Happy birthday Mary Poppins!

Did you know that August 2009 is a double birthday for the world's best known literary nanny? Mary Poppins first appeared in book form in August 1934 and was released as the hugely popular Disney film in August 1964, so she's 75 and 45 simultaneously.

Mary Poppins was written by expatriate Australian P.L. Travers (born Helen Lyndon Goff). She grew up in Queensland and New South Wales, but moved to London in her twenties and spent the rest of her life outside of Australia. Travers wrote 8 Poppins books, plus several more featuring the character, as well as essays, poems and short stories. Her literary papers are held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and reveal a woman who spent her life searching for meaning - religious and spiritual - but seemed ultimately to be disappointed and slightly bitter.

A display of Poppins material at the State Library of New South Wales highlights the relationship between Travers and the Disney Company during the making of the film, and inlcudes original correspondence between Travers, Disney and Julie Andrews, as well as coloured prints of the Poppins drawings by Mary Shepard and original copies of the Poppins books owned by Travers.

On display in the Nelson Meers Heritage Gallery at the State Library of NSW until November 2009.

Bronte poem variant bindings

I'm trying to sort out the variant bindings on the Brontes' Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. According to all the info I've been able to find, below is the probable order of the bindings (the images below are from Parrish: Victorian Lady Novelists (Burt Franklin NY, 1933 -repr. 1969). The info is based on this, and note 25, Binding Variants in the Brontes' Poems, pp. 219-221 Book Collector (Autumn 1953)

Image from Parrish

These geometric designs are likely the original bindings used by Aylott and Jones (the company the Brontes paid to publish their book in 1846.) Only 2 or 3 copies sold.

After the success of Jane Eyre published by Smith Elder in 1848, Smith Elder acquired the remainder of the Poems stock from Aylott for reissue. It is possible that any copies with the geometric design as above plus inserted Smith Elder title pages date from this Jane Eyre period.

In the 1850s, after Charlotte's death, her biography by Elizabeth Gaskell appeared and sales of the Poems took off. The next two bindings may date from this period:

Image from Parrish

Interestingly, the one on the right appears to be relatively uncommon and is only known with an Aylott title page. The one on the left is the most common version.

Here at the State Library of NSW in Sydney, we have two copies in the Mitchell collection, as pictured below. It's the light green decorative binding on the right which I'm most interested in.

Mitchell Library copies

What I would like to know is, if you have a copy of Poems, which binding do you have and what do you know about it, if anything - particular which publisher title page appears with which binding??

Facebooking and other social networks...

It's the last week of the learning journey and it's social networks. I have to say up front: I am a Facebooker, albeit a slightly ambivalent one. I'm really not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm 'Facebook friends' with many many more people than in real life, including people from school who I wouldn't necessarily be in contact with without Facebook. Is this good? Do I need regular updates on people I haven't thought about for 15 years, let alone spoken to? It is vicariously interesting though and quite addictive, to lurk on the outskirts of others' lives. (That sounds a bit stalker-ish, but you know what I mean.)
Anyway, I guess because so many people are like me and have made Facebook (and similar sites like MySpace) part of their daily lives, institutions and organisations who want to make contact with certain communities should be out there, in these virtual communities. This does not mean that we approach them in these spaces - that is scary commercial-like targetting of people! No, we are there, to be found, in a virtual way, in the same was as we are here, on Macquarie Street, to be found, by anyone who cares to look.

Mash it up

Well, this week was kind of fun (though it did take an awfully long time to be creative). A lot of what is on offer out there is a bit pointless, except for fun, but there are some exciting possiblities. Talis ran a library mashup comptetition a few years ago and some of the entries were intriguing. The winner was John Blyberg who created Go Go Google Gadgets, a suite of library gadgets which could be added to your personalised Google desktop. Blyberg is also the creator of the fabulous Catalog Card Generator.

Anyway, I spent a long time on Bighugelabs trying to choose a toy to use, then another very long time on Flickr, agonising over whether I could pinch someone's photo, despite my usual scruples about copyright (I did use it in the end - and I acknowledge a fine photo by The Kruger.) I'm not sure which value this illustrates - it covers all bases really. It is supposed to be a positive message by the way!

Pod on...

Podcasts are great! There is a lot of scope for us to be using them in LibraryLand, in fact many many libraries and cultural institutions have been offering them for years. They add another level of 'interactivity' to a website (although I dislike the word 'interactive' relating to websites - that's the whole point of the internet, isn't it?)
The Natural History Museum in London has a fantastic program called Nature Live Online. Every day at 12.30, there is an informal talk by one of the Museum's researchers or curators in the Nature Live studio in the Museum. The talks are also shown via live webcast and the onsite and live web audiences can participate in the discussions. The webcasts are then archived and are available online (currently Brilliant.
SLNSW could be podcasting lots of events which already occur here at the library - public talks, staff talks, training sessions for use internally, 'how to' guides for clients etc. I actually love the last idea. My concept of 'how to' guides for clients and potential clients could include short podcasts on how to apply for a reader's card, how to fill in a stack slip, how to use a locker, how to book a PC in the reading room, tours of resources in the reading rooms etc etc etc. It would go a long way to demystify the library for clients and familiarise them with procedures before they even get here! Let's go!

Flickring

Up to week 3 in two days now - catching up fast! I've looked for images on Flickr of SLNSW and have come to the conclusion that tagging and other folksonomies are great, but in the absence of controlled vocabularies, you really have to think laterally, or you'll miss some great results. Searching for 'State Library of NSW' gives one set of results, but you'll also find relevant images using 'SLNSW', 'libraries, sydney', 'state library, sydney', 'mitchell library, sydney' etc. I think that there is great scope for user tagging on library catalogues but they work best in conjunction with 'traditional' methods! A great example is the Powerhouse Museum catalogue - anyone can tag collection records, but the curators and registrars still apply traditional subject headings and descriptions. Anyway, the image I've posted is called 'I got a library card' by Jessamyn. I found it on Flickr's advanced search using the keywords 'library' and 'Sydney' and only looked for Creative Commons licensed content.

A library card and a good coffee! What more could you want?