As the Institute’s fiscal year end approaches, it’s interesting to reflect back on some 120 circulating books that I enjoyed ordering for the MI collection this past year that were funded through income generated from the David Jamison McDaniel Endowed Book Fund. The latter specifies that fiction and non-fiction purchases be written by noted British authors in the humanities, or focus on the British Isles.
Search the Library catalog by subject and just key in David Jamison to display over 600 titles that have been acquired over time through this fund. Sample topics might include a reader’s companion to Agatha Christie’s works, performing arts biographies of Alec Guinness, Judi Dench, Benjamin Britten and Sean Connery, Kate Atkinson's A God in Ruins plus books about British writers including Ben Johnson, Charles Dickens and Frederick Forsyth.
Thanks to Syndetic Solutions, the Library catalog comes to life as the eye-catching dust jacket image of each title in the list displays next to the book description. As a result, reviewing the list of titles is not tedium but rather a case of wondering what book of interest with an English theme you'll discover next.
Virtually all book selections are recently published titles. Sometimes, a replacement copy of a book, such as The complete poetry and prose of William Blake , is acquired to replace the Library's shelf worn copy.
Books about English history and the English language are among my favorites to order and include:
- The rise of Thomas Cromwell : power and politics in the reign of Henry VIII
- Bosworth 1485 : the battle that transformed England
- When Britain saved the West: the story of 1940
- Horologicon: a day’s jaunt through the lost words of the English language
Most books purchased through the McDaniel Fund are shelved in proximity to one another, even though the diverse topics translate to variant Dewey Decimal class numbers on the book spines. Well over 80% of the titles acquired are shelved on Balcony 2A. On this level, look for English literature (820s) , biographies (92s) and English history (941 or 942). These books are shelved a short distance from the 2nd floor Circulation Desk. Walk up one flight of stairs from the 2nd floor to Level 2A, turn to the right, and books on English history will be facing you head on. Whenever I pass this area of the collection, it’s hard not to stop, take a gander at some title of interest, and check it out.
I am pleased that these books are popular with members and are borrowed extensively. They don’t gather dust resting on the shelves. Books with an English theme sometimes populate the stacks so densely that finding space to reshelve them can be a challenge. On the upside, though, is the extensive number of titles to select from …. so many books, but so little time to read them all.
Our Anglophile member readers should be pleased to learn that we will see an increase in the spending allotment for book purchases under the umbrella of “all things English” during the Institute’s next fiscal year which commences September 1.
