The University of St Andrews, currently celebrating its 600th anniversary, is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the United Kingdom, right behind Oxford and Cambridge. The city of St Andrews has been dubbed "The Home of Golf," with evidence suggesting that the game has been played here since around 1400 AD. St Andrews' Old Course, one of the oldest golf courses in the world, is just a few steps away from the West Sands Beach, where the opening scene from the movie Chariots of Fire was filmed. Across the town from the Old Course and just... Continue reading

Wednesday, March 21, from 7 to 11 p.m., we're once again opening up the Von der Ahe Suite on the 3rd floor for LMU folks (and their guests) to drop in, grab a snack, play a round of Apples to Apples or maybe belt out a few tunes on Beatles Rock Band, and have a little fun. To give you some idea of what's on offer, we'll have Scrabble, Yahtzee, Sorry!, and other board games, not to mention Wii games like Lego Star Wars, MarioKart, and Rock Band 2 playing on the library's 103" flat screen display. All are welcome-... Continue reading

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012, marks the 200th birthday of one the English Language's best loved authors, Charles Dickens. During a career which spanned nearly thirty-five years, Mr. Dickens wrote fourteen novels and dozens of short stories, essays, and plays. As a young boy, he worked long hours at a blacking warehouse in order to free his father from debtor's prison, but rose to become the one of the first authors to earn a living by his writing. He drew on his childhood experience to create characters and stories that appealed to audiences of all social classes and published many of... Continue reading

Image: Detail from “The Virgin and the Child and Young St. John the Baptist” by Hendrik de Clerck (early 17th century). Gift of Carmen Warschaw, 2009 Now Open: “Sustaining Splendor: Art and Artifacts in the Library’s Special Collections” Here in the library's Department of Archives & Special Collections, we continue to celebrate LMU's centennial by launching a series of exhibits that pays tribute to the donors who gave us the greatest treasures in our library. If you have ever wondered what may be the “best of the best” among our collections, this is the year to come visit us often!... Continue reading

If you didn't make it for the fun back in September, never fear! Next Wednesday, October 12th, Game Night returns to the William H. Hannon Library! Open to LMU students, faculty, staff, and their guests, Game Nights are a chance to unwind, play games, and meet new people. We'll provide a Wii and an assortment of games (both electronic and board games), snacks, and drinks. Games on offer from the library include: Mario Kart Rock Band 2 Beatles Rock Band Wii Play & Wii Sports Lego Star Wars Scrabble Apples to Apples Once Upon a Time Guillotine and more! Bring... Continue reading

For those of you just tuning in, LMU student Michael Madrinkian is writing to us from London, England where he is conducting research for his senior thesis on a manuscript from LMU's Archives & Special Collections called The Riche Cheyne. We're absolutely thrilled that Michael is taking on this project, and are looking forward to adding his findings to our records, so that future researchers can benefit from his hard work. You can read Michael's first post here, and his second here. I am now well into my journey abroad, and there is no end to the amazing discoveries that... Continue reading

For those of you just tuning in, LMU student Michael Madrinkian is writing to us from London, England where he is conducting research for his senior thesis on a manuscript from LMU's Archives & Special Collections called The Riche Cheyne. We're absolutely thrilled that Michael is taking on this project, and are looking forward to adding his findings to our records, so that future researchers can benefit from his hard work. You can read Michael's first post here. It has only been a few days since I last posted, but they have been extremely eventful! Going into the trip I... Continue reading

The library is very happy to have a guest blogger this week, LMU senior Michael Madrinkian, who is writing to us from London: Hello from England, LMU! It’s my third day since coming here to research for my senior thesis. I began work on the project at the beginning of the summer, and have finally made it here. My research involves an anonymous, 16th century manuscript, held by our own Hannon Library’s special collections. The manuscript, entitled The Riche Cheyne, contains all of the Biblical books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The order of the verses, however, has been cleverly rearranged... Continue reading

As I'm composing this final post about my time in Beijing, I'm sitting on an airplane waiting to get back to Los Angeles. Although I'm looking forward to coming back home to my family and friends, this trip has been a memorable one, and an incredible learning experience. My last few days at The Beijing Center's library were spent talking about exhibits, and how to construct simple book supports from acid-free board, so that books can be displayed without straining or breaking their bindings. Opening a book out completely flat can damage its spine (which is why the photocopiers in... Continue reading

It's been a busy few days here in Beijing. After spending my first day looking at the collection as a whole, I started teaching the library staff here to make custom, made-to-measure, acid-free boxes for the fragile or damaged books in their collection. When it comes to rare books, it's almost always better to focus on preventing further damage than to send a book in for repair. Even the plainest bindings can hold physical evidence of where that book has been, who was using it, and how. One of the best ways to prevent damage to a book, apart from... Continue reading

Between now and June 18th, your humble Special Collections Librarian, Christine Megowan, will be blogging from the library at The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies, where I'm spending two weeks working with the library staff to help preserve their rare book collections. I'm incredibly honored to be asked to visit TBC, and hope you'll enjoy reading about my experiences there. The Beijing Center was founded in 1998 to help visitors from the United States and around the globe to learn about and experience Chinese culture, and hosts a variety of study abroad programs in Chinese studies. I arrived in Beijing... Continue reading

The Department of Archives & Special collections invites you to visit our gallery on the third floor of Hannon Library to view the exhibit, "From the Page to the Projector." Now entering its final weeks, this exhibit draws from several of the library's special collections to illustrate how books get adapted for the big screen. Come see early screenplays, music scores, story boards, design sketches, and press kits for movies like Planet of the Apes (1968), Gone with the Wind (1939), Doctor Doolittle (1967), and Ben-Hur (1925 and 1959), alongside the books that they were based on. Come soon though,... Continue reading

"Surely to allow a thousand people 'to have and to hold' an original manuscript leaf, and to get a thrill and understanding that comes only from actual and frequent contact with these art heritages, is justification enough for the scattering of fragments." --Otto Ege The Graduate Program in English, the Marymount Institute, and the William H. Hannon Library are very pleased to present a lecture by Anthony Edwards, Professor of Textual Studies at De Montfort University. The subject of Professor Edwards' lecture is Book-Breaking: Otto Ege and the Modern Destruction of Medieval Manuscripts. In the 1940s, manuscript collector and art... Continue reading

The William H. Hannon Library is thrilled to announce the latest major addition to the rare book collection of the Department of Archives and Special Collections: a rare, full-size reproduction of the Saint John’s Bible. The Saint John’s Bible is the first handwritten, illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine Monastery since the advent of the printing press more than 500 years ago. Monks from Saint John’s Abbey and University began the project in 1998, and it is still in progress today with four of the projected seven volumes having been completed. Under the artistic direction of Donald Jackson, one of... Continue reading

The Department of Archives & Special Collections is very pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibit, "Celebrating the Liturgy." Located in the Archives & Special Collections gallery on the third floor of the library, this exhibit offers a glimpse at the rich and colorful traditions of the Roman Catholic Mass, from its origins in the Holy Land to its practice today in Los Angeles. Created in partnership with the Center for Religion & Spirituality's June 13-16 program reflecting on the new English translation of the Roman Missal, the exhibit incorporates books, textiles, and artworks from the library's own... Continue reading

By popular demand, the William H. Hannon Library will be hosting a pre-finals stress reliever with the last Game Night at the Library of the semester. This event is completely FREE and open to everyone! We'll provide an assortment of board games, a Wii, an Xbox, and a selection of games for each console-- or, you can bring your own. If you've heard about the library's 103" flat screen TV on the 3rd floor, this is your chance to take advantage of it. And, in case that wasn't enough for you, there will also be snacks and drinks. If you're... Continue reading

LMU’s Department of Archives and Special Collections would like to invite you to view our latest gallery exhibit, a colorful retrospective of essential book illustrative techniques from hand drawing to woodcuts, from metal and wood engraving to photographic processes. This exhibit, curated by English Department graduate student Melanie Hubbard, includes stunning highlights from the library's rare book collection. Drop by and see how the art of picturing the text has evolved, learn the stories behind the images and, of course, look at the pretty pictures. Come be illuminated! "Worth a Thousand Words: Book Illustration Throughout the Centuries" will remain on... Continue reading

Please join us at a campus-wide collaborative event celebrating the 400th anniversary of the death of Matteo Ricci, S.J., founder of the Mission in China: The Jesuit Mission in China: 400 Years after Matteo Ricci A Rare Book Exhibit of early printed titles on the Jesuit Mission in China and other 17th-18th century works on China will be on display Tuesday only from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. in the Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Level 3 Also scheduled: “The Legacy of Ricci and the Jesuit Mission in China” Speaker: Thierry Meynard, S.J., professor of... Continue reading

You already know that the library is a great place to study, do research, or get help from a reference librarian, but now the library is also a great place to play! This coming Tuesday, November 17th, the William H. Hannon Library will be hosting its first ever Game Night. Held in the Von der Ahe Room on the third floor of the library, Game Night will be open for anyone to drop in and experience their favorite console games on the library's 103" monitor. If console games aren't your thing, we'll provide a selection of board games, or you... Continue reading

The William H. Hannon Library is celebrating Typography Week with a special presentation by the International Printing Museum. It will take place at 12:00 on Tuesday, November 10th, on the plaza just outside the library, next to McCarthy Hall. "A Museum on Wheels: Exploring the History of Books." brings to life the colorful world of books and printing, from before Gutenberg to the period of Benjamin Franklin. With historical artifacts, including a working Colonial-style printing press, the presentation will cover how manuscripts were tediously written 1,000 years ago, the invention of printing and paper by the Chinese, and how Gutenberg... Continue reading