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T
T did not escape Mediawatching’s attention that Charles Darwin’s notebooks, missing from the
Cambridge University Library’s collection for some 20 year, were returned in April. Packaged in a pink bag, with a message reading “Librarian Happy Easter X” on the envelope, the unique notebooks were returned following a global appeal. The notebooks, which include Darwin’s famous Tree of Life diagram, were discovered outside the librarian’s office on the fourth floor of the library. Not to be outdone, a library in Rome has recently been reunited with its own lost manuscript – this one a series of prophecies from Nostradamus. The Guardian (
https://bit.ly/38eMUfG) reports “The manuscript, entitled Nostradamus M Prophecies and dating back about 500 years, was rediscovered last year when it was put up for sale by a German auction house.
“It is unclear exactly when the 500- page manuscript was stolen from the historical studies centre of the Barnabite fathers of Rome, but it is believed to have been in about 2007.” The manuscript was set to be sold in Germany after passing “through flea markets in Paris and the German city of Karlsruhe”, before ending up with an art dealer who put the manuscript up for auction. Police are continuing to investigate, but there is no word yet as to whether Nostradamus predicted the theft and subsequent return. Sticking with the theme of crime, we move to the Los Angeles Times (https://
tinyurl.com/ycywvhej) letter page, and a call for library closure in the city of McFarland to be reconsidered. City chiefs have proposed closing the only library in the city and handing over the building to the local police force. Letter-writer Karen Neville, of La Puente, says: “Amid increasing crime and gang violence, City Manager and Police Chief Kenny Williams sees the need for a larger police force to mitigate the problems. But abundant research correlates high crime rates with low literacy rates and rampant unemployment.
“Removing a library takes away learning opportunities. In McFarland, the library is a popular gathering place for people of all age groups, but young people especially. Adults use libraries to locate community resources and conduct job searches.
June 2022
Nostradamus saw it coming.
“Providing a space for people to gain knowledge makes a community healthier. If you want to increase high school graduation rates, improve the lives of residents and build stronger communities, leave the library doors open.”
Adrian Smith has been in touch with some news about a city that clearly values its libraries and librarians more than McFarland City’s chiefs do. REFORMA, a US-based organisation that promotes library and information services to Latinos and Spanish speakers, has been campaigning to have a prominent figure in the movement recognised (
https://tinyurl.com/muvh93f5). And, thanks to work with local community groups in East Harlem, New York, there is now a street named after Pura Belpré – New York Public Library’s first Puerto Rican librarian. A naming ceremony took place to mark the 100th anniversary of the library hiring Pura, and REFORMA says the location is a fitting tribute as “The Pura Belpré Way is located on a street that she walked countless times to work, to do storytelling in Spanish and to put books en español on the shelves.”
Finally, the BBC (
www.bbc.co.uk/ news/uk-england-leeds-61322158) is one among many news outlets to carry another report about missing books returning to collections. However, in this case the book in question – a bible from 1911 – never actually left the building. The newspaper reports that Leeds Central Library rediscovered the bible during lockdown, when staff were able to work through their catalogue. Among 3,000 “new” finds was the bible, which would be unremarkable except for its size – no bigger than a 50 pence piece.
At the time it was printed, the tiny bible was claimed to be the smallest in the world, and text on the pages is so small it has to be read with a magnifying glass. Staff at the library say they don’t know how or when the bible was acquired, with Special Collections Librarian at Leeds Libraries Rhian Isaac describing it as “a bit of a mystery, really”. She added: “A lot of items in our collection were either bought over time or they might have been donated.” IP
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