|
| |
| |
| |
Summaries/résumé
J.A. Gruys, Ad Leerintveld. J. Mateboer & Reinder Storm, Het Nederlands cultureel erfgoed en de rol van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
[The Dutch cultural heritage and the role of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library)]
The article, written by authors of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) with an eye to the bicentennial of the KB in 1998, gives an overview of one of the major tasks of the KB as national library: the care of printed and written Dutch heritage. Information is given from three angles, viz. collecting, managing and making accessible by retrieval and research. It concentrates on the twentieth century.
Collection divides the KB into three parts: the general academic collection, the special collections, and the Depository Library of Dutch Publications. The general academic collection focuses on the humanities. The article shows how collection building in these fields has developed in the twentieth century: financial necessity causes the emphasis on growth (till the end of the 1980s), to give way in the 1990s to emphasis on collection building related to the national heritage and Dutch culture. A few special subcollections are shown within this framework, such as Dutch literature, and collections such as decorative art, children's books, cookery books, and books on sports and games. The collecting proces is discussed: selection, donations and loans, bequests and sometimes funds related to them. The role of the Depository Library of Dutch Publications is also given some attention. Special collections acquisition also converges on Dutch heritage. This is shown by presenting a recent example from each special collection (manuscripts, incunabula, early printed books, rare and valuable works from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, bookbindings and paper history). Briefly growth and size of the collections are mentioned.
Management deals with protected storage and restricted physical access. The documents must be stored in climatised storage rooms with constant RH and - in the case of especially valuable or vulnerable material - only given to researchers in exceptional cases, originals being preferably replaced by microfilms or photographs. Restoration policies regarding older materials are changing, and increasingly focus on conservation of their present condition. Paper decay threatening the nineteenth- and twentieth-century collections is another point. Safeguarding contents by microfilming and conservation treatments of the physical objects (de-acidification, acid-free wrapping) are some of the measures taken.
Research and retrieval stresses the need for research to make objects from the collection available. Description and retrieval of the collection of early printed books is pursued in greater depth through a typographical catalogue, which is at the basis of the extensive STCN project that aims at editing the national bibliography till 1800. Some STCN spin-offs are also discussed. The study of incunabula, which has taken place in the KB from the very beginning, is also introduced. The dating of a large number of incunabula can be improved by watermark research. Finally there is
| |
| |
the retrieval of the non-printed, special collections: manuscripts, bookbindings and paper-historical material. The retrieval of the (sub)collections in these KB areas is in many cases the basis of national inventories; the book-historical documentation systems developed by the KB are of major, national importance.
Because the KB uses the most modern information technology, it will be able to help the researchers of tomorrow, by offering them its own optimally catalogued collections, as well as by offering an active intermediary role in finding information elsewhere.
N.C.F. van Sas, Barbarisme of beschaving. Rondom de stichting van een Nationale Bibliotheek in 1798.
[Barbarism or civilization. On the establishment of a National Library in 1798]
One of the main objectives of the present-day Royal Library is to preserve the ‘printed and written national heritage’. In this article the question is asked whether such a notion of heritage was already present at the time of the establishment of the Library - then called the National Library - in 1798. In 1798, as a consequence of the Batavian Revolution of 1795, the Dutch state became a unitary state instead of a conglomerate of seven United Provinces. In the wake of the unitary state a National Art Gallery [Nationale Konst-Gallerij, predecessor of the present Rijksmuseum] and a National Library were created. The seized collections of the former stadholder formed the nucleus of both institutions. In both cases the choice was either to disperse or to preserve the stadholderly collection. This alternative was argued in terms of the well-known late 18th century discourse of barbarism versus civilization. Preservation of the stadholder's collections by ‘nationalizing’ them was advocated as the proper course for a civilized people. Only barbarians would act otherwise. It was the same argument which led abbé Gregoire in France in the midst of the Terror to create the word vandalisme, to denounce the wanton destruction of historical treasures. In the French case this led to an early - and already quite well developed - conception of patrimoine, national heritage. In the Batavian Republic there was no comparable threat to national treasures. Still, the case for ‘nationalizing’ the stadholder's library and his art gallery - with an objective both of conservation and of national education - was based on the same discourse of barbarism versus civilization. Thus, around 1800 a certain sense of heritage with respect to books and works of art can already be detected in the Batavian Republic.
Jos van Heel, Gerard Meerman: bibliofiel, geleerde en mecenas.
[Gerard Meerman: bibliophile, scholar and Maecenas]
The library of Gerard Meerman (1722-1771) and his son Johan (1753-1815) was one of the most important Dutch private book collections of the eighteenth century. This article concentrates on the development of the library during the life of Gerard Meerman, which took place mainly in The Hague and Rotterdam. But also the way in which it has been used in those days will be dealt with. Gerard Meerman was in many ways involved in publications: as author, as editor, as informant or as supplier of sources. In an age in which public scientific libraries where not yet in existence, the ownership of or the access to a large private collection and a network of contacts constituted the necessary prerequisites to carry out scholarly research.
Meerman's activities can be summarised as 1. collecting sources and studies; 2. placing this mate- | |
| |
rial at the disposal of others; 3. acting as intermediary at the provision of information for the benefit of a third party; 4. organising of and participating in the scholarly debate; and 5. seeing to or mediating in the publication of texts by a third party.
The discussion of some of the many examples which can be found in Meerman's extensive correspondence, shows how he manifested himself as a bibliophile, scholar and Maecenas.
P.J. Buijnsters, Mr. C.F van Veen als verzamelaar van kinderboeken.
[Mr C.F. van Veen as a Children's Books Collector]
Mr Coenraad Frederick van Veen (1912 Warder - Alkmaar 1981) was undoubtedly the most prominent Dutch collector of children's books and catchpenny prints of his time. A banker by profession, a man of strongly held opinions and impeccable taste, Van Veen never had scholarly aspirations in the academic sense, preferring instead to remain an amateur in the true sense of the word. During his life he published two important catalogues, Kinderen lazen/kinderen lezen (1958) and Centsprenten/Catchpenny Prints (1976), but they give no more than a faint impression of his unique collection. Even the three auction catalogues of his books and prints (Sotheby's, London and Amsterdam) fail to do it justice.
Otto S. Lankhorst, Op zoek naar Nederlands erfgoed in Oost-Europese bibliotheken.
[A la recherche du patrimoine néerlandais dans des bibliothèques de l'Europe de l'Est]
Nombreux sont les livres et les manuscripts d'origine néerlandaise qui se trouvent dans des bibliothèques de l'Europe de l'Est. Aux 17e et 18e siècle, la République des Provinces-Unies fournissait des livres scientifiques pour toute l'Europe. C'est pourquoi la production des libraires hollandais fut aussi expédiée vers l'Europe de l'Est. Les publications éphémères, sorties des presses hollandaises, (dissertations, journaux, gazettes, catalogues) y sont également arrivées et, en général, mieux conservées que dans nos bibliothèques.
Au 19e siècle, quelques néerlandais ont entrepris des premiers efforts pour inventariser notre patrimoine, notamment en Russie. En raison de la guerre froide, les recherches bibliographiques avaient été rendues difficiles au cours des dernières décennies dans les bibliothèques se trouvant de l'autre côté du rideau de fer. Depuis 1989, la situation s'est améliorée et quelques missions de chercheurs ont démontré la présence du riche patrimoine néerlandais dans des bibliothèques de l'Europe de l'Est. D'autres missions restent à faire.
André Swertz, Overwegingen van een antiquaar.
[The antiquarian as a keeper of cultural heritage materials]
By taking an active stance the antiquarian bookseller is able to provide a better service to his customers. Beside locating, buying and selling rare and precious books, prints and so on, the antiquarian has a responsibility as a keeper of important cultural heritage materials. In that capacity the antiquarian's role may be compared to that of libraries and collectors.
| |
| |
Willem Heijting, Boeken en lectuur in het Behouden Huys. De gedrukte werken in de Barentsz-collectie van het Rijksmuseum.
[Books and reading in the ‘Behouden Huys’. The printed books in the Barentsz collection of the Rijksmuseum]
In May 1596 the Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz sailed for the third time to the polar regions in search of a north-east passage to China and the East Indies. This time his ship rounded the northernmost point of Novaya Zemlya, but subsequently it got stuck in the ice. The seventeen seamen were forced to spend the arctic winter on the barren island in a log cabin which they built themselves. Twelve survived encounters with polar bears, scurvy, and other hardships to return to Amsterdam on November 1, 1597, where they had long been thought dead.
In 1598 one of the survivors, Gerrit de Veer, published his account of the three expeditions, which was immediately translated into several languages. De Veer's story, adorned with engravings, is confirmed by the discovery in the 1870s of the remains of the cabin, in which part of the equipment of the seamen was found. These relics, including twelve books (incomplete and heavily damaged), are now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
As far as possible, the books have been identified. Of at least one book no other copy is known. Apart from a few nautical works, an almanac and a description of China the seamen possessed three historical books and two religious titles, one of which was Roman Catholic. The same goes for a religious song book found in the cabin. Though it is almost sure that none of the men came from a French-speaking region, one of the books, a work by the protestant Jean Taffin, is in French, while there was also a Dutch-French dictionary.
This reading matter is connected with its public, the sailors, who spent their time in isolation ‘with singing, reading, and other diversions’, and of whom eleven were able to read and write. It is assumed that the nautical books were intended for the use of Barentsz, the skipper and the steersman, while perhaps all literate members of the crew made use of the historical and religious books.
Like many other collections of printed books that form part of the cultural heritage of the Netherlands, this small collection deserves to be kept together as a whole in its historical context.
Hans van der Hoeven, Boek en ramp. Schade aan bibliotheken en collecties in Nederland en België in de twintigste eeuw.
[Book disasters. Damage to libraries and collections in the Low Countries in the twentieth century]
Libraries and library collections are threatened in many ways. Whatever private owners may do with their books, publications in public collections are usually acquired with an eye to posterity as well as to their immediate use. Nowadays attention is focused on means to preserve the cultural heritage that library collections represent. Preservation is ensured by means of microfilming, while there is an active search for mass conservation methods. In contrast, loss of libraries and collections owing to intentional destruction or natural disasters is not a popular subject with librarians. Yet such destruction has undeniably wrought havoc in many countries, especially as the result of widespread devastation in the two world wars.
World War I struck Belgium with unexpected force. Not only was its neutrality violated, the
| |
| |
library of one of the oldest universities in Europe was wilfully destroyed by the German invaders. The Catholic University in Louvain saw its collection of 300,000 volumes, including a thousand manuscripts, reduced to ashes. Following an international outcry, an action was initiated to resurrect the library and its collections. This was eminently successful, and in 1928 a new building was inaugurated. A dozen years later, all effort turned out to have been in vain: following the German invasion of 1940, the library and most of its contents were once again destroyed. This time the loss amounted to over 900,000 volumes.
Louvain was undoubtedly an unusually unfortunate case. Nevertheless, other libraries in Belgium and the Netherlands suffered heavy losses as well. These were mostly caused by bomb damage, as was the case in May 1940 at Gent and Ostend. Also in May 1940, the bombing of cities like Rotterdam and Middelburg destroyed several valuable libraries. Later on in the war, fighting and wilful destruction left their traces in many public libraries. The library of the Catholic University in Nijmegen was hit when German troops set fire to it during their retreat to the Rhine. During World War II, the German ‘Einsatzstab Rosenberg’ confiscated many collections on behalf of a planned national socialist university. These included collections on freemasonry, jewry and the socialist movement. Fortunately, most of these were located and brought back after the war.
War damage was the single most important factor in the destruction of library collections in the Low Countries. There have been a few library fires and an attack by political activists on a South African Library in Amsterdam in 1984, but apart from a few spectacular cases damage has been limited.
J. de Vuijst & J.S. Mackenzie Owen, Digitale houdbaarheid.
[Digital archiving]
In the first part of this article the nature of electronic information is explored. Electronic information differs from printed information in a number of aspects: the nature and effects of media, the transient and dynamic nature of information on the Internet, the ease if reproduction, the integration of information and communication, the changing notion of what constitutes a document, and the enormous amount of readily available information on the Internet. The use of digital media and electronic distribution networks creates specific problems for the way information can be stored. It also changes the way people make use of the information stored in the digital environment. Digital archiving will lead to major changes in information processes as we know them today. In the second part of the article the problems of digital archiving are explored in more detail. The main conclusion is that long term archiving of digital information is extremely complicated, and many issues are as yet unresolved. It is most likely that publishers will set up electronic archives on the Internet for current materials. The long term archival function can only be performed by a small number of highly specialised libraries such as national deposit libraries and large, international ‘virtual’ libraries. For most other libraries, therefore, there it will be neither feasible not necessary to maintain large collections of digital materials.
| |
| |
Peter van Huisstede & Hans Brandhorst, Difficilia quae pulchra.
Cultuurhistorische bronnen ontsloten per computer.
[Difficilia quae pulchra. Digitizing Art-historical Sources]
In their article the authors present some issues concerning the electronic publication of arthistorical sources in the context of their own research. The first part of the article presents some brief examples of how the research calls for electronic sources. The selection of the sources and their treatment are determined by the role the sources play in the authors' research. The article argues that the large investment in time and effort needed to prepare such electronic publications imposes two basic requirements to ensure that the publications have a lifespan that exceeds that of the project itself. The first requirement is that the instruments used to prepare the sources for research purposes are standardized and public. The second is that the electronic publication of the sources should be open, flexible, and hardware and software independent. In the present case these two requirements have resulted in the use of ICONCLASS and SGML in plain ASCII files.
Christiaan Schuckman, Het Nederlandse geïllustreerde boek tot 1700. De ontsluiting op illustratoren.
[Dutch book illustrations until 1700. An national repertory of illustrators]
Schuckman underscores the fact that no national repertory of Dutch book illustrations exists to date for the important period until 1700. The sheer quantity of material has led scholars to focus on parts of the entire output, leading to commendable bibliographies of genres, authors, printing centres and the like. The author weighs the merits of a number of National bibliographical reference works when trying to compile an oeuvre catalogue of a designer or engraver who worked in part or entirely for book publishers. He looks at the bibliographical entries themselves and criteria employed in making indices. It appears, for instance, that no index of illustrators is considered for Valkema Blouws ‘Inventory of books printed in the Northern Netherlands 1540-1600’. The STCN (Short-Title Catalogue, Netherlands) provides distinguishing marks under each entry, a number of which refer to the presence of illustrations. It does not, however, furnish an index on the artists involved in book production and can in due time only function as a springboard for further research in this respect. Hollstein's reference work on Dutch and Flemish printmakers during 1450-1700 is incomplete in its listing of book illustrations, although improvements have been made since its inception in 1949. A number of other initiatives are discussed, ranging from specialized bibliographies to on-line systems such as that used at the Amsterdam University Library. The author argues that co-operation between bibliographers and art historians specialized in Dutch printmaking is necessary to avoid the pitfalls that await the scholar pursuing his own separate track. It is suggested that work on a Repertory of Dutch book illustrations could best start after the initial stages of the STCN are completed, i.e. when all relevant Dutch libraries are covered. Such a repertory would contribute to both bibliography and art history, while giving due remembrance to
the artists' efforts that were part and parcel of the blooming Dutch booktrade.
| |
| |
Marco de Niet, Rondom de computer. Van boekgeschiedenis naar informatiegeschiedenis?
[Around the computer. From ‘History of the book’ to ‘History of information sources’?]
Library automation has drastically changed the face of Dutch research libraries. In the past, librarians could use their own collections for research and thus become outstanding historians in the field of books and libraries. Nowadays their focus has shifted to the accessibility and quality of the (online) services they offer. And very recently a major breakthrough occurred: with the growing popularity of the Internet, its protocols for exchanging digital information have, quite unexpectedly, become the standard (de facto) for online systems. Most professional library systems are currently being adapted to the technology of the Internet. This standardisation allows libraries to invest less in development and management of various library systems (catalogues, cd-rom networks, local databases etc.) and pay more attention to their integration and usage. Automation has not only changed the accessibility of library collections, it has transformed the study of books itself. Not only has it provided scholars with various kinds of software to facilitate their research, it has also enabled them to process voluminous resources within a much shorter span of time. The current shift in research from profound bibliographical analysis to quantification could not have happened without the emergence of the personal computer on the consumer market. There appears to be a fear that computers may impair the critical faculties of young researchers: they might think that all information is there at the push of a button. But this fear is not justified. The lack of attention in curricula to the use of information sources (both printed and online) is a greater threat than the information systems themselves. Besides, as the processing of bulky information resources can be done so easily nowadays, a critical attitude is needed more than ever to justify which resources are being used for what research.
In the near future, two developments regarding computers will change the study of books: digitisation and the World Wide Web. Digitisation can contribute to the preservation and availability of, for instance, rare books, while the World Wide Web will enormously stimulate the international exchange of information sources and knowledge.
An interesting angle for those who study the book in its historical context is the current conflict between the book and electronic media. The three focal points in modern research in the Netherlands - production, distribution and consumption - can be applied to electronic media as much as they can be applied to books. How long will it take before the current developments are considered to be an essential part of the study of the exchange of ideas in writing? Obviously, the multidisciplinary approach to study the book and its historical developments cannot ignore modern carriers of information for much longer.
|
|
Auteursrechtelijk beschermd