An invitation to join the Royal Society's 'Libraries of Science' conference online on Friday 14 March.
Our ‘Libraries of science’ conference, celebrating the role of libraries as key locations of scientific knowledge from the seventeenth century to the present day, takes place this Friday, 14 March. While the event is fully booked for in-person attendance, we’re also ‘going live’ on YouTube, and you’re very welcome to join us online.
Our lineup of speakers will include historians of science, librarians, book historians and rare book dealers, all well versed in the world of print. They will be examining the place of libraries in the diffusion of scientific information: from the evolution of institutional scientific repositories to the book collections of individual scientists, and featuring the published holdings of the Royal Society alongside those of other learned societies and private collectors.
The morning sessions focus mainly on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a look at the collecting practices of early Royal Society Fellows such as Robert Hooke and Martin Folkes, and the ‘reading circle’ surrounding Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke. As a former Exeter resident, I’m also keen to learn more about the physician and bibliophile Thomas Glass, who bequeathed his private library of over 350 works of science and medicine to Exeter Cathedral Library in 1786.
Thomas Glass by John Opie, c.1780-1783: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
After lunch, our own Louisiane Ferlier will examine how the Royal Society’s printed book collection was used in the nineteenth century, focusing in particular on the lending books and what they reveal about the Society’s growing professional focus from the 1850s onwards. The collections of provincial natural history societies, Scottish universities and the Zoological Society of London will also come under scrutiny, followed by a further jump forward into the twentieth century and a look at the rise of the scientific information professional.
An 1855 page from lending book MS/401/3
To close the conference, our keynote speaker, Karen Masters, will take us on a walk through The Astronomers' Library, a collection of some of the world's most beautiful, significant and awe-inspiring books about astronomy. There will be intervals scheduled throughout the day for discussions and Q&A sessions, and if you’re watching online you’ll be able to submit your questions which we’ll relay to the speakers (time permitting).
If you did get in early enough to book an in-person ticket for the conference, we look forward to seeing you on Friday. You should have enough time in the coffee and lunch breaks to visit our Newton beer mug display case and ‘Light: a colourful history’ basement exhibition, and to pop into the Library to say hello. If you’re watching online, we hope you enjoy the show; if you’re too busy on Friday, a recording will be available on the conference webpage after the event. You’re still welcome to book a visit to the Library another day, of course – but you only have another month or so to see the beer mug!
