Gary Bankhead and the River Wear Assemblage at the Museum of Archaeology

A post by Gemma Lewis, Curator (Museum of Archaeology and Biosciences)

Since 2008, Gary Bankhead has been diving under Elvet Bridge in Durham City, bringing to the surface over 13,500 objects. The objects date from the 12th century to the modern day, although the majority date to the 17th century. The objects range from dentures to pilgrim badges, and from a toy of Homer Simpson to Tudor buttons. The collection has been described as ‘a major research facility, probably the largest collection of late- and post-medieval finds in the North of England: a unique regional/national resource’. In 2010, Gary created the Dive into Durham project, to research, catalogue and display this important assemblage of objects. To date, Gary has uncovered 454 buttons, 36 pieces of ammunition, 329 buckles, 344 cloth seals, 512 (pre-decimal) coins, 149 trade tokens, 3,459 brass pins, and many more objects. The numbers are staggering, but it is not the quantity that it is important, it is the potential of these objects to change our understanding of the history of Durham.

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Item of the month: 1933 Essay Book of Georg Backhaus

A post by Jenny Coulton, Archives and Special Collections Graduate Intern

This month marks ninety years since a series of events which culminated in the Nazi monopolisation of power in Germany. On March 23rd 1933, the Enabling Act was passed, allowing the Nazi party to pass legislation without the approval of the Reichstag. From this point onwards, a slew of vitriolic propaganda and indoctrination was produced, mentally preparing citizens for war, and encouraging them to denigrate certain social groups. Much of this indoctrination occurred within the classroom, and this month’s item was produced in such an environment.

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eResource of the month: Gale Primary Sources

Each month we spotlight one of our databases to highlight the range of resources available to our users. This month, Business Faculty Librarian Ben Taylorson discusses Gale Primary Sources.

Gale Primary Sources is an interactive research environment that allows researchers to cross-search Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) and the substantial newspaper archives we have via Gale Newsvault.

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#DULibIntroducing Rebecca Jones

In the next of our series introducing members of staff, #DULibIntroducing meets Digital Learning Developer Rebecca Jones.

Rebecca Jones

Please state your name, full job title, and a brief description of what that entails:

Rebecca Jones, Digital Learning Developer. My job involves developing digital resources and online provisions for the library and collections. Digital learning developers often have a varied skill set. For example, they can shoot and edit educational videos, design courses and tutorials, create animations, or even produce immersive augmented or virtual reality experiences.

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Getting to know eBooks better

black tablet computer behind books

We have talked about eBooks a few times on the blog over the years. Whether you love or loathe eBooks, one thing is for sure – they are a big part of our library and academic lives.

Last academic year (21/22) we purchased almost 6000 new individual eBook titles and just over 300 additional licenses. In addition to the individual purchases, we continue to have access to a large range of eBook packages. The eBooks in our collection were used over 2.7 million times and we expect that to increase even more this year.

Although we maybe using eBooks more, we are aware it isn’t always straightforward getting started with them or using them. One day you may have access to a title, and then the next you don’t – or you receive a message saying there are no available licenses…

So, in this blog post we thought we would explain some of these queries.

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Graduate intern update: Jenny

Graduate intern Jenny Coulton tells us what she’s been up to recently…

Hello again readers! I’m here to give another update on what I’ve been up to since October as an intern with Durham’s Archives and Special Collections.

One of the biggest projects I’ve been working on has been cataloguing my first collection. I’ve been working on the Backhaus family papers – a small group of material that will be part of our larger Else Headlam-Morley collection. The papers are centred around a woman (Frieda Backhaus nee Herzberg), her life in Germany 1893-1950, and her emigration and final years living in the UK under the employment of the Headlam-Morleys. It’s a fascinating insight into a family, and a great source for life in Germany just before and after the Second World War. One of the most interesting items, in my opinion, is a letter from Frieda’s father, Max, to the commander of the Russian occupation of Berlin, praising the Red Army and even sending the commander a copy of a manuscript he had been working on – and all this on a letter written only a few days after the end of the war! I’ve also been really enjoying the process of cataloguing, although learning how to not get sucked into reading every detail is surprisingly difficult. Nevertheless, it’s very satisfying to summarise, and even more fulfilling to realise that my work means that these collections are now mor easily accessible for future academics and research.

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eResource of the month: IET Inspec database (being trialled during February – March 2023)

Each month we spotlight one of our databases to highlight the range of resources available to our users. This month, Science Faculty Librarian Colin Theakston turns the spotlight on a database we have on trial.

Our status as a research active university means that we are frequently approached by data-providers who are keen to have us trial their databases, obviously they do this as they are hoping we might subscribe to their product.  Truth be told, if the feedback is good enough we often do!

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Durham Research Online: Our 2022 Twitter Highlights

By Martin Gleghorn, Repository Coordinator

One of our favourite parts of the job is getting to shout about the amazing research we see Durham academics doing, so we thought we’d have a look back at some of our highlights from the past year from our Twitter account – give us a follow @DRODurham. Some of these articles were published during 2022; others we were able to make fully available in DRO for the first time; some we just felt were particularly interesting and relevant to what was going on in the world that day…

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Item of the month: Codrington College, Barbados. After a drawing by the bishop of Barbados

A post by University Archivist Jonathan Bush

This print of Codrington College, Barbados, was sketched by William Hart Coleridge (1789-1849), the bishop of Barbados and the Leeward Islands, and is one of the earliest examples of lithography by William Louis Walton (1808?-1879). The date of printing is uncertain, but likely to be shortly before the Slavery Abolition Act (1833), which abolished slavery on a gradual basis in most parts of the British Empire.

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