Sangster, Matthew, Karen Baston and Brian Aitken. Eighteenth-Century Borrowing from the University of Glasgow. University of Glasgow, 2020, https://18c-borrowing.glasgow.ac.uk

pid

mimichen

label

Sangster, Matthew, Karen Baston and Brian Aitken. Eighteenth-Century Borrowing from the University of Glasgow. University of Glasgow, 2020, https://18c-borrowing.glasgow.ac.uk

Timestamp

10/6/2021 1:05:28

URL for full object

https://18c-borrowing.glasgow.ac.uk/

Citation for full object

Sangster, Matthew, Karen Baston and Brian Aitken. Eighteenth-Century Borrowing from the University of Glasgow. University of Glasgow, 2020, https://18c-borrowing.glasgow.ac.uk

Filename in shared drive folder

MimiChen

General description of the complete original artifact

The following archive is the library borrowing records at the University of Glasgow, dated from March 1757 to January 1771. Located in Glasgow, Scotland, this historical university places a heavy emphasis on the Humanities. The records are similar to the check-out cards commonly used in the 20th century. Modern-day library logs are connected to a user's digital profile, which can be access with their login.

Estimated number of records in data set

8189

Estimated number of fields if this were a database

9

Estimated time to digitize all records in set (hours)

Unknown

Time period when data was created

March 1757 to January 1771

Organization creating data

The University of Glasgow created the original data. This data was digitized by The Enlightenment Readers in the Scottish Universities project.

Individual who created data (if known or guessable).

Unidentified librarians affiliated with the University of Glasgow.

Shortcomings of this taxonomy for data set (if any)

The borrowing records are organized by columns titled: The Borrower’s Name, His Class, Press (which indicates the bookcase in which the book can be found), Shelf, No., Name of the Book, Professor, Lent, Returned. However, there is no indicator of how many copies of the same book are left. In some instances, a book was checked out again on the same day it was returned, this could also mean there is only one copy of each book in the library. In addition, it is difficult to decipher how the books are organized. By examining the Press, Shelf, and Number, I did not see a correlation between the name of the authors or titles. I wish the data set gave more clues as to the methodology the library utilized to organize their books.

Notes about the image you chose

At first glance, the handwriting appears to be uniform. This indicates that the log is most likely internal and accessed by only the librarian, rather than the student population. The log was probably kept at the librarian's desk, easily accessed when students came to check out a book. The classes that students checked books out for were all related to the Humanities (i.e. Logic, Moral Philosophy, Theology). This could indicate that students at The University of Glasgow only studied humanities and social sciences in the 18th century, or that this particular library was dedicated to the field. The most interesting discovery came to me while examining the names of the professors. One particular name caught my eye: Mr.Smith. Upon further research, it's certain that this professor is no other than Adam Smith himself. Smith enrolled at University of Glasgow in 1737 and later returned to the school as a Professor of Logic, then eventually Chair and Professor of Moral Philosophy. When examining the dates of lent and returns, we see that the dates are generally within two weeks of each other, indicating that there may be a limit to how long the books can be checked out. The exception to this is the first few entries of the log, where the dates are more than a month apart. In addition, there is a month-long gap between two lines of entry. This may indicate a school break or University holiday where the library was closed. The first two entries in the log are not in chronological order in comparison to the rest of the log. The second lent date says April 19th, followed by March 1st. But after examining the rest of the register this seems to be the only one. Perhaps a simple logging mistake that was later discovered and corrected? The last, minute detail I noticed is the asterisk at the end of every page. I wonder why that was included.