Our blogs
Find out more about what is happening in the John Rylands Library and the John Rylands Research Institute on our blogs.
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Zines & the Art of DIY Publishing
John Hodgson
4 January 2020
Dr Janette Martin, Student Engagement Manager, and Bruce Wilkinson, Reader Engagement Assistant and PhD Candidate, jointly developed and delivered a session on Zines in December 2019. This blog reflects on the experience: On a dark, gloomy winter afternoon the John Rylands Library hosted a ‘Zines’ workshop for undergraduates from Colgate University, USA. It was the […]
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Ancoats Survey 1937-38: A Study of a Clearance Area
jpetersmanchester
18 December 2019
The Library has looked after the archives of Manchester Settlement (formerly Manchester University Settlement) for many years. The Settlement has been active since the 1890s in combating poverty in Manchester. During a stocktake this summer, we discovered a previously unrecorded collection of Settlement social survey records from the 1930s. These provide an unique and fascinating […]
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Teaching Spotlight: Art in Medieval Books
John Hodgson
13 December 2019
Originally posted on Art History UoM Index: This semester, Dr Anne Kirkham has been teaching a Level 3 course on Art in Medieval Books. The course introduced students to the glorious imagery on the pages of many medieval books in the West, from the first regular appearances of a ‘rectangular object with pages’ in the…
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Subvisible Bodies: Medical Microscopy in the Rylands Gallery
Charlotte Hoare
11 December 2019
An exciting new display in the Rylands Gallery showcases items from the University of Manchester Library’s medical collections alongside intriguing artefacts from the Museum of Medicine and Health (MMH). Subvisible Bodies is a whistle-stop exploration of medical microscopy in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Objects, printed books and archives relating to the Old Medical […]
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Frederick Bearman Research Grant 2019: Islamic Slipcase Project
Carly Richardson
9 December 2019
Originally posted on the Icon Book & Paper Group blog: By David Plummer In July 2019, I had the good fortune to visit the John Ryland’s Library in Manchester, U.K where I surveyed twenty-five Islamic slipcases. I was fortunate enough to be accompanied on this trip by my research assistant Maria Borg who is currently…
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The Hidden Treasures of the Museum of Medicine and Health
dominicchristian
5 December 2019
Catherine Smith writes: In my role as a Reader Services assistant within Special Collections the best part of my job is my interaction with our readers. Over the years I’ve been lucky to meet some fascinating and genuinely lovely people. It’s wonderful to see our readers using the many rich resources that we hold in […]
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Rosie’s Reflections on a Writing Residency
Jessica Smith
27 November 2019
Rosie Garland writes: It’s been an amazing year. What an honour to be Inaugural Writer-in-Residence at The John Rylands Library. Let’s start at the very beginning, with the feature in the prestigious UoM magazine. The residency was a new departure for myself as well as The Rylands: my first year-long residency, and the first time […]
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Port Out, Starboard Home: A Clean Break
dominicchristian
21 November 2019
Jane Donaldson writes: Off on our jolly holidays One of the perennial problems faced by the Reader Services Team is that the service is split over two sites. We also have a number of part-time staff which means it is difficult to build a team rapport, especially with some of the team never working […]
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Cataloguing Manuscripts: A Historian’s Reflections
John Hodgson
19 November 2019
Dr Joanne Edge writes: I am just coming to the end of a 17-month stint setting up an online catalogue of the Latin manuscripts housed at The John Rylands Library. 49 of these manuscript descriptions are now available on our new viewing platform, Manchester Digital Collections. Some time ago I wrote a blog on the […]
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Inspiring Tomorrow’s History Teachers
John Hodgson
14 November 2019
A joint blog post by Dr Janette Martin (Special Collections Student Engagement Manager) and Thomas Donnai (Lecturer in Initial Teacher Education), celebrating a new collaboration between the Library and the School of Environment, Education and Development. In October 2019, The John Rylands Library hosted a workshop for 15 History PGCE students led by Adam Cooke […]
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