“History of Architectural Books & Periodicals” based on rare books collection

We learnt a lot about object based learning at the ARCLIB Conference and I also do object based teaching as there is a rare books room in the Architecture library in Cardiff; I manage this collection and co-teach with an academic to first year BSc Archi students. So, I was really interested to hear Tatiana Zhimbiev talk about how they used their rare books collection in Cambridge University.

Tatiana works with Professor James Campbell who leads a new module ‘Architectural Books and Periodicals’; this module considers the development Archi books and periodicals to the present day, the nature of architectural writing and the development of architectural publishing. Tatiana also reminded us of Professor Campbell’s book The Library: A World History, which he’d spoken about at the 2015 ARCLIB conference.

Before they start the evaluation of rare books, third year students are given seminars about handling rare books, the logistics of working in a rare books room and given a bibliography of further reading. They then select a rare book from a list provided by the library; they focus on not only the content of the book but on how the book is made. Students complete a template about the physicality of the rare book and then describe the content, context and about the author of the book.

Tatiana allowed us to view two student presentations one of which was The history of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, from its foundation by William Dugdale(2nd ed of 1716). This monograph became important partly because following the Great Fire of London, it “became the sole record of the old cathedral”; it therefore was re-published in order to be used for fund-raising for the new building. The second presentation was Remarks on the architecture of the middle ages, especially of Italy by Robert Willis (1835).

Feedback from Professor Campbell emphasised the importance of object learning particularly as there is “currently a reluctance to use physical books” and therefore non-online ways of learning will be beneficial to students.

Report by Kate Schwenk – Prifysgol Caerdydd | Cardiff University