Our new Archive space in the University of Stirling Library

The newly renovated library building is getting all the finishing touches put in now - ready for the big opening on Monday 30 August.  The new archive space is looking, and smelling great!  Yes, I did say smelling - I had forgotten how much I love the small of an archive store!  Hmmn, just brought to my mind Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore's "I love the small of napalm in the morning" when I wrote that line down - I guess to some I might sound a bit mad with my love of the small of an archive store, but hopefully not in the same league as Kilgore!  The new search room is lovely and bright and spacious as you can see from the photos.  I think the archival material we've chosen for the display cases (each shelf having its own theme) work really well and hopefully the staff and students will agree when we open on Monday.

Image from the archive

Well I forgot my camera again today so no images of the lovely new archive.  So, as a quick post I thought I'd share this striking image from a 1984 aerogramme sent to Lindsay Anderson.  It is promoting the 1984 US Olympics (as you can see!) and there are quite a few of these in the collection, sent by different people.  I really like all the bright colours and the design and I think it would be so nice to receive a letter dressed up like that.  I was talking to someone last night about the lost art of letter writing - well actually not quite so lost, I don't think, as I know that me and my friends often write letters to each other, send cards, postcards and Cd's etc.  There is really something so wonderful about receiving a letter that is quite different than online communication. I know people still use the post for communicating but only as one of many forms of communication and this is what is so exciting nowadays- the myriad of ways in which people can speak to each other. 

Now I'm off back to the archives store to carry on with organising all the boxes in the Lindsay Anderson Archive - it's very satisfying to see it all in its new home! 

Reaching the end of the project

A week today will be my final day working at Stirling University on the Lindsay Anderson Archive and the 'Cinema Authorship of Lindsay Anderson' AHRC project.  I'm excited about the new challenges the future will bring- including the immediate challenge of finding a new job!  However after three years working with the archive I'll be incredibly sad to leave Lindsay (as I now think of him) behind.  I feel like I've really come to know him over the past 3 years - though I know that this is in no way comparable to those who actually knew him during his lifetime.  I also feel rather possessive of the archive - is this a common feeling amongst archivists when you work so long with one collection? I imagine so - but I know that it is in good hands at Stirling University, particularly now it will be housed in the lovely new Archive store (more pictures of the new archive to follow tomorrow as I forgot my camera today).  London is calling though and I am super excited about the move to London with my husband to start a new stage in our life in a city which we both already love.  For today though I better stop gabbing and get back to David Vaughan (yes, I'm on 'V' of the named correspondence files - not long to go now!).  I did try and scan a rather lovely piece of sheet music which David Vaughan sent to Lindsay Anderson for the 1929 film 'The Broadway Melody' but my highly temperamental scanner seems to have finally given up the ghost. 

So instead here is a photo of my co-workers from the Lindsay Anderson project on a team away day we recently enjoyed.  The photo is taken near the Standing Stones on Machrie Moor on the Isle of Arran.  We had a lovely day, we walked for three hours in total, saw lots of beautiful countryside, enjoyed each others company - and a well deserved pint at the end of the walk! 

Exhibition from the Lindsay Anderson Archive will open newly refurbished Stirling University Library and Archive

It's all go here with the last few weeks before the newly refurbished library and archive opens at Stirling University.  On entering the new library one of the first things that people will see will be all the wonderful photographs from the Lindsay Anderson Archive Exhibition.  We had a run through last week of marking out where everything would be hung and you can see our work in the images below.  This week is the setting up of the exhibition so it will all be ready for the opening of the new Library and Archive on 30 August - which is spookily enough, also the anniversary of Lindsay Anderson's death. I'll post some more photos on Monday of the exhibition all up on the walls.  It was a really good idea to lay it all out like this though as it gave us an idea of the amount of space we had, the spacing to leave between photographs and the overall impact of the images - pretty striking I think (obviously looking a whole lot better on the walls than they do laid out on the carpet!). 

Archives Hub feature on the Lindsay Anderson Archive

The 'This month we celebrate' feature on the Archives Hub website is a good way of finding out about collections held in other further education institutions in Britain and I've enjoyed reading about the different collections highlighted through this section.  I am very pleased to say that this month I wrote a piece about the Lindsay Anderson Archive which has been used for the 'This month we celebrate' feature for August  - so... 'This month we celebrate Lindsay Anderson'.