Job - Librarian, Linnean Society

LIBRARIAN (Full-time, permanent post)

Salary: £27,000 - £30,000 p.a. with a generous workplace pension scheme

Job description

The Linnean Society of London is the world's oldest extant biological society and has in its care several internationally important collections, including those of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. Arts Council England has awarded Designation status to the entirety of the Linnean Society's library, archives and biological specimen collections. The Society is seeking to appoint an experienced Librarian who will ensure the smooth running of all aspects of the Library and support the Head of Collections in her/his role as Custodian of all the Society's collections. The post-holder will have a wide range of responsibilities, supporting the research requirements of Library users, cataloguing and classifying Library material and creating displays in the Reading Room. The post holder will also be responsible for the operation and development of the library management system (Heritage Cirqa), will act as Administrator for the Linnaeus Link Project and the Society's "adoption" scheme, AdoptLINN, and will support the Society's charitable public engagement and educational activities. Candidates should have a degree or postgraduate qualification in librarianship, information studies or information management and at least 3 years' post-qualification experience in a comparable environment. This post will require exceptional IT skills and commitment to the highest standards of service to our users.

Contact

Further information is available on the Linnean Society website: https://www.linnean.org/the-society/vacancies-and-volunteering Application is by CV and supporting letter, including details of two referees. Closing date: Midnight on Sunday 1st July 2018. Interviews are scheduled for Monday 9th July 2018 at the Society's Rooms in Burlington House, Piccadilly, London.

CFP: Special issue of 'Victorian Poetry': 'New Work on Edward Lear'

The guest editors, Jasmine Jagger and Benjamin Westwood, are seeking submissions for a special issue of 'Victorian Poetry' devoted to new work on Edward Lear, which will appear in summer 2020. Lear studies is in the middle of a lively and substantive revival, following a steady sequence of publications on diverse aspects of his work – even in the last two years. The first collection of essays dedicated to Lear’s poetry ('Edward Lear and the Play of Poetry', co-edited by James Williams and Matthew Bevis) appeared with OUP in 2016. A major study of his natural history (Robert McCracken Peck, 'The Natural History of Edward Lear') was published in the same year. And, in 2017, Jenny Uglow’s major new biography appeared with Faber ('Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense'). There is, at the moment, considerable and renewed critical interest in Lear as a poet and artist in his own right. This is also evident in a number of recent articles and doctoral dissertations, as well as forthcoming monographs and essay collections. The editors are particularly keen to solicit submissions regarding: Lear and affect Lear’s poetics Lear’s visual art Lear’s travel writing Lear and other writers Essays should be 5,000 words in length, and should follow the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. Please send abstracts only, of around 250 words, by 16 September 2018. The final deadline for essays will be September 2019. All submissions and enquiries should be directed to benjamin.westwood@ell.ox.ac.uk and jasmine.jagger@ell.ox.ac.uk.

Public lecture: 'Paying the Tolls: Glass in Time and the Regulation of the Free Trade State', Jenny Bulstrode (University of Cambridge)

The Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, London: 1-2pm, Tuesday 21 August (doors open at 12.30).

Lectures are free and open to the public, but space is limited and booking is recommended.

For further details and to book please follow this link.

In the stores of the British Museum are three exquisite springs, made in the late 1820s and 1830s, to regulate the most precise timepieces in the world. Barely the thickness of a hair, they are exquisite because they are made entirely of glass. Combining new archival evidence, funded by the Antiquarian Horological Society, with the first technical analysis of the springs, undertaken in collaboration with the British Museum, the research presented here uncovers the extraordinary significance of these springs to the global extension of nineteenth century capitalism through the repeal of the Corn Laws. In the 1830s and 1840s the Astronomer Royal George Biddell Airy; the Hydrographer to the Admiralty, Francis Beaufort; and the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, collaborated with the virtuoso chronometer-maker, Edward John Dent, to mobilize the specificity of particular forms of glass, the salience of the Glass Tax, and the significance of state standards, as means to reform. These protagonists looked to glass and its properties to transform the fiscal military state into an exquisitely regulated machine with the appearance of automation and the gloss of the free-trade liberal ideal. Surprising, but significant connections, linking Newcastle mobs to tales of Cinderella and the use of small change, demonstrate why historians must attend to materials and how such attention exposes claims to knowledge, the interests behind such claims, and the impact they have had upon the design and architecture of the modern world. Through the pivotal role of glass, this paper reveals the entangled emergence of state and market capitalism, how an exquisite glass spring set the time for Dent’s most famous work, the Westminster clock, Big Ben; and how the British factory system was transformed in vitreous proportions.

4th June - Elementary Poetry Workshop...and end of year party!

All are welcome to join us to celebrate the end of our elements series with a found poetry workshop using all of the texts we have read and discussed over the previous two academic years. See here for an online introduction to found poetry, and examples.

We meet on Monday 4th June in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Darwin College, from 7.30–9pm.

See you then!

Coffee with Scientists - Scientific Publishing

The HPS Coffee with Scientists group will be discussing Scientific Publishing this Friday, 25th May, at 3.30pm in the Department. Nick Hopwood, Stephen Eglen, Patricia Fara, and Richard Smith will lead discussions. Further information here.

New course - Postgraduate Certificate in Practical Science Communication

The Postgraduate Certificate in Practical Science Communication course will start this autumn. The course is based in the university's Institute for Continuing Education at Madingley Hall, Cambridge.

The courses is organised so that students can study without having to give up their present commitments. Applications are encouraged from prospective students who have some work experience and are looking for professional development, a new outlook, and enhanced practical and academic skills, including:

- scientists, looking to improve their skills and learn about the contexts for science communication

- sci comm professionals, who want a chance to reflect and broaden their experience

- anyone who wants to challenge themselves by thinking about and communicating science in new ways.

The PG Cert runs over one year with 13 days of face-to-face teaching (in Cambridge), with further support online. As well as being a recognised qualification in its own right, the PG Cert can also count as the first step towards a Masters degree. Here's the link for further information. Please get in touch with Jane Gregory directly if you are interested, or follow the instructions in the link.

Talk - The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh

Kathryn Aalto

Tuesday 01 May 2018, 17:00 - 18:30

Mary Allan Building room 104, Homerton College, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8PQ

A. A. Milne's classic tales Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner have delighted readers for nearly a century. The stories' characters — Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and the rest of the gang — are famous, but how much do we know about the setting, the Hundred Acre Wood? Join Kathryn Aalto, author of the New York Times best-seller, The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh, for a look at what we can learn from studying the intersection of nature and culture in Winnie-the-Pooh. Kathryn has taken thousands of people on nostalgic and vivid journeys into one of the most iconic settings in children's literature. Learn about Milne's extraordinary childhood in the natural world, conflicts he experienced as a father and author, and how his creative partnership with illustrator E. H. Shepard continues to enchant countless readers. Discover places that inspired the stories along with the forest's rare flora and fauna. Part travelogue and natural history, this talk weaves history with humor and birdsong with booklore as we learn how these masterpieces of children's literature were created. Leave with a new understanding of how the Winnie-the-Pooh books are field guides for 21st-century Christopher Robins — hymns to those days of doing Nothing yet learning Everything.

Children's Literature Research Centre

14th May - Communication

 

Please join us in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room for the first meeting of term, when we will be discussing the following texts:

• Rudyard Kipling, ‘Wireless’ (1902)
• Philip R. Coursey, ‘Interplanetary Wireless?’, Wireless World (1920) 
• Eric Roach, ‘Beyond’ (1950)

2018 History of Physics Essay Contest

The Forum for History of Physics (FHP) of the American Physical Society is proud to announce the 2018 History of Physics Essay Contest.

The contest is designed to promote interest in the history of physics among those not, or not yet, professionally engaged in the subject. Entries can address the work of individual physicists, teams of physicists, physics discoveries, or other appropriate topics. Entries can range from about 1500-2000 words, and while scholarly should be accessible to a general scientific audience.

The contest is intended for undergraduate and graduate students, but open to anyone without a PhD in either physics or history. Entries with multiple authors will not be accepted. Entries will be judged on originality, clarity, and potential to contribute to the field. Previously published work, or excerpts thereof, will not be accepted. The winning essay will be published as a Back Page in APS News, and its author will receive a cash award of $1000, plus support for travel to an APS annual meeting to deliver a talk based on the essay. The judges may also designate one or more runners-up, with a cash award of $500 each.

Entries will be judged by members of the FHP Executive Committee and are due by September 1, 2018. They should be submitted to fhp@aps.org, with "Essay Contest" in the subject line. Entrants should supply their names, institutional affiliations (if any), mail and email addresses, and phone numbers. Winners will be announced by December 1, 2018.

For more information and past winners, see: https://www.aps.org/units/fhp/newsletters/spring2018/essay-contest.cfm