newsletter13

Newsletter 13 ======================================================= RENAISSANCE LIBRARY NEWSLETTER ======================================================= Issue Number 13 12th October, 2004 Editor: Stuart Urwin mailto:stuart.urwin@isim.org ======================================================= ATTENTION: You are receiving this newsletter, because you have subscribed to it, bought one of our products or expressed an interest in the Renaissance Library Collection in the past. If you'd like to remove yourself from the Mailing List, just send an email to stuart.urwin@isim.org, with "Unsubscribe" in the title field. Please send your message from the email address we have sent the newsletter to - it makes it much easier for us to ensure that you are removed right away. ======================================================= BEAUTIFUL GIFTS FOR LIBRARY & INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS AND BOOK LOVERS The Renaissance Library Collection Calendars, Greeting Cards, Prints and Posters Based on glorious colour images of magical old libraries Great gifts for you, your friends, colleagues and customers http://www.renaissancelibrary.com/ ========================================================= WHAT'S IN THIS ISSUE ========================================================= 1)WELCOME AND EDITORIAL 2)NEW RENAISSANCE LIBRARY CALENDAR 2005 PUBLISHED 3)NEW - PAY IN YOUR LOCAL CURRENCY 4)NEW - "ABOUT THE LIBRARIES" COURSE 5)NEW LINKS PAGE - REVISITING OLD FRIENDS 6)NEW - "TELL A FRIEND" 7)OCTOBER LIBRARY OF THE MONTH - JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY 8)YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS AND FEEDBACK WELCOME ======================================================== 1)WELCOME AND EDITORIAL ======================================================== Welcome to the latest issue of the Renaissance Library newsletter. It's some time since the last newsletter, but we are planning a regular monthly issue in the future, throughout the year. Last week, we announced the release of the Renaissance Library Calendar 2005. You can see further information below and at our website at: http://www.renaissancelibrary.com For those of you who want to buy copies as gifts for your customers and colleagues - please don't delay. We've also introduced a new website, with a different look and feel to it, and much more information about the products and the libraries in the Renaissance Library Collection. Today, we look briefly at four of these changes: - an informative and educational new course, which is available by email, entitled "About the Libraries." - there's news about the possibility of you making payments in your local currency - a new "tell a friend" button - and a new links page, which enables us to visit new and informative sites about two of the libraries in the 2001 calendar - Marsh's Library in Ireland and the Abbey Library of Waldsassen in Germany. I will focus on some of the other changes in the next few issues of the newsletter. Finally, we include our regular Library of the Month feature. This time, it's the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, which is the featured library for October in the 2004 calendar. All the best, Stuart Urwin ====================================================== 2)NEW RENAISSANCE LIBRARY CALENDAR 2005 PUBLISHED ====================================================== The Renaissance Library Calendar 2005 is now available. The front cover shows the wonderful baroque Library at the Monastery of St. Florian in Austria. The library, one of the most impressive of all the beautiful Austrian monastery libraries, was constructed between 1745 and 1751.The monastery is also famous for housing the Bruckner organ, named after Anton Bruckner, the great Austrian composer, who was organist in the abbey church from 1848 to 1855. The calendar features libraries from 9 different countries, including two new countries, Croatia and Malta. The Monastic Library at Yuso, San Millán de la Cogolla, Spain, which dates from 1665, is particularly noteworthy. San Millán is famous as the birthplace of the Spanish language and the first documents written in the Castilian or Spanish language are preserved here. The monastery was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The Library at Yuso is conserved just as it was at the end of the 18th century, so that there is, deliberately, no electric light, for example. The 12 libraries featured in the Calendar are: St. Florian Monastery Library, St. Florian, Austria, 1745-1751 Suzzallo Library, University of Washington, Seattle, USA, 1926 Hereford Cathedral Chained Library, Hereford, UK, 1611 Einsiedeln Abbey Library, Einsiedeln, Switzerland, 1738 St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis, USA, 1912 Klosterneuburg Abbey Library, Klosterneuburg, Austria, 1834-42 National Library of Malta, Valletta, Malta, 1796 Monastic Library at Yuso, San Millán de la Cogolla, Spain, 1665 City and University Library of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, 1794 Fransiscan Monastery of Friars Minor, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 1695 Library of the Boston Athenæum, Boston, MA, USA, 1849 Library of the Palace of the Conde d’Obidos, Lisbon, Portugal, unknown date You can find full details at our website at http://www.renaissancelibrary.com/ ======================================================== 3)NEW - PAY IN YOUR LOCAL CURRENCY ======================================================== Our retail partner and credit card processor, CCNow, have recently added an improved service. In many countries, you can now pay in your local currency, if you use Visa or Mastercard - this includes US dollars UK pounds Euros Japanese yen Canadian dollars Australian dollars Swedish kronor When you get to the check out stage of a transaction, your dollar total will be converted to your local currency. To select a different currency to display, click on one of the corresponding currency flags above. By hovering over the flag, you will see the current exchange rate from US dollars. For Visa and Mastercard the currency you select will be the currency you are charged in. All other card types will be charged in USD regardless of currency selected. ======================================================== 4)NEW - "ABOUT THE LIBRARIES" COURSE ======================================================== With the launch of the 2005 calendar and the new website, we have introduced a new course about all the libraries featured in the Renaissance Library Calendar over the years. Since the first Renaissance Library Calendar was published in 2001, we have featured 60 beautiful old libraries. To obtain more information about them, in a format and at a pace, which is easy and pleasurable to absorb, we noe make these details available to you by email, in the form of a fortnightly course (every two weeks). This will give you a fascinating education about the way libraries developed around the World up to the early part of the 20th century. Just sign up for the course and you will receive, every two weeks, information about a different library featured in the calendar, including: A brief history Information about the library's collection and other items of special interest Address and Opening Hours Link to the library's own website Links to books about the library, where possible You can sign up for the course (no charge) at http://www.renaissancelibrary.com/about-the-libraries.htm ====================================================== 5)NEW LINKS PAGE - REVISITING OLD FRIENDS ====================================================== As part of the preparatory work for the new "About the Libraries" service, I had to check through the website links of the libraries featured in some of the earlier editions of the Renaissance Library Calendar. It was instructive and useful to do this. First of all, some of the links were no longer correct. But in addition to that, some of the libraries have launched new websites. As I was looking through the libraries, which appeared in our first calendar in 2001, I particularly enjoyed looking at these two informative sites: Marsh's Library in Dublin, Ireland (1701) http://www.marshlibrary.ie/ and The Abbey Library at Waldsassen, Germany (1585) http://www.abtei-waldsassen.de/ - press the "Bibliothek" button. Note - this site's in German, but the library is spectacular. Why don't you take a look too? By the way, we've got a "links" page for the websites of all 60 of the libraries that have appeared in the calendar so far. It's at http://www.renaissancelibrary.com/links.htm ====================================================== 6)NEW - "TELL A FRIEND" ====================================================== Here's another new feature on our website. If you like our site and our products, why not tell one of your friends about it? Just click on the "tell a friend" button, which appears at the bottom of each page on our website. Spreading the word helps us devote resources to more new products. Here's how it works. Pressing the button generates the following prompts: 1)What is your name? 2)What is your friend's name? 3)What is your friend's email address? Just answer the questions and an email will be generated, which you can send to your friend. It will say: to: xxx@yyy.com (email address of friend) Title: Hey (friend's name), check this out! Body: Hey (name of friend), I just found the most amazing web site! It's called 'Renaissance Library Collection'. Check it out here: http://www.renaissancelibrary.com Your Friend (your name) ======================================================== 7)OCTOBER LIBRARY OF THE MONTH - JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY ======================================================== The current (2004) calendar features the John Rylands University Library of Manchester (in the UK) in October. Brief History ------------- The John Rylands Library is one of the finest examples of modern Gothic architecture in Europe. It was built during the 1890s, in memory of Manchester cotton merchant John Rylands, who died in 1888. His widow commissioned Basil Champneys to design a building which would give Manchester one of the finest libraries in the country. The Library opened on 1 January 1900. It remained an independent library until 1972, when it merged with Manchester University Library. The John Rylands Library now forms part of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, housing the rare book and manuscript collections of the third largest academic library in the UK. The library’s famous Reading Room (see picture) was built 30 feet (9 metres) above street level to minimize disturbance from the horse-drawn traffic on Deansgate’s cobblestones. Special Interest ---------------- The collection of printed books was established with the purchase of the Spencer Collection in 1892. The library holds some 4,000 incunabula, including the earliest European book produced with movable type, the 42-line Bible printed by Gutenberg in Mainz. The collection of Caxton’s printings is the largest outside the British Library. The Library’s manuscript collections cover more than 50 languages, from the third millennium BC to the present day. The most famous is the St. John Fragment, a small remnant of papyrus from the 2nd century AD, which is believed to be the earliest surviving text from the New Testament. The library will be closed until late 2005, for major renovations. Stock will be available from the main University Library. 'Unlocking the Rylands' online exhibition ----------------------------------------- The John Rylands Library houses a very special collection of rare books and manuscripts. The Library has been running an Appeal to raise funds to widen access to these treasures, to conserve its historic building, and to improve collection care. The plans include: * A new entrance wing * Repairs and conservation to the original building * New exhibition galleries * Improved collections and reader facilities Much more information about these plans is available at the Library's website at http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/exhibition/unlock/ This web exhibition gives a fascinating glimpse (pictures and text) of some of the treasures of the Library. It is based on the 'Unlocking the Rylands' exhibition held in the Library Exhibition Hall from January until March 2002. ====================================================== 8)YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS AND FEEDBACK WELCOME ====================================================== If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know. We also welcome contributions to the newsletter. If you feel you can write a short article for us (up to 500 words), just email me at: stuart.urwin@isim.org In the meantime, if you like the products, please tell a friend or colleague. Better still, buy them one as a gift - or club together to buy several. This will get you a better price and spread the delivery costs. You can see all the products here: http://www.renaissancelibrary.com Best Regards, Stuart Urwin ====================================================== If you like this newsletter, PLEASE FORWARD IT to friends and colleagues! It may be posted, in it's entirety or partially, to newsgroups or mailing lists, as long as the copyright and subscription information remains. If you've received a copy of the Renaissance Library newsletter from a friend and would like to subscribe, just send an e-mail to stuart.urwin@isim.org with the single word "subscribe" in the subject field. Your e-mail address is confidential. ISIM will not sell, disclose or trade its subscriber list for any purpose. ====================================================== ©2004 ISIM, all rights reserved. ====================================================== The RENAISSANCE LIBRARY newsletter is published by ISIM Editor: Stuart Urwin Phone: +46 8 754 15 55 Fax: +46 8 754 13 33 E-mail: stuart.urwin@isim.org ====================================================== View cart/checkout		About The Libraries Product catalog Testimonials Product Review Price List FAQs Marketing with RL products Advertising with Calendars Customize the Calendar For Library Associations For Library Suppliers For Library Cooperatives For Library Consultants Bulk Orders Newsletter Archive Tell a Friend Press releases Site Map