The posting is now up for fall Student Assistant positions in the Library. The link on the Library website is at http://library.queensu.ca/about/jobs/student. Please submit your application as soon as possible as the deadline is next Thursday, April 21st. Also, please be sure to apply for a Work Study bursary as this is a condition of employment. Information about the Work Study program and the application is available at http://www.queensu.ca/studentawards/financial-assistance/work-study-program.

On Wednesday April 20 between 7:30 and 8:30 pm, Queen’s University Library and Kingston WritersFest invite you to a poetry book launch in Speaker’s Corner at Stauffer Library.

This exciting event showcases five acclaimed poets reading from their new spring poetry collections! Featuring Roo Borson and Kim Maltman, Suzanne Buffam, Michael Crummey, and Steve Heighton. Copies of the books will be available for sale and signing.

Queen’s University has announced Martha Whitehead accepted re-appointment as Vice-Provost and University Librarian for a five-year term, effective July 1, 2016. The principal’s advisory committee unanimously recommended her reappointment.

Martha is recognized as a leader in her field with national and international profile. Her external activities position Queen’s as an active player in the research library landscape, and help build collaborations and develop new perspectives. She is President of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and she has served as Vice-Chair/Chair/Past Chair of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL).

For the full story, please see the Queen’s Gazette.

The 10th annual Inquiry@Queen’s (I@Q) conference was held last week, and we have been receiving rave reviews of the programming.

Congratulations to our undergraduate researchers! The Queen’s and Kingston community came together to celebrate their research achievements through presentations, posters, and events. Many positive comments have been received on both the quality of the research and the presentations. Other highlights included the keynote presentations by undergraduate researchers (including a play!), a Kingston Youth Group, and an address by Dr. Art McDonald, Professor Emeritus and co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics, and a panel discussion on experiential learning.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this event a success by dedicating your time to organize and attend the events.

Please see our Instagram for photos, and feel free to share any that you might have.

See you next year!

ProQuest Materials Science Collection is a materials-focused research tool with renowned indexes including Metadex plus full text. For research into materials including metals, polymers, ceramics, composites, and biomaterials. Facilitates everything from comprehensive literature reviews to simple Google-style searches retrieving full-text results.

The first acquisitions have been made for the Schulich-Woolf Collection, thanks to funds generously provided by Mr. Seymour Schulich.  They become part of a signature collection of books on history, exploration and culture from the 16^th to the 19^th centuries, donated by Mr. Schulich and by Queen’s Principal Daniel Woolf. The Schulich Woolf Collection is housed in the W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library.

The newly acquired books are important examples of the Tudor interest in history and governance, and as artifacts, they carry with them indications of personal ownership and use, and other traces of the time in which they were produced. Six titles, dating from 1557 to 1596, have been received.

The Boke Named the Governor, by Sir Thomas Elyot, 1557      Schulich-Woolf Dated 1557.E49

The Chronicle of Fabian, by Robert Fabyan, 1559                       Schulich-Woolf Dated 1559.F33 folio

Certain Discourses, by Sir John Smythe, 1590                             Schulich-Woolf Dated 1590.S69

Elyot’s Boke Named the Governor is a treatise on the learning and education required to govern well.  It is considered one of the earliest examples of the confident use of the English vernacular for serious purposes.  The Chronicle of English history written by Robert Fabyan (d. 1512) was first published posthumously, in 1516, and enlarged by others in editions of 1533 and 1542.  The 1559 edition brings forward the history from the time of Henry VII to the end of Queen Mary’s reign.  An example of fine “black letter” printing, our copy is in particularly good condition, in a noteworthy mid-19^th-century binding by the firm of Clarke & Bedford.  Smythe’s Certain Discourses present the argument that archers and the English longbow should be maintained in battle rather than relying upon new-fangled armaments such as “mosquets”.  It’s not so much the argument that makes this book important, however, but the fact that it was suppressed by Lord Burghley because of impolitic personal statements made in the text.  As a “banned book”, this volume will have a place in our Freedom to Read displays and events.

Three works have come bound together in one volume                    Schulich-Woolf Dated 1596.C66

The Historie of Philip de Commines, 1596

The Florentine Historie, by Niccolò Machiavelli, 1595

The Historie of France, by Lancelot-Voisin La Popelinière, 1596.

These three historical works are still in what appears to be their original folio binding, which can be dated to May 1597.  Two strips of manuscript waste are used to secure the fly-leaves; these are written in an English “secretary” hand.  Numerous early signatures, notes and underlinings tell us about who owned the volume and something about what readers found interesting in the contents.  The histories of France by de Commines and La Popelinière both have the same elaborate woodcut frame on their title-pages, associated with William Ponsonby, the printer of Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney.  The prefaces and dedications to the works explain the reasons for making translations to inform, educate and entertain the reading public in the age of Shakespeare.

Prison Sentences: Penitentiary Literature in Kingston is an exhibit that focuses on prison newsletters, or ‘joint magazines’ from Kingston area prisons. The exhibit provides an in-depth look at writings by prisoners. It examines the content and historical significance of these works, and draws attention to the quality of these publications, especially in the 1950’s and 60’s. It attempts to establish the context and tension in which these newsletters were produced.

March 2 – April 15, 2016

Curated by Kim Bell, W.D. Jordan Special Collections and Music Library

Inquiry@Queen’s is hosting a panel discussion on experiential learning on Thursday, March 10th, 11:30-12:30, in Speaker’s Corner, Queen’s Learning Commons, Stauffer Library.

The session will be moderated by Gemma Boag, Queen’s alumnus. The discussion will feature Queen’s undergraduates, Emily Lewis, Jamie Mowbray, Sean Price and Lauren Turner who will share their experiential learning experiences, which include studying in Cuba, working with the Lieutenant Governor’s Aboriginal Summer Reading Camps, participating in field courses in geological mapping and geophysics, and, working with The Stop, a community food centre in Toronto.

All are welcome to attend!

The 10th annual Inquiry@Queen’s (I@Q) conference is coming up this Thursday, March 10th and Friday. March 11th, 2016.

Please come out and celebrate the research achievements of a new generation of scholars as they present their research results via presentations, posters, and conference events in the Queen’s Learning Commons in Stauffer Library.

The keynote session is on Friday, March 11, 9:00-10:30 and includes presentations by undergraduate researchers, a Kingston Youth Group, and an address by Dr. Art McDonald, Professor Emeritus and co-winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.

The full conference program is available here.

We hope to see you there!