What’s going to be in your Christmas stocking? Something good, we hope! For our final blogpost of 2016 we want to celebrate some of the “gifts” you’ve shared  over the past twelve months. There have been some heartening acts of generosity – both regular and surprising. We have many reasons to be thankful!

Every fortnight a dedicated group of NADFAS volunteers gather in the Library reading room to de-staple and re-sew our modern pamphlets – a Herculean task they’ve been working on for over six years. Over the autumn we’ve also had the help of a student conservator, who’s been treating some more challenging items. Through this painstaking and unglamorous work a great many rare late 19^th and 20^th century pamphlets are being protected from the damaging effects of rust on paper.

A small team of other volunteers offer their skill and time regularly too. Between them, they carry out basic paper repairs in-house, check large collections of donated material, and provide invaluable support to the retrospective cataloguing project. Thank you, volunteers, for your time, good will and constancy!

Without a paid ministry, Quaker meetings run on the voluntary service of their members, who may undertake a range of roles. One of these is the role of “meeting librarian” (meetings are encouraged to maintain libraries for the use of Friends and attenders, as an aid to the life of the meeting and outreach). Earlier this year Quaker Life Network formed a new “Quaker Meeting Librarians Cluster” (inspired by an earlier discussion group set up and run for over a decade by Nic Wright, former librarian at Bolton Meeting), intended as a forum for sharing experience, discussing books and swapping tips.

Not long after the cluster was established, a reader came to us looking for a loan copy of The Communion of life, Joan Mary Fry’s 1910 Swarthmore lecture. As a shot in the dark, we emailed the cluster. Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, there were messages from meeting librarians all over the country generously offering to track down and lend the book from their own collections. The reader was delighted, and so were we. And a bit awed. Meeting librarians are amazing: you clearly have a passion for sharing!

We’ve blogged before about how much we and our other users owe to the generosity of researchers who share their own work with the Library. A large proportion of new accessions – scholarly historical works, biographies, articles, novels, local history and more – are presented to the Library by their authors, and this year was no exception.  Topics included politics, theology, the role of women, radicalism, peace, voluntary service, and individual people and places, across four centuries, reflecting the broad compass of our collections. Here’s a random selection of some of the 2016 accessions:

Ames, Marjon. Margaret Fell, letters, and the making of Quakerism. – Abingdon: Routledge, 2016

Bernet, Claus. Das Quäkertum in Deutschland: von den ersten Anfängen bis zum Kaiserreich. – Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovač, 2016

Rubinstein, David. Essays in Quaker history. – York : Quacks Books, 2016

Itoh, Keiko. My Shanghai 1942-1946. Folkestone: Renaissance Books, 2016

Murphy, Andrew. Liberty, conscience, and toleration: the political thought of William Penn. – New York: Oxford University Press, 2016

Radice, Paula. Quakers in Hastings: the making of a community, 1673-1920. Hastings: Hastings Meeting, 2016

Thomas, Colin. Slaughter no remedy: the life and times of Walter Ayles, Bristol conscientious objector. Bristol: Bristol Radical History Group, 2016

Naylor, Ian, and Heys, Harold. Stanley Webb Davies: family, friends & furniture. – Bingley: Naylor Publishing, 2016

Bouldin, Elizabeth. Women prophets and radical Protestantism in the British Atlantic world, 1640-1730. – New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2015

West, Gerald T. From Friends to Brethren: the Howards of Tottenham, Quakers, Brethren and evangelicals. – Troon: Brethren Archivists and Historians Network, 2016

Taylor, Graham. Ada Salter: pioneer of ethical socialism. – London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2016

To ensure the survival of our collections for the future, professional conservation treatment is sometimes needed, funded by our BeFriend a Book scheme. So we were delighted when the recent blogpost about our student conservator’s project prompted one reader to make a generous donation to the fund. Thanks to everyone who has donated, whether it’s a lot or a little, for making this work possible!

Among items conserved this year were 16 tract volumes – volumes of separately published works collected and bound up together (mainly 17th-18th century). Their significance as physical objects is enhanced by their associations with places and people, so any trace of former ownership (inscriptions, marginal notes, bookplates, etc.) is meticulously preserved. Here are tract volumes 294, 326 and 517, three of those conserved in 2016 with noteworthy provenance:

Tract volume 517, one of four matching leather bound volumes with clasps. from the library of Gulielma Maria Springett (1644–1693), first wife of William Penn

Flyleaf of tract volume 517, one of four from the library of Gulielma Maria Springett (1644–1693)

Contents list of tract volume 517 in the hand of Thomas Ellwood

Tract volume 294, early nineteenth century Quaker publications from the collection of Luke Howard (1772-1864), chemist and meteorologist, friend of William Allen and John Dalton

Tract volume 326, originally from the private library of Josiah Forster (1782-1870), rare early 19th century items by Hannah Kilham (1774–1832), missionary and student of African languages

One of Hannah Kilham’s tracts on Sierra Leone from Tract volume 326

Tract volumes 294 and 326, two of the volumes recently conserved thanks to BeFriend a Book donations

And those are just a few of the kindnesses we’ve witnessed in 2016. Thank you all, friends, whether you’ve shared your time, your money, your own research, or – not least – your good will.

Very warm wishes to users and friends of the Library for Christmas and the new year!