Templeman Library Closure: SC&A digital resources

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Joanna Baines

In light of recent Government announcements, the Templeman Library closed at 5pm on Tuesday 24th March and will remain so until further notice. This includes Special Collections & Archives; our team is working remotely away from campus.

The Templeman Library is closed from 5pm on Tuesday 24th March until further notice.

Our Reading Room may be closed, but many of our collections can still be accessed remotely! Here’s a list that we’ll keep updating throughout this period, curated in roughly alphabetical order:

Our archive catalogue contains details of the collections we hold along with images for some collections
The British Cartoon Archive’s catalogue has thousands of images of artwork along with publication details – click on the image in the record to view it full screen
Some of the Buffs (Royal East Kent regiment) collection – namely the ‘Dragon’ journal – is available to view through LibrarySearch. This includes the Dragon’s issues from the First World War.
If you’re interested in Local History, we have many images of mills from Kent (and beyond) for your perusal
The wonderful Prescriptions: Artists’ Books collection has been catalogued through LibrarySearch and there are images of every item we hold
Our next Templeman Gallery exhibition, Printworks, will be explored in this blog over the next few weeks so you don’t miss out

If you’d like to access any other material digitally – or have any other queries – please do get in touch with us. We hope you’re all safe and well and look forward to welcoming you back to the Library soon.

7 ways to find material in the British Cartoon Archive

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Joanna Baines

Welcome to part two of our refresher series on how to find Special Collections & Archive material to use in your research! Today, we’re exploring the wonderful (and sometimes weird) world of the British Cartoon Archive (BCA).

Kent’s British Cartoon Archive is one of the largest collections of political cartoons in the UK, if not the world; since its establishment by academics here in the 1970s, the Archive has grown to contain material from over 300 artists, and over 200,000 cartoons have been digitised and put online through the British Cartoon Archive catalogue.

With such a vast collection, it can be tricky to know where to start searching for material! But we are here, as ever, to guide you through our wonderful cartoon collections…

1) Think around your research area

As cartoons tend to be catalogued using the language of the time, it’s worth taking a few minutes to jot down some words, people, places and dates related to your topic. This way you can try other searches if your initial results don’t yield much – it can be a real trial and error type quest! Here’s an example, imagining you’re interested in cartoons from the Second World War:

2) Books or artwork?

You can find British Cartoon Archive material in two places: if it’s books and journals you’re interested in, LibrarySearch is your place to go. You can find our guide to locating material using LibrarySearch here.

If it’s cartoons, there’s a whole new website for you to explore! Much of the BCA’s art is available to view online for free through the BCA catalogue – you don’t need a special log in to do so.

3) Searching the BCA catalogue – general searches

If you want a general overview of what artwork can be found in the British Cartoon Archive that’s relevant to your research, the main search bar at the top of the catalogue is your friend. You can search by keyword / artist / place / date and the catalogue will bring up images that match your terms. You can order the images by date and view every relevant image on one page rather than clicking through, if you prefer to do so.

4) Searching the BCA catalogue – if you know what you’re looking for

If you know have a rather more specific search term, you can use either of the ‘Advanced Search’ options on the left hand side. If you’re after seeing all cartoons of Margaret Thatcher, use the ‘persons depicted’ search. If you’re interested in cartoons between specific dates, or on a certain topic but by a particular artist, the ‘cartoons’ search is for you.

5) Click through for bigger images

When you find relevant results, you’ll see a tiny version of the cartoon next to a description of the work. Click through twice and you’ll see a larger version of the image.

6) Don’t forget copyright

42061 – Leslie Gibbard: “With the compliments of my client – she’s suing for breach of copyright!”, 15 June 1988, The Guardian

Although the BCA looks after (and owns) many collections of cartoons, we don’t always hold the rights to reproduce the images. Many cartoonists’ work is owned by the newspapers they draw for, so if you’re looking for an image to publish please do take note of the copyright information that’s included in the catalogue entry. We can also supply higher-resolution versions of images for a fee, but bear in mind that the copyright owners may also charge for image use. You can find more information on copyright here.

If you’re wanting to use BCA images for use in presentations, essays or teaching, please do get in touch with us and we can explain how this works.

7) Explore the biographies for artist (and collection) information

Did you know that the BCA website has details about almost every cartoonist within our holdings which you can browse? What’s more, if you scroll down to the bottom of each artist biography page you can find details of any additional holdings that aren’t catalogued yet – so if something doesn’t appear on the main BCA catalogue, it’s worth having a look here. You’re welcome to view uncatalogued material, just get in touch with us and say what you’d like to see.

Part of our ongoing series about finding material in Special Collections & Archives: see also tips for exploring collections through LibrarySearch.

7 top tips for finding Special Collections & Archives material through LibrarySearch

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Joanna Baines

Although we’re not students any more, we can always tell when it’s deadline time at Kent. How? By the number of people visiting the library (and the queues at the café…)!

We thought we’d use this opportunity to wave our own flag and give you a quick refresher series on how to find material in our collections to really make your research stand-out. Today we’ll take a look at how to find Special Collections & Archives (SC&A) material through Kent’s Library catalogue, LibrarySearch:

1) Gather your locations

We have over 150 different collections here at Kent, and listings for these collections can be found in a number of different places: through LibrarySearch, on the SC&A website, via our Archive catalogue and through the British Cartoon Archive catalogue.

2) What’s on LibrarySearch?

Broadly speaking, items that are in book and playscript form can currently be found through LibrarySearch, which is the catalogue you (hopefully!) use to find books, e-books and journal articles here at Kent. We are working on making our archive collections findable through LibrarySearch soon, so check back for this.

3) Narrowing down results makes finding our material much quicker

Start by entering your search terms, then tick either ‘British Cartoon Archive’ or ‘Special Collections & Archives’ (or both) in the location box down the left-hand side. This will help narrow down the items LibrarySearch is exploring to only the material we hold.

Bonus tip: you can use the ‘sort by publication date – ascending’ to organise items so the oldest material will be the first thing you see. ‘Sort by publication date – descending’ will put the most recent items first.

4) Digitised or not digitised?

You’ll probably need to make an appointment to view items you find in LibrarySearch in our Reading Room. The majority of our windmill and playbill collections have been digitised, alongside artwork (not books or journals) from the British Cartoon Archive.

5) Get your orders in!

Once you’ve found an item, click on ‘Place Reservation’ (either the blue box next to the item summary or from the drop-down menu inside the item’s description) and select ‘Templeman Library’. Please note that at present, this option is only available to users who have a University of Kent login – if you’re visiting from elsewhere, jot down the reference numbers and details of the items you’d like to see and send us an email.

6) Make a date and come on in!

Special Collections & Archives staff check daily for any new requests that come our way via LibrarySearch, so we will send you an email once we’ve got your request. The email will confirm which items you’ve asked for and then ask when you’d like to come in to view material. It’s really important that you respond to this email as, unlike other Library items, you’ll need to make an appointment to visit. This is because all of our material is kept in secure stores and we need a little time in advance to get it ready. Check our website for when we’re open.

7) Know your limits (spoiler: there are none)

You can place as many requests for items you find in LibrarySearch as you like – there’s no maximum number. However, if you have a lot (more than about 5 things), we’ll probably check with you if there are any you’d like to see first, so you can get the most out of your time visiting us.

GA4085: Carl Giles – “Bennett, after diligent research into history, comes up with the illuminating observation that we have gone through 13 Prime Ministers since the birth of Donald Duck.” 10 Jan 1980, Daily Express

…And one final tip:

8) Drop in if you need help

Although you need an appointment to view material in Special Collections & Archives, we are always happy to receive queries during our opening hours. If you’re having trouble finding material in our collections, or would simply like to know more about what we hold, please do drop into our Reading Room on the First Floor of Templeman A and say hello!

University of Kent Special Collections & Archives

News and views from the Special Collections & Archives team at the University of Kent.

Category Archives: Guides