Category Archives: News

Christmas Closure Dates 2018

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The frost-laden mornings and fairy-light filled streets of Canterbury can only mean one thing: Christmas is on its way!

It’s been an exceptionally busy term for us, and we’re looking forward to telling you all about it in our forthcoming highlights of the year blog post. But in the meantime, we thought we’d let you all know about when you can visit us over December – January:

No orchestras to be found in our stores, alas

The Reading Room will be open until 4.30pm on Tuesday, December 18 2018. From then, we’ll be closed until the New Year, when the Reading Room will reopen at 1.00pm on Monday, January 14 2019. As ever, please give us a couple of days notice (if you can) before you’d like to visit so we can get everything ready for you.

We hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! See you all in 2019.

New (academic) year, new opening hours!

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Graphic displaying details of the new opening hours for the Special Collections & Archives Reading Room, set against a background of a book from the Maddison Collection

Special Collections & Archives 2018: now available for you 5 days a week. Windmills at the ready!

Is there anything better than the start of a new term? Everyone is back (and so far, deadline free), the gorgeous campus is turning shades of autumnal yellows and reds, and there’s something pretty awesome about that new-pencil-case start of year fresh-leaf-of-paper type feeling.

In answer to that question: yes, there is something better: new opening hours for Special Collections & Archives! Following on from the extensive Templeman Library refurbishment, we’re delighted to be able to extend our service to five days a week. We are going to be open three full days – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 9.30 – 4.30 – and two half days, Monday afternoon and Friday morning.

These opening hours begin next Monday (24th October), and we’ll keep reminding you telepathically (or via social media / our website / normal channels) about the change for the next month or so.

We’re really excited about being able to open more consistently during the week, and hope that the general lack of Wednesday afternoon classes will enable more of you to come and visit us (as well as allowing you a lie-in on Monday – not us, sadly).

Let us know what you think of the new opening hours, and as ever – any questions, do get in touch.

Have a great term, everyone, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Linda Smith Lecture 2018: Barry Cryer

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May is always one of our favourite times of year here in Special Collections & Archives, not least because it heralds the annual Linda Smith Lecture.

Established in 2015, the Linda Smith Lecture is a celebration of comedian Linda Smith’s life and work, and examines the role of stand-up comedy in today’s society. We’ve had some fantastic guest speakers in the past, including Mark Thomas, Andy Hamilton and Susan Calman.

This year, we’re delighted to welcome Barry Cryer to the University to give the Lecture. A personal friend of Linda’s, Barry has contributed to this country’s entertainment industry for over 50 years. He has written for some of our highest rated shows and for many of our most popular comedians. His brilliant wit is still enjoyed by millions – in theatres, on television and radio, notably the iconic I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.

The Linda Smith Lecture takes place next Thursday (31st May) at 7.30pm and is held in the Gulbenkian Theatre on the University of Kent Canterbury Campus. Tickets cost £6, and we’d love to see you there – please book your place now!

If you want to find out more about our incredible Stand-Up Comedy collections, please visit our website, our Stand-Up Comedy Archive blog or listen to the (brilliant, in our entirely unbiased view) ‘A History of Comedy in Several Objects’ podcast.

Free event: Panto Then and Now, 10th January 2018

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SC&A are really excited to invite you to our fantastic pantomime-themed day on 10 January 2018, which should be a great way to kick off the New Year!

We’ve been working with the Centre for Comic and Popular Performance to celebrate all things pantomime. There’ll be a chance to see not one but two exhibitions, hear talks from pantomime experts, test your knowledge in a quiz, go behind the scenes at the biggest theatre in Canterbury and take part in a Q&A session with the cast and creative team from this year’s Marlowe pantomime – Peter Pan.

This event is free, but places are limited. If you’d like to come along, please book your free ticket via Eventbrite. Will we see you on the 10th January? Oh yes we will!

SC&A is now an Accredited Archive!

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Some excellent news to start our December off: last month, Special Collections & Archives was awarded Accredited Archive status! (We’re choosing to take this as meaning we’re officially awesome, but you probably knew that already…)

This accreditation from the UK Archive Service Accreditation Partnership is the UK quality standard which recognises good performance in all areas of archive service delivery. The standard looks at an organisation’s ability to develop, care for, and provide access to its collections, bringing the total number archive services achieving this to 104 nationwide.

Emma Mires-Richards, Head of Academic Liaison states:

‘We are delighted to have received accredited status from The National Archives, this is a fantastic achievement and recognition nationally for our service and teams delivering it. Achieving accredited status demonstrates that the University of Kent’s Special Collections and Archives met clearly defined national standards relating to management and resourcing, in the care of our unique collections and what the service offers to our entire range of users.’

We’ve had a very busy year (as you’ll see soon, with our forthcoming review of 2017 post) and it’s wonderful to receive recognition for the hard work our team does. Archives Accreditation is a fantastic award to receive and we’re very excited to keep working to deliver an outstanding service to you!

Flook believes his guarding of the Tiny Bible was the key to our success