Access to libraries for students Association

For the students of Association KU Leuven there is a significant change on access regulations from 26^th of December 2012 onwards.

Students of the Association still have free access to the libraries of the KU Leuven but those who have not yet applied for a library card on Wednesday 26^th of December 2012, pay a day card (€ 2.5 + 5 € deposit). This rule also applies to KU Leuven students.

This action runs until the end of the exam period, Friday 1^st of February 2013.

So come as soon as possible – before 23/12/2012 – to our desks for requesting a free library card. KHL-students can also apply for this card in their own KHL-libraries.

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Flandrica.be online

On November 15th, the Central Library hosted the launching of Flandrica.be, the new portal website of the Flanders Heritage Library and its six partner libraries. In this online heritage library, the visitor can browse through the most important pieces of each library collection. You can stumble across beautifully illustrated medieval manuscripts, old prints of Plantijn, but also old cookery books, lyrics and catechisms.

Inspired by international examples like Europeana, Flandrica.be is the portal for – at this moment – more than 400 books, manuscripts, newspapers and other documents from the six partner libraries: Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience, University Library Antwerp, Public Library Bruges, University Library Ghent, Provincial Library Limburg and University Library Leuven.

For KU Leuven, Flandrica.be displays documents from the Central Library, Maurits Sabbe Library, University Archive and Campusbibliotheek Arenberg: masterpieces such as the Bible of Anjou, but also documents that vividly depict the university history of Louvain and the cultural life of the city and region.

Source: News KU Leuven

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Cranevelt letters

The Cranevelt letters are one of the most important manuscript collections in the Central Library. They contain the correspondence of humanist Frans Cranevelt of Bruges with Erasmus, Juan Luis Vives and Thomas Morus, among others. In 1928 Henry de Vocht published the first part of the Cranevelt letters. The second part was published in 1992-1995 by Josef Ijsewijn et al., with the support of the Koning Boudewijnstichting (who donated the letters to the KU Leuven). During the last year all the Cranevelt letters were catalogued in Limo and digitized.  From now on you can find the entire letter collection online. In Limo you enter ‘Craneveltbrieven’ or ‘correspondence of Cranevelt’ as search terms. Then you access the letters by clicking on the tab ‘View online’ (within the Libis network) or via tab ‘Details’ and ‘Online version in Lias’ (outside the campus network).

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Old Maps Online unlocks old maps

Old Maps Online is an easy to use new website for historical maps in libraries worldwide. Users can access digitalised maps online via a geographical search interface. You can filter on place-name, by clicking on a location or by limiting the time period. For the moment, Old Maps Online contains parts of map collections from, among others, the British Library, the New York Public Library and the National Library of Scotland. The project is now looking for institutions with a digitalised map collection of their own, who would like to participate in the endeavour.

Source: http://www.vlaamse-erfgoedbibliotheek.be/nieuws/2012/07/2484-old-maps-online-ontsluit-oude-kaarten-geografisch-tijdslijn

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Wanted: New Head University Library

The KU Leuven is looking for a Library Director to succeed the present Chief Librarian, Professor M. W. Collier, who retires in the summer of 2012. The KU Leuven Library is a large and complex organisation including campus libraries, faculty libraries, electronic library services, archives and art collections. The job of Library Director provides the challenge of combining the management of important traditional and heritage collections with an ultra modern approach to e-resources and digitalisation of library materials. The Library’s IT division LIBIS provides a wide range of services to a network of institutions throughout Belgium and beyond. KU Leuven has also a network of University Colleges offering academic and professional programmes. The libraries of these Colleges form part of the wider network of the University Library. Moreover, the Library participates in a range of Flemish, Belgian and international co-operative activities.

 More information can be found here.

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Rare stolen atlas returned

A rare copy of an Atlas of the New World, stolen from Sweden’s Royal Library a decade ago has been officially returned. Published in 1597, the Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum was the first atlas documenting the geography and natural history of the Americas. Belgian cartographer Wytfliet used the writings of geographers José de Acosta and Giovanni Battista Ramusio, among others, to create 19 exceptionally accurate maps of South America, Central America, North America and the Caribbean, among them the first regional map of California ever printed. The book is one of only nine complete copies known to survive. It was stolen by the former head of the library’s manuscript department, Anders Burius, who from the day he was hired in 1995 began to help himself to rare volumes which he would then sell. Wytfliet’s Atlas had been on the market for years and passed through several hands before a Royal Library librarian spotted it in 2011 for sale by New York map dealer W. Graham Arader II. The Royal Library and Arader determined that it was the stolen copy, so he returned it to Sotheby’s and got his money back. Sotheby’s in turn decided to give the book back to the library.

Source: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/17824

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Opening hours summer 2012

On Saturday 30th of June the summer regime starts in the Central Library. This means that the library is open, only on weekdays from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m..

The new academic year starts on Monday September 24th. From then on the library will remain open until 8 p.m. (monday-thursday), until 5 p.m. (friday) and until 1 p.m. (saturday).

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Job opportunity : Head of Central Library

The Central Library (CB) is one of two heritage libraries of the University Library (UB) of the KU Leuven, consisting of 11 libraries and two central services.

 The CB is located in a beautiful, legally protected building on the Ladeuzeplein and is the storage library for the humanities and social sciences libraries (with the exception of the Maurits Sabbe library of the Faculty of theology, the other heritage library).

In addition, special collections such as the Tabularium (preciosa and historical bibliography) and the East Asian library are housed in the CB.

The CB further plays an important role in the appearance of the KU Leuven, by receiving ambassadors, heads of State and other public figures.

In the framework of the heritage policy, the CB is involved in different digitisation projects, in collaboration with the Flanders Heritage Library.

Applications can  be send until 5th of July 2012. More information available on  http://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/vacatures_atp/bibliotheek.html

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Exposition Old prints. Discover books printed before 1840.

In order to create awareness of their Collection Old Prints and their project for preventive conservation, the Provincial Library Limburg organizes 3 expositions titled ‘Printed Past’ in 2011-2012. The first of them is ‘About Old Prints. Discover books printed before 1840.’

People can discover old prints and learn what an old print is and what its principal characteristics.

The educational value was the first criterion concerning the choice of prints. For that reason there is no endless recital of all the characteristics, but only the principle ones are mentioned. Also the exposition is not about show pieces. Common prints are shown, precisely because these are the ones people are most likely to discover cleaning up an old library, attic or cellar.

You can find more information on the website of the Provincial Library Limburg (in Dutch)

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The STCV-project phase in Central Library completed

Recently the STCV project phase in the Central Library was completed. As a partner of the Flanders Heritage Library the University Library of KU Leuven takes part in different projects of the Flanders Heritage Library and thus also in the Short Title Catalogue Flanders.

Staff of the STCV-project travel from one partner to the other within the Flanders Heritage Library, to build out – on the basis of the local collections – an online database with in-depth bibliographic descriptions of the Flemish press to 1801.

After earlier project stages in which the Dutch speaking seventeenth-century prints from the collection of the Central Library and a selection of prints from the Maurits Sabbe Library were processed, now the  seventeenth-century non-Dutch printings were described. In little more than a year 2,241 instances were thoroughly examined. About 4 in 10 editions were previously not yet in the described STCV. 778 new descriptions were added.

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