwise be difficult to find. Subjects covered by the clippings include material on agricultural machinery, farm livestock and rural crafts as well as articles and cuttings on more obscure subjects including ancient rural traditions such as ‘beating the bounds’, rural superstitions and the phenomenon of ‘will-o’-the-wisps’ in the countryside. When all else fails with a research query, a quick search of the cuttings files can sometimes yield an important snippet of information or perhaps you might come across an interesting subject for a piece of research. Have a browse and see what you can find!

Research tip #1: if in doubt…

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Here is the first in what we will become a regular series on the blog – research tips from the MERL library and archive team.

Trying to find out about collections can be a difficult and frustrating business. Our online catalogues and finding aids are now very large and while it’s great to have so much information available at your fingertips, it can also be quite confusing. There is some really good guidance available on our website at http://www.reading.ac.uk/merl/collections/merl-accesscollections.aspx but sometimes you may find that the catalogue doesn’t give you the answer you expected. So our first research tip is this: if in doubt, ask! Our reading room team is there to help, and while we can’t promise to do your research for you, we are always willing to provide help in searching the catalogues. Contact us on 0118 378 8660 or merl@reading.ac.uk

 

 Cooper's Dip