Use Of Manuscripts Research Articles

The Use of Manuscripts in Literary Research: Problems of Access and Literary Property Rights

The Use of Manuscripts in Literary Research: Problems of Access and Literary Property Rights

Problems in the Use of Manuscripts

USE of manuscripts presents the librarian or archivist, whose job it is to look after them and make them available, with problems different from those that face the historian or scholar who uses manuscripts to interpret them. This article considers the curatorial problems of controlling access to manuscripts, of encouraging scholarly and preventing irresponsible use of manuscripts, and of making materials available by means of microfilm or other copies. Manuscripts differ from any other kind of material in that no two are precisely alike; their preservation is the prime concern of the curator, and the need of protection from thieves and vandals calls for a careful admission policy. As a basic, minimal requirement the potential reader of manuscripts must at least be asked to identify himself, with some proof of his identity, and to write his name in an attendance book provided. This is all that is asked in the Public Archives of Canada,1 for example, and in most English county record offices,2 where probably it would occur to none but the expert that there might be something of monetary value. At the British Museum and the Public Record Office readers' cards are issued, and each application must bear the signature of a householder, vouching for the applicant's honesty, not his academic prowess. Usually more is required. The applicant should know how to handle manuscripts properly, and sometimes there is an age requirement:3 16 at the Library of Congress, 18 at the Pierpont Morgan Library. Often letters of recommendation are asked for, to show that a responsible person, usually academic, considers the applicant capable of han

The Relationship of Manuscript and Cursive Handwriting to Accuracy in Spelling

THE ROLE of manuscript writing is one of the unresolved issues in the teaching of handwriting. There is a widespread use of manuscript writing in the primary grades so the basic problem is not whether it whould be taught but rather how long i t should be taught (4). A survey by Freeman (2) re vealed that a majority of United States cities of 10,000 or more population introduce manuscript writing in the first grade and make a change to the teaching of cursive writing in grade three while a siable minority make the change in grade two. How ever there have long been proponents for extending the exclusive use of manuscript writing into the up per grades and adult life. The chief reasons ad vanced by those antagonistic to such continuance concerned the comparative legibility and speed of the two styles of connected handwriting, but there were also arguments that adults would tend to devel op their own style of connected handwriting even if they received no instruction in cursive writing.

Brief of Minutes, Association of Research Libraries, July 6--7, 1951, Chicago; Report of the Committee on the Use of Manuscripts by Visiting Sholars Set up by the Association of Research Libraries

Brief of Minutes, Association of Research Libraries, July 6--7, 1951, Chicago; Report of the Committee on the Use of Manuscripts by Visiting Sholars Set up by the Association of Research Libraries

THE ABELAM TRIBE, SEPIK DISTRICT, NEW GUINEA A PRELIMINARY REPORT

IN April 1939 I received a fellowship from the Australian National Research Council to carry out nine months' field work among the Abelam tribe in the Sepik district of New Guinea. Since the village had its regular seasonal activities, I decided to remain another three months in order to make my work as complete as possible. I should like to take this opportunity to thank the Council and its officers for the assistance I received ; I am particularly indebted to Professor A. P. Elkin, Chairman of the Committee on Anthropology, for the help and encouragement which he has always extended to me in the course of my research. The area was suggested to me by Dr. Margaret Mead, who had studied the Arapesh on its northern boundary, and by Mr. Gregory Bateson, who had worked with the Iatmul, to the south-east on the Sepik River. With both these tribes the Abelam have cultural affinities, and my material therefore represents a further contribution to our knowledge of that district. To Dr. Mead and Mr. Bateson, I owe much for their helpful advice and the use of manuscripts, which suggested new avenues of approach while I was in the field. My work was made much easier by the ready co-operation and hospitality afforded me by members of the Administration, among whom I would like to mention His Honour Judge Phillips in Rabaul, Mr. G. Townsend, then District Officer at Wewak, and Messrs. K. Bridge, T. Ellis, J. Grant and I. Wood at Maprik. I am grateful for the many kindnesses I received from residents in the district Mr. and Mrs. W. Royal, Mr. and Mrs. Broadbent, Sister Stock, and Messrs. McKechnie, Curtin, Parer, Cecil, and Macgregor. I should like to thank Dr. H. Spencer-Roberts, then Medical Officer at Wewak, for the chance to visit many villages on the Sepik.

The Lincoln Diocesan Records

The Lincoln diocesan records have long been well known to historians both for their great bulk and importance and for their accessibility. Before the Reformation the diocese covered eight and a half counties; even in 1541 it lost only Northampton, Rutland and Oxford, with the result that it was divided into completely separate portions, Lincolnshire and Leicester in the north, Buckingham, Bedford, Huntingdon and part of Hertfordshire in the south. Its size alone will account for the vastness of the collection. That the muniments are accessible is due to the work of the late Canon Foster, in recognition of which the Pilgrim Trust established the present record office, as the result of a request for assistance by the bishop of Lincoln. In this Society the work of Canon Foster is so famous as to make any comment on it by me superfluous, if not impertinent, but it would be impossible to speak of the records without reference to him. For my own part, I regard it as my chief privilege to attempt to carry on his work: to try to continue on the lines laid down by him is in itself a liberal education in the care and use of manuscripts.

The Transition from Manuscript to Cursive Writing

There are a variety of opinions concerning the proper time to make the transition from manuscript to cursive writing. Many experiments have been carried on, and conflicting results have been secured. This article tells how and when the transition is made in the Germantown Friends School. In 1926 it was decided to begin the use of manuscript writing in the first grade. The other grades continued the cursive writing. The pupils in the first-grade group entering in 1926 and those following were taught nothing but manuscript writing until the autumn of 1930. By that time sufficient opportunity had been given to consider the value of manuscript writing. The teachers of the first and the second grades felt and still feel strongly that the simplified letters of the manuscript form and the apparent ease with which it is written have a marked effect in speeding up the learning of reading and spelling. The third-grade teachers felt that pupils in that grade should begin to use cursive writing. Therefore, the interesting experiment which will be described was initiated in the school year 193o-31. This school has two sections to a grade. One third-grade section continued the use of manuscript writing until the middle of the year and then changed to cursive writing. The other third-grade section changed to cursive writing at the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the year the two fourth-grade and the two fifth-grade sections also changed to cursive writing. This procedure gave four distinct times of.change. By the end of the school year the third-grade section which had been using simplified manuscript writing and some broad-pen manuscript writing during the first term and cursive writing during the second term had not gained normal expectancy. The procedure was unfair to them-entirely too much experimenting.