The HardiBlog

Continuing our series on the notable printers of our early printed books collections, we introduce you to the talented Elzevir family, who operated in Amsterdam and Leiden from 1583-1712, and produced some of the most desirable printings of the handpress era. Daniel and Louis Elzevir, who worked in Amsterdam in the mid-C17th, produced Principia philosophiæ six years after the death of its author René Descartes (1596-1650). T.p. Founded by Louis Elzevir (approximately 1540-1617), this printing dynasty boasted a range of mottoes, motifs and pictorial embellishments, and this printing bears the Pallas Athena device of the later Elzevirs, with olive tree, owl and shield, and the motto ‘Ne extra oleas’. Printers' device. If you would like to view/ consult this item or any item from the Old Library Collection , please submit an online request or contact the staff of the Special Collections Reading Room in the Hardiman Research Building at specialcollections@...

Due to construction work on the  Clinical and Translational Research Facility project the corridor link from the CSI to the hospital will be closed from tomorrow February 28th.   If you are visiting the Medical Library please use the main doors at the Clinical Sciences Institute .

The Academic Writing Centre would like to invite you to a workshop on 'Focus in Academic Writing'. Martin Keaveney, an experienced tutor at the AWC, will introduce you to strategies to maintain focus (and your readers' interest) in your writing. The workshop takes place on Monday 24 February at 6 in the Nursing and Midwifery PC Suite in the James Hardiman Library. To register, please follow this link http://www.eventbrite.ie/e/focus-in-academic-writing-a-group-workshop-arranged-by-the-awc-tickets-10687296993?aff=eorg

If you are using the abstract and citation database Scopus, then we would recommend not accessing it with the Internet Explorer browser. This is particularly the case for IE10 and IE11. There is a known issue where the page will not load correctly, thus heavily compromising your searching experience. We would recommend using Google Chrome as the most efficient web browser. As a general rule if you encounter any problems using our resources where pages don’t load, content doesn’t appear correctly, etc. then switch to Chrome or Firefox for a better browsing experience. As always, we would recommend accessing our resources by searching via the library catalogue, and signing into your campus account.

Microfiche/Microfilm Demo Come along to the Microfiche/Microfilm demo in the Microfiche/Microfilm area on Thursday 23rd April, 2014 Event Description: 30 minute Microfiche/Microfilm demo  Some features: Simplified, step-by-step loading On Screen instructions Searchability High-Resolution Images No messing with lenses- on screen control and many more easy to use features Location: Microform Room   - located on the ground floor of the Main Library. Take a right when you enter the library and it's on the right just after the book returns area. Book Now

The Academic Writing Centre now offers over the phone consultations for distance learners and students who cannot attend thr AWC due to illness or disability. Book a slot here http://awcnuig.eventbrite.com/ OR email irina.ruppo@nuigalway.ie

Long before the age of self-service machines and e-books, the library of this university was housed in the Quadrangle . Then one of three Queen's Colleges, the others located in Cork and Belfast , Queen’s College Galway opened its doors to just under 70 students in October 1849, and its library now forms the kernel of our Old Library book collection . With a range of subjects reflecting the teaching scope of QCG, this large collection holds something of interest for everyone. Treasures of the collection are numerous and varied, and include a study of Bartolomeo Eustachi’s (d. 1574) Tabulae anatomicae some 200 years after its completion by the Dutch anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770), and was published in Leiden in 1761. T.p. Albinus worked closely with the Dutch engraver Jan Wandelaar (1690-1759), and this item includes his superb anatomical engravings, as well as the item’s beautiful title-page vignette. Wandelaar engraving T.p. vignett...

Don't forget - the Archives and Special Collections Reading Room is open until 9pm this evening (Tuesday) and every Tuesday. Special Collections material include a wealth of rare and antiquarian books from the 15th Century up to present day as well as extensive collections of maps, newspapers (local and national), theses and other collections Archival collections range in date from the 15th Century and cover a wide array of disciplines from local history (Galway Town Commissioners) landed estate collections detailing land and land ownership, local politics, local economy from across the West of Ireland, an array of theatre archives such as the Druid Theatre Archive, Thomas Kilroy Archive, Siobhan McKenna Papers, Galway Arts Festival and Taibhdhearc na Gailimhe archive; literary archives such as John McGahern Collection; Political, Human Rights and Northern Ireland papers such as Brendan Duddy, Ruairi O'Bradaigh and Kevin Boyle papers among many others. Our new faciliti...

Access to American Society for Microbiology titles is currently down. We're working to restore access as quickly possible. Thanks for your patience, and apologies for the inconvenience.

If this particular time of year makes one appreciate a good love story all the more, then the story of James Joyce, Nora Barnacle, the death of a young man and a mix of poetry and the greatest short-story ever written surely makes this a suitable and timely tale. Moving from Galway city and areas such as Rahoon to Dublin City on the feast of the Epiphany, the story of love and loss is retold through a blurring of reality and fiction. Manuscripts here at the Hardiman Library add much to the telling of the story. Among the Special Collections is a limited edition manuscript copy of  Pomes Penyeach , a book of poems hand-written by James Joyce, printed on Japanese silk paper and hand illustrated by Joyce's daughter, Lucia Joyce. Published by Obelisk Press and sent to the Hardiman Library directly by James Joyce in 1935. Obelisk press was run by Run by Jack Kahane, an admirer of Joyce’s work, and Desmond Harmsworth. Editions were signed by Joyce and offered for sa...

With items dating back to the mid C15th, the aesthetics of the bookbindings in NUIG’s special collections range from simple stabbed quires to alum-tawed wooden boards, sprinkled calfskin and blind-tooled vellum, all in varying degrees of both quality and condition. The bookbinders responsible for these works are often difficult to identify because, unlike other artists through the ages, bookbinders were considered tradesmen and rarely signed their work. With a good eye and a lot of experience, however, individual bookbinders can be discerned through the identification of ‘tools’, any decoration impressed on bindings during production. This is due to the fact that, just as bookbindings themselves were individually crafted objects during the handpress era (15th-19th century), tools were also unique to each bookbinder. It was only late in the C18th that bookbinders began to sign their work using labels (tickets) or ink, gilt or blind stamps, and these are usually to be found inside the ...

On 16th February ProQuest will be making improvements to its internal systems . As a result, there will be problems accessing some ProQuest resources from 03:00 - 11:00. Also on 16th February, maintenance will begin on Web of Science from 11:30 - 17:30. This may also result in intermittent access. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

EndNote X6 - for Business and Economics staff. Training will take place on:   Wednesday, 12th February, 1400-1600 Tuesday, 18th February, 1130 - 1330 Tuesday, 25th February, 1400-1600 Come to the Library Training Room on the above dates and learn how to manage references using EndNote X6 for Windows and how to use its 'cite while you write' feature. Places are limited so please book at http://www.eventbrite.ie/o/james-hardiman-library-igniting-curiosity-encouraging-scholarship-378278543 This workshop is based on the guide 'Introduction to EndNote X6' which is available on the Library website at  http://www.library.nuigalway.ie/media/jameshardimanlibrary/content/documents/endnote/EndNote_X6_IntroWord2007xtra.pdf You may wish to view the following tutorials in advance of the workshop. Creating an EndNote Reference Library  1.24 minutes Direct export from a database to Endnote X6  2.51 minutes Importing references from Google Schola...