The Official Flag of Esperanto

Yesterday (Monday 26th July) was officially Esperanto Day, coinciding with the anniversary of the publication of the first work in that language, Unua Libro, by the creator of Esperanto, Dr. L. L. Zamenhof.

Dr Zamenhof created the language in 1887, in response to the ethnic divisions in his native Bialystok in Poland. He believed that language barriers fostered conflict and therefore set about promoting a “neutral” second language that had no political baggage. This language  he called Esperanto. Currently there are estimated to be more than 2,000 Esperanto speakers in the UK and anything between 500,000 and two million worldwide.

Historically, in the 1920s there were attempts at the League of Nations to make it the language of international relations, but the French were among those to resist. And Esperanto speakers were persecuted in Nazi Germany, where Hitler viewed the language with deep suspicion! And in 1965, Star Trek’s William Shatner tried to help raise the language’s profile by starring in an Esperanto-speaking horror film called Incubus, though the film met with the disapproval of both film critics (who felt it was simply a bad film) and students of the language (who felt the actors weren’t pronouncing the language properly)!

Although no country has adopted the language officially, Esperanto was officially recognized by UNESCO in 1954, and it remains the subject of discussion and debate among linguists and educators globally.

You can find out more about the language from the Esperanto Association of Britain web site here. And although the University doesn’t currently run any courses in Esperanto, there are a wide variety of extra-curricular language courses available through our Learning Resources Centre, details of which you can find here.

Bonan ŝancon!

More Nature online

The Library has recently extended access to the electronic archive of Nature, probably one of the most well-known and highly regarded peer-reviewed scientific and technological journals in the world. The new purchase means that readers will be able to peruse all the issues of Nature from 1950 to 1996 and the current five years online. And it doesn’t stop there. The excellent search engine on the Nature web site means that you can easily find articles published since the first issue in 1869 and read them in print or microfilm!

Try it out today! Click on the above link or find the journal on MetaLib. Off campus access available using Athens username and password or by logging in to the Remote Working Portal.

 Please be aware that the collection is only partially loaded at the moment (35%) but will be fully loaded by the end of 2010. New material will then be added on a bi-annual basis.

 To access the database please go to http://trials.uk.proquest.com/ptc?userid=761004 and login with the username and password to be found on the Library password page

The trial will run until 31st July 2010 (for off-campus access please login to the Library pages via the Remote Working Portal at https://vpn.lboro.ac.uk/+CSCOE+/logon.html )

We welcome feedback – good or bad – on this trial, please contact Steve Corn mailto:S.C.Corn@lboro.ac.uk with your comments.

Among the work which is going on in the Library this summer is a project to completely revamp and redecorate the Group Study Rooms in the library. Work on the rooms on Level 3 has recently been completed and we’re rather pleased with the results – we hope you will be too!

Here’s a preview!

Further pictures of this and the rest of the ongoing work can be found via the Library’s Flickr Photostream here.

And a reminder that all of the study rooms can be booked online via this link.

Group Study Room 3A before...

Group Study Room 3A after!

A reminder that from next week, Monday July 19th, the building work which has been on going in the library this summer shall be moving upstairs to Level 2.

Unfortunately access to both this level and Level 1 will be restricted to staff only – no Library users will be allowed on these floors at all for at least the duration of next week (19th July – 23rd July).

As previously, if you require stock that is located on a floor that is closed you can request it via the Library catalogue. The item(s) will be retrieved from floor and should be available for collection within 24 hours.

For further updates, please stay tuned to this blog or visit the library page about the summer works here.

We apologise for any inconvience this may cause. However you may be interested to learn that this upgrade will allow users to pay for printing via  credit/debit card (see IT Services news for further details) and will reduce the cost of colour printing!

Printer/copier outsider the short loan collection

Just a quick reminder of our opening hours during the Summer Vacation:

Monday 9.00AM – 8.00PM.

Tuesday-Friday 9.00AM – 5.30PM.

Saturday & Sunday CLOSED.

The Library will be CLOSED on Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st August.

The Library will be extending the opening hours during the re-sit period and will be open from 9.00am – 8.00pm on the following dates:

Monday 23 August – Friday 27 August.
Wednesday 1 September – Thursday 2 September.

In all cases, last admission to the building is ten minutes before the closing time.

A further reminder that between 21st June and 17th September 2010, there will be disruption to our facilities due to refurbishment work taking place in the building. Regular updates on the progress of this work can be found here.

Leicester Road, Quorn, c.1900

A new exhibition at the Loughborough Public Library has just opened, and examines the history of the neighbouring village of Quorn, which was described in Victorian times as “the most famous village in England”.

The famous Quorn Hunt brought aristocracy to the village in droves, and with it came the building of grand houses, employment for the villagers and, curiously, an early form of tourism.

The exhibition takes you through from Quorn’s origins, how it got its name, how it was affected by the Enclosure Act, through to the Victorian times, the hunt, education, and its thriving industries. A multitude of old photographs, holiday postcards and artefacts are on display, and you can also read extracts from the Victorian school log books and see how the master at the time complains bitterly of the abuse he receives from the women of Quorn!

The exhibition has been produced by local historians Don Wix, Sue Templeman and Kathryn Paterson, and runs at the Public Library throughout July and August. You can find details of its opening hours here.

Further information relating to the local history of Quorn can be found at Quorn’s virtual museum, www.quornmuseum.com,  where you can enjoy browsing through over 800 artefacts online!

Saturday 17th July to Sunday 1st August, 2010

‘Events held during this special fortnight present an excellent opportunity for organisations and societies involved with archaeology and heritage to engage with their local communities and help everyone to engage with archaeology and the historic environment around them.

2010’s event promises to be the biggest UK-wide celebration of archaeology yet and the Festival will be celebrating its 20th anniversary’. [ Council for British Archaeology]

Click here to learn more about the Festival of British Archaeology

Festival blog 

What’s on near you

You may also be interested in the archaeology journals available online from Loughborough University Library, such as Antiquity, European journal of archaeology and Journal of maritime archaeology, using your Athens username and password. 

A full list of titles for e-journals on archaeology and history are available via MetaLib and the online catalogue.  

This week marks the 70th Anniversary of one of the most pivotal moments of military, British,  and global history when the Battle of Britain began in July 1940.

The Second World War had only begun in September 1939 but already by the summer of 1940 Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany had conquered Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belguim and France in quick succession, leaving Great Britain alone in Western Europe to carry on the fight against the Nazi tyranny. The situation was bleak, bleaker still after the British Army had had to abandon the bulk of its equipment during its escape from mainland Europe during the Dunkirk evacuation in June. After the French capitulation on the 22nd June, a German invasion, codenamed Operation Sea Lion, now seemed inevitable.

But Hitler hadn’t reckoned on the determination and skill of the Royal Airforce, who spent the rest of the summer and early autumn fighting the might of the Nazi Luftwaffe to a virtual standstill. And unable to gain the necessary and crucial air superiority, the Nazis were forced to permanently shelve their invasion plans and turn their attention eastwards, and the invasion of Soviet Russia.

Britain would still suffer grieviously from German bombers and later missiles but the nation survived, battered but unbowed, and would provide the springboard for the eventual liberation of Europe following events after Operation Overlord (D-Day), in June 1944 - all thanks in a very considerable way to the heroic endeavours of a select group of young men during those summer months of 1940, who would be memorably described by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill as ‘The Few’.

The library has a good selection of books about the Second World War in its history section at shelfmark 940.53, including various books about the Battle of Britain and the actions of the RAF and the people of Britain during this time. You should also find a wealth of information among our electronic resources. Those interested in the technical side of the battle should find plenty of data about the aircraft used among our aeronautical engineering databases, and the historical/socio-political aspect is well represented among the databases of the Social Sciences and Humanities faculties. You can even find complete facsimiles of the actual newspapers during the battle at the Times Digital Archive and the Daily Mirror archive!