Opening of ACD Research Room in Portsmouth

I received the following from the good folks in Portsmouth. I'm very pleased to share this news.

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It's the opening of the Arthur Conan Doyle Research Room, my dear Watson

Whether it's an original Sherlock Holmes manuscript, a poster advertising a Sherlock Holmes play at Richmond Hippodrome in 1912 or even a Sherlock Holmes pipe, sleuths can now explore one of the finest collections relating to Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes in the world.

The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, Richard Lancelyn Green Bequest was donated to Portsmouth by the writer and collector Richard Lancelyn Green's family following his death in 2004.

A leading Sherlock Holmes specialist and Arthur Conan Doyle Scholar, Richard Lancelyn Green's collection spans over 40,000 items, archives and artefacts relating to Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, collected over 40 years.

The Arthur Conan Doyle Research Room will give students and fans easier access to books, pictures, letters and other other treasures.

Located at the central library, the room was officially opened today (21 February) by author Andrew Lycett.

Cllr Lee Hunt, member for culture, leisure and sport said: "The Arthur Conan Doyle research room is a fitting venue to explore one of the finest collections relating to Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes in the world."

"It's a fantastic resource for schools, colleges and local universities covering many different aspects of the curriculum.

We hope the room will contribute to the development of the central library as a Portsmouth literary centre that celebrate the literary wealth of Portsmouth."

For more information contact Fiona-Jane Brown, Conan Doyle projects officer on 023 9283 4727.

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The following events are planned to mark the opening of the new Arthur Conan Doyle Research Room

Monday 21 February
11am - Official opening
2pm – Talk on the birth of Sherlock Holmes by Tony Pointon

Tuesday 22 February
All day – Cryptic crossword workshop with Tim Moorey

Wednesday 23 February
7.30pm – Decoding Sherlock

Thursday 24 February
2pm – Turning the tables by Paul Cissell
7.30pm – Turning the tables: the secrets of Victorian mediumship revealed

Friday 25 February
All day – Code breaking, the war time enigma with Bletchley Park Museum

Saturday 26 February
7.30pm – Sherlock Holmes film night

Saturday: Farewell, Portsmouth; Hello, London

My Saturday in brief outline: check-out at Holiday Inn; 10:20 train from Portsmouth Southsea to Waterloo; Tube from Waterloo to Euston station; walk to Goodenough Club; check-in, catch up, and take it easy. The image to the left is from Waterloo Station.

There's not much to add about my Saturday experience. I arrived at the train station in Portsmouth & Southsea just minutes before the 10:20 train was set to depart for London. It was a faster train then my journey south, with fewer stops, so we made good time. I believe I arrived at Waterloo around noon.

The Tube was busy, but not overcrowded, so it was a fairly painless trip on the Northern Line to Euston station. From there I found my way out of the station, walked east along Euston Road and crossed over near the British Library for the walk south along Judd Street. This was a different route then I'd taken before from the British Library, but it was just right and not as crowded as Gray's Inn Road. At Brunswick Square the road jogged east and south and then to Guilford Street and the walk east to Goodenough College and Club. It was early afternoon and still before check-in time, but it turned out they had a room ready for me. It took a bit of huffing and puffing to make it to the top floor with my luggage, and to work out the maze of corridors and doors, but well worth the struggle. The room is sunny and bright (a welcome change from the basement room I had on my last stay) and overlooks the square.

I settled into the room and spent the rest of the day catching up with e-mail, news and uploading photos to my Facebook page. I had 1,000+ items waiting for me on my Google Reader, but absent a newspaper or much other news from the states for the last week it was a nice way to catch up on happenings back home. (I did get two days of USA Today during my stay in Portsmouth.) All in all a quiet day. I spent the final part of the day mapping out my activities for the remainder of my stay in London. It didn't take much to fall asleep. It was a full week.

Friday and my sixth day in Portsmouth

Its Sunday night and I thought I'd get caught up with everything by now, but I'm still a little behind. So, in the interim, I'm going to give you a really short outline of the last few days and then come back and edit and fill out the days a bit. The image to the left is of the building that houses the Portsmouth City Museum and Records Office.

As for Friday: walk down Kings Road to site of Doyle's surgery; back to Archives to spend last couple hours looking at radio scripts; wonderful lunch with Claire, Neil and Stephen Baily, Head of Cultural Services, Portsmouth City Council at the American Bar; most excellent exhibits and an amazing tapestry at the D-Day Museum; late afternoon walk along the shore; and the special gift of an evening concert by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra: Mussorgsky : A Night on the Bare Mountain, Brahms : Violin Concerto (soloist, Sergey Khachatryan), Strauss : Also Sprach Zarathustra. Conducted by Carlo Rizzi. Thank you, thank you, thank you Claire!

OK, here's the longer version. I'd been in Portsmouth all week and had not yet made it to the site of Doyle's original surgery so I thought that better be the first thing on my agenda. After breakfast at the hotel I gathered up my bag and headed east on Kings Road. I'd seen the location of the surgery on an earlier map, a photograph of Doyle standing outside No. 1 Bush Villas, and a photo of the current building and plaque so I knew that if I stayed on the south side of the road I'd eventually come to the spot. Its a very short walk east of the museum and easy to find. I took a number of pictures of the building and area, including one looking south that seemed to have some buildings that survived the bombing and may have been around when Doyle lived there. It was nice to find the spot and get some sense of the area. Doyle was very methodical in terms of where he located his surgery relative to other doctors. It also turned out to be a high traffic area with a number of accidents that Doyle could attend to. He was a master "networker."

After my visit to the Doyle site I headed back west and then north to the Guildhall. I hadn't made any firm arrangements with Claire as to where to meet for lunch, so decided that the archives was the best spot for her to find me. Besides, I still had about a dozen scripts that I wanted to look at from the collection. I found Michael at the archives and he very kindly pulled the scripts for me. A little bit later another volunteer, Sarah, showed up and I had the chance to meet her. For the next couple of hours I was buried in the scripts. I found a few that were written by Edith Meiser. I don't think this was noted in the CALM database, so I'll send that information to Michael later on when I'm reviewing my notes. Sometime around 11 or 11:30 Claire called the archives; it was the first place she thought I might be. We agreed to meet in the foyer of the Guildhall at 12:15 for the short drive to lunch. I finished looking at the last script a couple of minutes before it was time to leave. I bid Michael farewell and thanked him for all his assistance during the week. It was very good to get to meet him and spend some time with him in the archives. I'm sure we'll be in communication in the weeks and months ahead.

Claire found me in the foyer and we headed off on a short drive to the American Bar. I had walked past this restaurant a number of times on my way to the dockyard and Gunwharf Quays, so it was a familiar sight. We found Neil and Stephen waiting for us and settled down to a good chat and wonderful meal. I'm very thankful to Stephen for his support of my visit. I had the chance to tell him of my experiences and impressions during the week, i.e.

• the collection and exhibit are impressive
• the collection's breadth and depth are quite remarkable, especially in the area of spiritualist and movie/television materials, but in much else besides
• our two collections compliment each other very well
• it is important to keep working on matters of access, especially in providing a single portal for discovery and research
• it would be good to speak to the technical people involved with Spydus to see about the possibilities of crosswalks with CALM and MODES
• the city of Portsmouth has much to be proud of. It is a very interesting combination of old and new. The museums are very interesting and loaded with content.
• I couldn't possibly fit everything into my visit and hope very much to come back (with my wife) to spend more time enjoying the city, its culture and history

That's just a thumbnail expression of my week. It was a very engaging and informative time exploring the collections, getting to know some of the staff connected with the project, and exploring the city and its rich history. There is much to be proud of. I want to reiterate here how very impressed I was with how much work has been accomplished in such a short time and how the extensive use of volunteers has made this possible, guided by the project staff. I came to Portsmouth with a preconception that much of the collection is not yet accessible. This may be true, to some extent, but I was very pleasantly surprised with how much is already processed and accessible. Close to fifty percent of the archive has been entered into CALM, most of the books appear to have been cataloged on Spydus, and museum content entered into MODES. I didn't have the chance to see MODES in operation, or to get a sense of what remains on that front, but it seems that the project staff have a firm grip on the intellectual content of the collection as a whole. One challenging area, for the library, seems to be with the periodicals. I understand the challenge, but hope they'll tackle this chunk of the collection to make it equally accessible. Viewed from the outside, I would give the project an enthusiastic "thumbs up" for all that they've accomplished. Well done! And keep up the good work!

Part of our conversation at lunch also revolved around the academic connection with the collection. Here access is the key. This, and the need for a more controlled study/reading space should be nailed down before the collection can be truly opened for use by students and advanced researchers, especially as it might relate to specific academic disciplines, programs or curricula. My impression is that the project is moving along the right lines; the discussions should continue with the technical people to create a single portal that will withstand a great deal of traffic (i.e. not crash and cause frustration). Once this is accomplished, and a secure and quiet space provided for researchers (as much as I enjoyed chatting with the volunteers) the collection will be poised for its next leap forward. At the same time, the collection will see more electronic traffic, in the form of e-mail requests, especially for electronic scans of the wealth of material from the visual archive. The knotty questions of copyright and permissions will need to be dealt with. My impression was that the staff and volunteers are already working on these matters. It will be good to have policies and procedures in place to deal with these requests. I would be happy to share any expertise that we might have, and to have our digital collections people talk with the Portsmouth team, if that would be helpful.

Finally, there is the question of long-term space. I think it will be very important for the collection to find a single physical home for the entire collection, one that provides climate controls and security. I understand that such a facility is being thought of, and would encourage continued work on this, even in this poor economy. If our own Andersen Library experience is anything to go on, a new building with attractive user space and controlled collection space will garner even greater attention for the Doyle/Green collection and quite possibly pull in other related collections, thus enhancing the cultural depth of the city and its existing collections.

Well, as you can maybe tell from my extended discussion, it was a good lunch. The food and company were both excellent. I invited Neil to our 2010 Holmes conference and promised to be in contact with additional details and information as the planning unfolds. Again, I can't express my thanks enough for the kindness and support Stephen and Claire have shown me during my visit. This will be a week to remember, cherish, and build upon.

After lunch I had another treat in store. Claire brought me to the D-Day museum and arranged for my admission to see the amazing tapestry and exhibits. This was another bit of icing on the cake. The Overload Embroidery is 272 feet in length, the largest work of its kind in the world. It is simply spectacular! My visit began with a fifteen minute film that puts the museum in context. This film was also well done. After viewing the film I began my tour around the room, looking at each of the panels from the tapestry. Once I reached the end of the embroidery I moved to the exhibits. The website maybe says it best: "in the Museum's displays visitors experience the sights and sounds of Britain at War - the air raid warden's living room in the Blitz, the factory resounding to the strains of 'Music while you work', and troops preparing for D-Day in their forest camp. The climax of the displays is a dawn to dusk reconstruction of the Allied landings by sea and air on D-Day itself - World War II's 'longest day'." I would encourage you to check the link given above for more information on the museum and tapestry. It is well worth a visit.

After the D-Day Museum I walked south towards Southsea Castle, built during the reign of Henry VIII and from which he witnessed the sinking of the Mary Rose. I didn't go into the castle, but walked around the perimeter and took some pictures. (Let me also encourage you to explore all the informative web pages created by the Portsmouth City Council for its museums. They are a great resource.) From Southsea Castle I walked back towards the city and my hotel. It was a beautiful afternoon and a wonderful way to get a few more views and breaths of sea air. Back at the hotel I took a little nap before the final candle on the cake, a concert by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Claire arranged for this final gift of my visit. It was a wonderful evening of music. I've noted the program above. Let me just say here that the performance by the young soloist, Sergey Khachatryan, was inspired. There were times I found myself holding my breath and on the edge of my seat. What a treat! And what a way to end my visit to Portsmouth. I found Claire at the end of the concert and thanked her again for a wonderful week. I am looking forward to our continued communication and collaboration. I told her, in parting, that we will welcome a visit from her, whenever that might be possible.

From there it was a quiet walk back to the hotel. The pubs and clubs were alive with music and merrymaking. For me it was a silent word of thanks and then off to bed.

Updating Posts and Thanks Again!

Just a short note to let you know that I'm going back over some previous posts and adding links to other sites. I didn't have the time to do that in Portsmouth, but wanted to update things so that the reader, if interested, could find additional information. (I'm also catching a few misspellings and other goofs; the editor in me is coming out.)

I'm back in London and spending a quiet afternoon catching up on some work. Thanks, again, to Claire, Michael and others in Portsmouth. I felt as if the red carpet was rolled out for my visit. It was a wonderful and productive time. (I'll write more about my last day in Portsmouth a little later on.)

Thursday and my fifth day in Portsmouth

Here's another shot from the historic dockyard and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. I've got a few hours of 'net connection left from my hotel room, so I'll give you a brief update on the day. It was pouring rain when I got up and stayed that way for most of the morning. It was also on the cold side. Time and again there were hints of snow flakes, but for the most part it was rain. This was the first day on my trip that it was bad enough to use my umbrella.

I spent most of the morning at the City Library sitting in on a meeting with Claire, Michael, Katie, and Neil. I met Katie and Neil for the first time today. Katie works at the City Museum and is responsible for exhibits. Neil is the academic advisor for the project and connected with the University of Winchester. The purpose of the meeting was to review items selected by Katie and Michael related to "The Hound of the Baskervilles" for updating one of the cases in the exhibit on display in the museum. They started first with the books and then moved to the archival materials (which included some very interesting stills, cards and posters from various movie adaptations of the Hound). There were also some other items, like pieces from a chess set. As the morning progressed the various items found themselves in either a "yes" pile or a "no" pile. The "yes" pile will be considered further in terms of what will work best in the exhibit case. There will be some additional material sought, e.g. Jeremy Brett and Ian Richardson items, but they seemed to make a good start on selecting items for the case. It was very kind of them to let me sit in on the meeting. Claire has a very busy schedule (which makes me even more appreciative of the time she's given to me) so bowed out of the meeting early on. I'll see her again tomorrow, along with Neil, for lunch. That will be my last full day in Portsmouth.

After the meeting broke up I made my way to one of the online catalogs in the library and played around with some searches for Conan Doyle, etc. I was able to do a keyword search on the collection name as well, so this gave me a pretty good idea of how much material is cataloged and in the system, i.e. somewhat around 6,700 titles. I believe this catalog is accessible from the web, so I'll have a chance to play around with it some more when I get home. But it does all the things you'd want a catalog to do such as narrow or sort search results. Most of the collection appears to be in reference, i.e. it doesn't circulate but is available for use in the library. I think that's a good thing.

After my time with the catalog I left the library and headed back to my hotel. I was going to take advantage of that time (and the poor weather, or "rubbish" as Claire characterized it) and get more work done, taking advantage of my 24 hour internet connection. But my room had not yet been made up and I didn't want to have to hassle with the cleaning staff, so decided instead to head back to the historic dockyard and use up as much of the rest of my ticket as possible.

I went first to see the hall that houses the remains of the Mary Rose. This was a ship in service during the reign of Henry VIII that sank (in his sight) during a battle in the 1500s (sorry I don't have the exact date) off the Solent near Portsmouth. It was raised during the last couple of decades and is undergoing preservation. The remains of the hull are being sprayed with a special wax that will get into the wood and preserve it. So when you go into the hall housing the ship you see the hull awash from sprayers. What is on display is very interesting and gives you a good idea of the structure of a Tudor warship. After the Mary Rose I went across the way to two more galleries that are part of the Royal Naval Museum. One gallery was devoted to Lord Nelson and the other to the sailing Navy. By this time I was just at the right place to catch the next harbour tour in a small launch. We sailed past much of the naval berths and drydocks and got some very nice views of ships, the city and the harbor. It was a bit nippy on board, with a brisk breeze and little sun, so by the end of the tour most of us had huddled in the enclosed part of the craft. Back on land, I walked across the way to the Mary Rose museum to view many of the artifacts that were retrieved during the underwater archeological process and to warm up. Here is another perspective on Tudor England, one that was very much hidden until the ship and some of her contents were re-discovered. After the Mary Rose Museum I criss-crossed over to the HMS Warrior. This is a much larger ship than The Victory, but actually had fewer crew (about 705). It was both sail and steam powered and in service in the mid-nineteenth century. The self-guided tour brings you through all the decks, down finally to the hold, boilers and engine room. I didn't have to stoop as much on board this ship and managed to make it all the way through without banging my head. Back on the upper deck the sun had returned. The late afternoon was bright and a little crisp. My feet were telling me that it was time to head back to the hotel.

So here I am, updating the blog, downloading photos, catching up on e-mail, etc. I've got about three hours of connectivity left before I'm shut down. If I think of anything else between now and then I'll shove in another post. Otherwise, you won't hear from me again until I'm back in London later on Saturday. Cheers!

Wednesday and my fourth day in Portsmouth

Well tonight I'm going to take the plunge and purchase twenty-four hours of internet time. In my free moments I've been trying to keep an eye open for some kind of free internet hot spot, but I've not come across any. I really need to check in and see what's been happening back home, so at this point there's no way around it. But before I log in and start the clock running I'll recap my Wednesday.

I worked in the archives this morning and into the early afternoon. My plan was to look at more items, but late last night I came up with another reason to continue working in the Calm database--it would allow me to search for booklets and pamphlets that may not yet be listed in my Doyle/Holmes bibliography. I was able to check everything from 1994 to 2004, so feel that I came away with a pretty good list of items to check. I think at this point I've got about ten pages of notes plus some printouts, so there's a pretty good record of my research and its results. When I get back home I'll take the time to cross check my bibliography.

Shortly before 1pm I left the archives and took a stroll across the plaza to the public library. It turned out that nothing was scheduled with the library staff on the project so I ventured through three floors of collections and was very impressed on how busy it was (so busy, in fact, that I saw few open public terminals; those that were open were dedicated to the online catalog). I was tempted to spend some time searching, but realized that I'll be back at the library tomorrow for a meeting with the exhibition staff, so I'll try to get some exposure to the Spydus system when there are some staff who might be able to show me some of the fine points. Equally tempting, and one that I sucumbed to, was the sunshine and good weather. So I took the afternoon off (my back was also showing signs of starting to spasm) and walked over to the historic dockyard district. After a walk around (I found out that the large ship I spotted on Sunday was the aircraft carrier Ark Royal) I decided to spend a bit on a ticket that would allow me into the various ships and museums. My timing was good for the 3:10 guided tour of Vice Admiral Nelson's ship, The Victory, that was so key in the Battle of Trafalgar. For its time (I think it went into service about 1760) it was an amazing warship. The cost of the ship in today's money would be about 50 million pounds. I had to watch my head during most of the tour so I wouldn't bump it on the ship's timbers, but beyond the stooping it was a very interesting tour of the ship. We traveled through all the decks, down into the bowels of the ship, and also saw the spot were Nelson fell in battle on the upper deck. There's a lot of information out there on Nelson and the battle, so I won't go into more specifics here, but I'm really glad I took the tour. It opened a new dimension to this point in history. If I heard correctly from the guide (who was very good), the crew was over 800. After the tour of the ship I went across the way to a museum dedicated to more information on The Victory and the Battle of Trafalgar. I stayed until the museum closed at 4:30.

After that I wandered around a little bit more. All the other exhibits in the historic dockyard close about the same time, so I'm going to make at least one (and maybe two) return visits. My ticket is good for a year (with the exception of The Victory and the Mary Rose, the ship from the reign of Henry VIII, and a harbour tour--you're only allowed one visit per ticket for those features), so I'll have plenty to occupy any remaining free time I have in Portsmouth. It looks like I might have tomorrow afternoon free and later on Friday; we'll just have to play it by ear. My feet are still playing havoc with me, so the going is a little slow, but I'm managing.

It was turning much colder as the sun was going down so I headed back to the hotel for the evening. The forecast is for frost in the morning and temperatures near freezing. I'm certainly getting a variety of weather.

Tuesday and my third day in Portsmouth

At the moment windblown rain is pattering against my hotel window and its just about ten at night. But, regardless of the rain, its been an excellent and productive day. I am more and more impressed with the work that has been accomplished by the staff and volunteers at Portsmouth. Let me take you through my day. The picture is of the Guildhall, where the Doyle archives are located.

I was up early for a 9 o'clock appointment with Michael at the archives. My desire for the morning and early afternoon was to explore as much of the collection as possible. Originally I had planned to have Michael pull some of the radio play scripts from the collection, but with full access to the Calm database I decided instead to use this tool to get another sense of the breadth and depth of the archival portion of the collection. According to Michael there are about 20,000 items described and entered in Calm. He estimates that there are about 40,000 items in this portion of the collection, so they're about half way through the descriptive process. One large chunk of material that is not presently in the database are Richard's working papers. So, for this trip I won't be able to get a full sense of what this section might include. But the other categories are well represented so by using the search capabilities of Calm I was able to get a pretty good sense of other portions of the collection. Basically, I searched names of Sherlockians, actors, and organizations and discovered quite a bit. I've taken pages of notes that I'll incorporate into a final report on my visit, but I won't give you all the details here. But let me give you a few highlights. There are hundreds of items related to Jeremy Brett, Sidney Paget, and the Baker Street Irregulars. There's a good representation of materials from the Norwegian Explorers and the Friends of the U of M Libraries. Some of our local Sherlockians appear: Bergem, Southworth, Sveum, McKuras, McDiarmid, and Blegen to name a few. I have to admit that I searched for my name and found listings for a couple of my writings. In addition to the Meiser material I looked at the other day there is also a large group of items related to Vincent Starrett and other members of the BSI. The types of material are varied: letters, advertisements, photographs, pamphlets, brochures, etc. This database, combined with the book and object databases, will be a valuable research tool for identifying materials.

While working through the Calm database I had the opportunity to meet three more volunteers: Karen, Audrey, and the most remarkable Cynthia Sherwood. Cynthia described herself (early on in our little chats) as a "bit of a nut case" and a "chatterbox" but what fun it was to talk with her. She is, by the way, 85 years old, the oldest of the eighteen volunteers. She's lived in Portsmouth all but the first eleven or twelve months of her life. Her father worked for the Navy and her family house was described as "the last house in Portsmouth." Indeed, if you google that title (or click here), you'll find a web site about that house, on the point overlooking the harbor. The house is no longer standing; I walked past the site on my first afternoon in Portsmouth. Cynthia is also the president and long-time member (over fifty years) of the local embroiderers' guild and lived very close to where Doyle's surgery was located. She also volunteers with the records office and is full of stories about life in Portsmouth. In the midst of our conversation I asked her a favor: could I take her photograph. After a moment's hesitation, she agreed. I'll post her photo with my other Portsmouth images. I wanted to capture her for memory's sake; she is one of the gems among the many jewels of the Portsmouth volunteers.

Round about half-past one in the afternoon we wrapped up our chat and I finished my work for the day on the Calm database. Close to two I left with Michael for a brief taxi ride to the Carnegie Library in Fratton Road. I had not realized that Carnegie also provided the funding for library construction in the UK, but such was the case. The building includes some very nice stained glass (I took more pictures) and one of the librarians (Linda, I believe her name is) gave me a tour of the upper floor, including a view of one of the original reading desks. Michael's visit to the Fratton Library was for the purpose of giving a mid-afternoon talk about the Doyle collection and Richard Lancelyn Green. His talk is part of the outreach work to make the collection known to the community. Tea and biscuits were offered and I enjoyed his talk and the follow-up questions by members of the audience. About an hour or so later we were back in a taxi for the ride to the Guildhall, where I left Michael for the day. I'll return tomorrow morning to look at those radio scripts.

The walk back to the hotel was a little on the damp side as the rain was picking up, but I made it back without getting too wet. I had a bit of time to myself before Claire came to pick me up at seven and take me out to dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant near the Spinnaker Tower and enjoyed good food and conversation. I've really enjoyed getting to know Claire and Michael and am convinced that there are all kinds of possibilities for a long-term collaborative relationship with the Green/Doyle collection. I'm really feeling good about how this week has gone so far and that much of what I've accomplished is right in line with what I was thinking about when I submitted my original proposal for the staff development grant. I believe the folks back home will be very pleased with what I'll have to report when I return. The sense of the collection's depth and breadth is important, but what I'm especially valuing is the relational connections that are being made with the staff and volunteers. Tomorrow afternoon I'll have a chance to expand those contacts as I meet people involved with the book portion of the collection. I'm also looking forward to exploring the Spydus system that's being used by the libraries. Claire told me over dinner that the system is fairly new to the staff, having been rolled out in December.

At the moment the weather report is on the tube. Scotland is getting snow; we're getting rain and wind. Tomorrow it looks like it will be colder, with a chance of frost on the ground and temperatures just above freezing. I was surprised to see snow on the ground in Washington as the news reported on the Prime Minister's visit to the new President. Claire told me that the paper reported eight inches had fallen in DC; I'm imagining that such a storm pretty much shut down the city. Time to call it a day. It looks like I may have some internet connectivity tomorrow at the library. I was able to get online for a little bit on the terminal in the archives this morning, but there were no USB ports for copying over my blog entries so I'll see what might be available in the library. Claire told me there are some "hotspots" as well, so I may be able to work directly from my laptop. I hope the e-mail hasn't piled up too badly.

Monday and my second day in Portsmouth

I'm still in search of a free or low-cost internet connection. The hotel offers a high-speed connection at 15 pounds for 24 hours. That works out to about $24-26 (depending on the exchange rate) or about a buck an hour. I may have to break down tomorrow night and get a connection if I can't find one elsewhere, but for now I'm holding out. So let me give you a sense of the day.

There was fresh fruit at breakfast, for which I was thankful. At the same time, I'm becoming a bit fond of baked beans at breakfast (along with my scrambled eggs, toast and sausage) so I went forth fortified for what was ahead. It was a very good day. I arrived at the museum with plenty of time to spare (it was only about a five minute walk from the hotel), so found a bench and enjoyed another sunny morning. At ten I went into the museum to meet Claire, who joined me a few minutes later. After introductions, she brought me into the Holmes exhibit and gave me a brief overview. I was then on my own to explore the exhibit and spent the next half hour viewing the displays. It is very nicely done, with a voice over by the patron of the collection, Stephen Fry (the actor I first discovered in the Jeeves and Wooster series on PBS), and some electronic monitors that allow for additional digital display of newly scanned items. I was surprised at the amount of material related to Doyle's spiritualism; I wasn't aware of this depth in Richard's collection. There was also quite a bit related to various movies and manifestations of the Holmes character as portrayed by various actors. Photography is allowed in the exhibit so I took some shots for the record.

After my tour through the exhibit I found Claire in the museum tea room. She very kindly offered me tea or coffee (I chose coffee) and we sat and talked for the next ninety minutes about any number of topics related to the exhibit, collection, and my own experiences with the Holmes collections in Minnesota. It was a great conversation and opener to the week. Round about noon Claire offered to take me on a bit of a drive through sections of Portsmouth. It was the perfect way to get a larger sense of the city. But the best was yet to come. We drove to a carpark at Gunwharf Quays and walked over to the Spinnaker Tower where Claire invited me to take a lift to the top. We had one comic bit before entering the lift--as you enter you are asked to pose for a staff photographer who snaps your picture and hands you a numbered card for possible purchase of the photo after your visit to the top. Claire's comment was wonderful and somewhere along the lines of thinking of a response to her daughter's question about her day: "Oh, I went to the top of the Spinnaker with a strange man." I loved it. Anyway, we got on the lift and traveled 100 meters above ground to the first of three viewing decks. The bottom two decks are enclosed. The top, "The Crow's Nest," is open to the elements from above. On getting out of the lift on the lowest deck you are offered the opportunity of walking across a glass floor that offers a view straight down. I walked across, gazed down, but didn't think to take a picture. Oh well. Then it was over to the glass windows for some spectacular views of the coast, city and harbor. This really put the whole city in context. I had read earlier, in the packet that Claire provided, that Portsmouth is actually an island, something I hadn't known. The view from the tower made it clear. Even though it was a bit hazy, the views were still fantastic. I could see the submarine museum across the water at Gosport as well as the historic dockyard, including HMS Warrior and HMS Victory. We moved up to the second deck for another view and then finally to "The Crow's Nest" before making our way back down to the second level and lift to the ground.

After the Spinnaker Tower Claire drove me to the Guildhall, site of the Green/Doyle archive. I was a little early for my 1:30 appointment with Michael, so Claire showed me a bit of the archival collection and we had a chance to meet and chat with two of the volunteers, David and Connie. There are about fifteen or sixteen volunteers on the project (actually I found out later there are eighteen) and I was very impressed with the amount of work they and the staff have been able to accomplish in fairly short order. Once Michael arrived Claire was off to other business (thank you for a wonderful morning!) and I had the rest of the afternoon with Michael. He gave me a more extensive overview of the archival collection and described the CALM database that is used for entering collection information.

A little technical note: CALM is based on ISAD-G; when I've got an internet connection I'll do a bit more research about this software. It turns out that three different systems are used to organize the collection: Spydus for the books, CALM for the archives, and MODES for the objects. The three systems can't communicate with each other so they're looking for a single interface that will bring all the databases together in one place for public searching. I also had a chance to show Michael what we have for accessing our collections: MNCAT (Classic and Plus) for books, the DLXS database for finding aids, and Images for scanned material. We're hoping that Primo will be able to tie all three of these together, but in many ways we find ourselves in the same situation as Portsmouth, i.e. needing a single search interface to discover all of our materials. Michael showed me more about CALM and the levels of description offered in the database. Then it was time for tea.

After tea Michael pulled some materials that I had requested related to Edith Meiser (I was curious to see what Richard had in his collection) and then I played around a bit with CALM to search for other materials related to Vincent Starrett and John Bennett Shaw. In the meantime, Michael had printed out a twenty-four page list of materials that matched another search I was interested in, i.e. radio dramatizations (again, related to my interest in Meiser materials). I'm going to study this list tonight and have additional material pulled tomorrow. The Meiser materials that Michael pulled were also calling for my attention, so I spent the last half hour looking at those and making additional notes on searches in CALM. And then it was closing time. (The collections are available from 9am to 5pm.) Michael has some other responsibilities in the morning, but is going to meet me at 9 and get a few things for me. I'll then be on my own for the rest of the morning (and have the chance to meet some other volunteers who will be coming in to work on projects.) David and Connie, the volunteers I met today, are working on organizing the many photocopies of newspaper articles that are in the collection.

I managed to find my way out of Guildhall and walked back to my hotel for a quiet evening. The feet are still aching a bit, but they didn't get as much of a workout today; maybe I'm on the mend. I downloaded the pictures I took today from the Spinnaker Tower and collection and will post them when I get to the internet. Now its time to unwind a bit and see what the BBC has to offer. Tomorrow is supposed to be much colder and wetter. Looks like its going to be that way for most of the week, so today was the perfect day to get up in the tower and get a view of the city. Thanks again, Claire and Michael, for a great start to my visit.

Sunday and the first day in Portsmouth

I'm working off line at the moment because I'm waiting to get some things sorted out on my internet connection. As a result, I'll probably post this tomorrow with a little cut and paste. But while my mind is still fresh let me give you a rundown on my Sunday.

Following breakfast in London House at Goodenough College (where I've had my breakfasts since arriving) I went back to my room, finished packing and checked out about 10. From the club I went back to Russell Square and caught the Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square, where I transferred to the Northern Line and on to Waterloo station. Getting my ticket for Portsmouth was a breeze and after locating the platform for the next train I boarded and found a seat for my ride to the south coast. My train left at noon.

Once out of the southern part of the metropolis the country opened up and I was treated to views of farms and pasture land. I even spotted a deer along the rail right-of-way and some alpaca. There were plenty of sheep and horses as well. I was seated on the right (west) side of the train and spotted some highlands here and there. I'll have to check a map to get a better sense of what I was seeing. One of the stops along the way was Rowlands Castle, a place that was familiar to me from a television program I saw some time ago back home that featured Michael Palin of Monty Python fame. The program was about British railroads (and being a train buff that was enough of an excuse for me to watch) coupled with Palin's search for genealogical information about his family. What I remember about Rowlands Castle was that Palin met some lord of the manor who lived thereabouts and who was himself a train buff, to the extent that he had created a miniature steam railway on his land (and offered rides to interested folks, including Palin). (I may be mis-remembering this and conflating a couple of episodes of "Great Railway Journeys"; I can't find an exact reference on the internet.)

Shortly before 2pm my train arrived spot on time at the Portsmouth and Southsea station. My feet are still pretty sore from all the walking in London so I opted for a short cab ride to the Holiday Inn (my home for the next week). Claire's packet of information was awaiting me at the reception desk which I opened and perused after getting to my room. (I didn't get room "221" but I'm close!) After putting some things away and grabbing a couple of glasses of water (I'm trying to keep myself hydrated with all this walking) I headed out to explore Portsmouth (the pedometer count for the day is 9,763; short of my other day counts, but then you've got to take the train ride into consideration).

The Holiday Inn is a short walk from the water; I headed in that direction. One of the things I was glad to receive in Claire's packet was a map of Portsmouth, so it didn't take me too long to get my bearings. One of the first sights to greet me was the ruins of the Royal Garrison Church. From there I moved to a raised walk along the coast. I noticed a trail, marked by distinctive pavers, and so followed it. This, it turns out, is the Millennium Promenade. And it was a perfect way to move from sight to sight (and site to site) near the harbor. An added bonus was the afternoon sunshine (it was cloudy when I left London), and with a slight breeze it was perfect for walking. The promenade led me to the following: the Square Tower, the Round Tower, Bathing Lane and ultimately to a more modern landmark, the Spinnaker Tower. Along the way I saw a variety of fishing boats, tall ships, pilot boats, tugs, hovercraft, ferries, and other watercraft. Off in the distance, past the Spinnaker Tower, was a modern warship, but I didn't discover its name or type. I'll save that for another day.

After a cheap meal at Subway, at the foot of Spinnaker Tower, I headed back towards the hotel. Along the way I came to Portsmouth Cathedral. So far on this trip I've been incredibly fortunate (blessed, lucky, what have you) when it comes to church experiences. Portsmouth Cathedral proved no different. As I entered I heard organ music. So, after a short walk around the sanctuary, I found a seat and enjoyed about twenty minutes of organ music. The organist (who I didn't have the chance to meet) was practicing (possibly for the evensong scheduled later). I don't know what pieces were played, but it was lovely to just sit on a late Sunday afternoon and enjoy the music in that space. I was tempted to stay for evensong, but decided instead to head back to my room and review some things before tomorrow. I'll check the schedule for the Cathedral and see if there's another evensong on for later in the week. The Cathedral is on the same road as the hotel, so its just a short walk.

When I got back to my room I decided to soak my feet in cold water for about twenty minutes. I don't know if that will help with the pain, but it sure felt good in the short term. My boots are very comfortable and I'm glad I broke them in before I left home. The problem is with those dress shoes; I didn't give them the same treatment. (Note to self: never bring new shoes on a trip where you're expecting to do a lot of walking.) I'm looking forward to tomorrow and the chance to meet the Portsmouth staff. They've been ever so kind in helping to arrange this trip. I hope we can return the favor at some time in the future.

Time to call it a day. By tomorrow I should have the internet connection sorted out and be able to post this to the blog. I'm also looking forward to checking e-mail and Facebook and find out how Beth's visit to Clarisa in Chicago turned out. Stay tuned. These first days were a bit of a vacation (combined with some work). This week its mostly business (with some fun thrown in). It will be good.

Planning for England

Two weeks from today I'll be in London. I'm really looking forward to the trip, funded in part by a staff development grant from the Friends of the Libraries at the University of Minnesota. The trip will have three "legs": the first leg is in London, from my Wednesday arrival until the weekend. During that time I'm planning on meeting with my colleague, Catherine Cooke, of the Marylebone Information Service and viewing their Doyle/Holmes collection. On Sunday I'll take the train down to Portsmouth (the second leg), where I'll be for the following week, looking at the Richard Lancelyn Green Collection and getting to know the staff who have worked so hard in making Richard's collection accessible. The following weekend its back to London and a few more days of research and visits before heading home on March 12.

I'll be posting to this blog during the trip--I hope every day--and probably putting stuff up on my new Facebook site as well. So, if you're interested, you should be able to track my progress day-to-day.