Spectacular hidden treasures online for the first time

Mon, 28 Jan 08 10:39:00

 

'Turn the pages' of historic Welsh documents on the British Library website. Launch events to be held at the National Assembly for Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Scottish Parliament.

 

Five hidden treasures from public library collections across the UK are now accessible to an online audience of millions. Selected as the winning texts in a nationwide competition, pages of each have been digitised and transformed into Turning the Pages 2.0 'virtual texts'.

 

Visitors can enjoy these magnificent items for free. The wining entry from Wales is a fascinating first-hand account of life in mid 19th century rural Caernarfonshire, as experienced by an unusually observant 14-year-old. The Welsh launch was held at 11.30am Wednesday 23 January at the Senedd in Cardiff.

 

The other winning treasures include:

• a 12th century legal work from Medway, Kent, which contains the earliest record of the English language;
• a stunning 15th century illuminated missal from Renfrewshire, which features a blood-curdling rite of excommunication;
• a beautifully illustrated war record book produced by the Dorset Federation of Women’s Institutes, containing stories of evacuees, enemy airmen, the coming of the American army and even jam making!

 

The Diaries of William Searell of Beddgelert, Caernarfonshire, 1844-46 are part of the Conwy Archive Service, Conwy County Borough Council. William began writing the diaries when he was 14 and it provides a vivid and unique insights into mid-nineteenth century Welsh rural life.

 

The British Library’s Hidden Treasures Brought to Life competition – launched in spring 2007 in collaboration with the Society of Chief Librarians, Scottish library chiefs and Microsoft – inspired 82 entries, which dazzled the judges with their uniqueness and variety. The range of the winning items gives an idea of just how many treasures of regional, national and international importance are held in public library collections across the UK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image: Rona Aldrich Conwy Council; Rhodri Glyn Thomas Heritage Minsiter; Andrew Green Librarian NLW and Roland Milne, British Library

 

 

To mark the launch of the winning ‘virtual texts’, the British Library is holding celebratory receptions in partnership with The National Library of Wales at the National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff, the Belfast Education and Library Board at the Northern Ireland Assembly, Stormont, and the National Library of Scotland at the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh. These events – taking place in January and February 2008 – will highlight the importance of providing digital access to the unique material held in public libraries as a critical part of supporting cultural heritage, history and diversity.

 

For the past decade the British Library has created Turning the Pages versions of its greatest treasures, from Mozart’s musical diary to Lewis Carroll’s manuscript of Alice’s Adventures, bringing viewers closer than ever before to precious books and manuscripts. Turning the Pages 2.0 now brings 5 more priceless treasures to life to be enjoyed by a worldwide audience.

 

 

For further information and images please contact:

 

Siôn Jobbins, NLW Press Office: 01970 632 902  sij@llgc.org.uk

 

Notes for editors

 

1. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive research collection. The British Library’s collections include 150 million items from every era of written human history beginning with Chinese oracle bones dating from 300 BC, right up to the latest e-journals. Further information is available on the Library’s website at www.bl.uk.

2. The National Library of Wales The National Library of Wales is the largest library in Wales and one of the world’s great research libraries. Established in 1907, its collections include books, manuscripts, archival documents, maps and photographs, as well as paintings, photographs, films, videos and sound recordings. It has developed its digitisation service over a period of ten years and more, and over 200,000 items from the collections are now to be seen on the Digital Mirror on www.llgc.org.uk The Library is recognized as the leading research centre for Welsh and Celtic studies, and is popular with researchers of local and family history. It maintains an education programme and a varied programme of exhibitions throughout the year, and lectures, film screenings and conferences are arranged in the Drwm, the auditorium at the Library.
3. The Hidden Treasures competition winners are available to view in Turning the Pages 2.0 format at www.bl.uk/ttp2/hiddentreasures.html. Turning the Pages 2.0, which has been developed with Microsoft to demonstrate their new Windows Vista operating system, enables an even richer user experience and speeds up the process of creating a ‘virtual text’. The winning treasures can also be viewed using Silverlight, an alternative cross platform edition for non-Vista and Apple users.

4. The other winning entries:

• Dorset Federation of Women’s Institutes War Record Book 1939-1945 (Dorset Library Service in partnership with Dorset History Centre and Dorset School Library Service) (England) – a unique volume which provides a compelling snapshot of life on the Home Front.

 

 

• The Textus Roffensis (The Dean and Chapter of Rochester Cathedral, the Director of Community Services, Medway Council and Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre) (England) – an iconic work, compiled 1123-24, containing the first recorded English laws and the coronation oath of Henry I, which influenced the barons who drafted Magna Carta.

 

 

• The Arbuthnott Missal (Renfrewshire Council) (Scotland) – a spectacular illuminated missal, containing a blood-curdling rite of excommunication, which was one of the few Scottish items of its kind to survive the Reformation.

 

 

• Sir George Leonard Staunton’s account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China, 1797 (Belfast Central Library) (Northern Ireland) – volumes containing finely detailed mezzotint plates, which describe and illustrate the visit of the first British envoy to China.