Did you miss any of our cultural events? Don’t worry. Now you can catch up with our book presentations, lectures and workshops.

The Instituto Cervantes Library in London [ICLL] is uploading the cultural events held at the Instituto since January 2010, and gradually, we are digitizing the recordings we keep in our archives since 1992.

Here you are the first one of our podcast series. Enjoy!

Spain, for all its recent changes, continues to be a country perceived by foreigners in terms of stereotypes dating back to the early 19th century. I argue that modern chroniclers fail to reflect the reality of a nation whose already diverse traditions now embrace a multitude of European, South American, and African cultures.´ Michael Jacobs  

Paul Preston described Michael Jacobs, as ´the magical realist hispanist’.  He has been travelling around Spain and the Hispanic world since childhood.

His many books on the country include Between Hopes and Memories: A Spanish Journey, and The Factory of Light: Tales from my Andalucian Village, to be published in Spanish by Ediciones B in February 2010. Listen now!    

To celebrate International Book Day on 23 April, the UK Instituto Cervantes centres, in collaboration with the Education Office of the Spanish Embassy in the UK, and with the support of Banco Santander, is holding its first Short Story Competition.  This theme for this year is: ‘El Quijote de tu vida’. 

Rules:

1. Applicants must be students of Spanish as a second language, of any nationality, who are studying in the UK and want to put their imagination to the test. Each candidate is allowed to submit only one short story. 

2. Each short story, written in Spanish, must not exceed the 500-word limit (approximately 20-25 lines, in Times New Roman font, at 12pt.). It must be original and unpublished and not have been previously awarded in any other contest or competition. 

3. The theme of the short story must answer and correspond with the question ‘Who in your life reminds you of Quijote?’ It must therefore be inspired by, for example, a family member or a friend who, in the author’s opinion, is most like the character created by Miguel de Cervantes. 

4. There are two competition categories: 

            a) 7-11 year olds 

            b) 12-19 year olds 

5. Those in the first category are permitted to write their short story in Spanish or English. Those in the second category, however, must present their story in Spanish only. 

6. All entries must be sent by email to biblon(at)cervantes.es with the subject line ‘Concurso de Mini-Relatos’. In the email, applicants are required to provide their name and surname, full postal address, telephone number and the name of their school and Spanish Language teacher. The short story should be sent as an attachment. 

7. All short stories must be received by 9 April 2010. 

8. The winners will be announced on 23 April at an award ceremony which will take place at the Instituto Cervantes centre in London, as part of the International Book Day celebrations. 

9. The judging panel will be chaired by the Director of the Instituto Cervantes and made up of other members of staff from the Instituto Cervantes in London, Manchester and Leeds, and the Education Office of the Spanish Embassy in the UK. The panel will choose a winner from both categories. Prize-winners will be awarded for their expression, creativity and originality and also their overall response to the question posed. 

10.  Prize winners of both categories will be awarded the following: 

–          First Prize: courtesy of Banco Santander – a cheque to the value of £500 for the library of the winning school and a voucher for £200 for the winning author. In both cases, the prize money must be used for buying books or other resources related to the Spanish speaking world and Spanish language learning. 

–          Second Prize: a selection of books, CDs and DVDs of well-known Spanish and Latin American authors and artists. 

11. All participants are welcome to attend the award ceremony, accompanied by the family member or friend who inspired their short story. The Education Office of the Spanish Embassy in the UK will cover the travel expenses of the prize-winner and their guest (one per prize-winner), should they be travelling from outside of London. 

The winning short stories will be read out to the audience by their authors. 

We look forward to receiving your short story!   

22 February 2010

Sir John Carr (1772–1832) was a travel writer born in London on 6 December 1772. A short biography is available at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Our copy of Descriptive travels in the southern and eastern parts of Spain and the Balearic Isles in the year 1809 was published in London in 1811.
 
 Descriptive travels … includes some interesting engravings of the city of Granada (frontispiece), Cádiz from the sea (pp. 112-113), Valencia from the river Segura (pp. 254-255), Ermita de Santa Anna in Montserrat (pp. 316-317), La Granja d’Esporles (pp. 356-357) and Port de Maó (pp. 368-369)

 
 Appendix III contains a table with details about the different coins used in Spain, the “Spanish Money” (maravedíes, reales, sols y diners) and its exchange rates.

Sir John Carr visited Spain during the Peninsular War, providing the book with important episodes.

The last chapter is entirely dedicated to the island of Menorca which had been under British sovereignty during the last hundred years (with the exception of the brief period of French occupation).

Carr arrives in Cádiz and travels around Andalusia. There are references to the Central Commission and to the Second Siege of Saragossa. After visiting Granada, Carr travels to Murcia, Valencia and Cataluña, and finally ends his journey in Palma.

Amongst the contents dealt with in the book, we can find odd references such as “Waiters, Spanish, How called”, “Women, Spanish, their devotional coquetry”, or “Galejos, or porters from Galicia, their honesty”, etc.

Although Sir John Carr met Lord Byron in Cádiz, there are no references in this index about this meeting.

USEFUL LINKS

About the Author (in Spanish):

http://www.dipalme.org/Servicios/Anexos/anexosiea.nsf/VAnexos/IEA-LVA09/$File/LVA09.pdf (pages 6 to 7)

About the book:

Cristina Torres-Fontes Suárez. Viajes de extranjeros por el reino de Murcia. T. 1
Asamblea Regional Real Academia Alfonso X el Sabio 
1996  ISBN84-88996-05-5 
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01604529214583901890035/023652_0038.pdf 

There is an extract in Spanish about the «Reino de Murcia»
 http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/04700624244616662232268/023653_0054.pdf

Storytelling and a fancy mask-making workshop joined together in a morning session in order to offer the little ones a few hours of magic and creativity in Spanish.

For the workshop we will be joined by Alberto San Andrés, founding member of Asociación Gozart, professional puppeteer and experienced in working with children. We will also be joined by professional storyteller Marta Marco Martialay, who has worked at festivals all over Spain.

For children between 5 and 8

Participants
Alberto San Andrés
Marta Marco Martialay

For inscription contact: cultlon1(at)cervantes.es. Approximate number of children: 30

Especialmente para estudiantes o profesionales españoles que deseen realizar prácticas o buscar trabajo en bibliotecas del Reino Unido, enviamos una serie de enlaces que quizás puedan ser útiles.

• Para profesionales o estudiantes interesados en trabajar en Reino Unido, casi toda la información se puede encontrar en:

 http://www.cilip.org.uk

CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) es la institución de referencia para los bibliotecarios británicos. En su página podemos encontrar una gran cantidad de recursos que están a disposición de sus miembros y de los que no lo son, porque a muchas de sus informaciones se puede acceder libremente.

Sobre trabajo e intercambios, por ejemplo, encontraremos:

1. El enlace a la página LISJOBNET, que ofrece alertas e información de ofertas de trabajo para bibliotecarios y profesionales de la información www.lisjobnet.com
2. El enlace a INFOMATCH, que es una agencia de trabajo para bibliotecarios y documentalistas integrada en CILIP http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobscareers/infomatch
3. Y el enlace a LIBEX, que es la base de datos que sirve a los miembros de CILIP para INTERCAMBIAR trabajos con profesionales de las bibliotecas y de la información en todo el mundo.

Para acceder a la base de datos LIBEX hay que darse de alta. Los trabajadores de fuera de Reino Unido NO TIENEN QUE SER MIEMBROS de CILIP para darse de alta y hacerlo es gratis. Estos trabajadores (los extranjeros) solo pueden hacer intercambio con trabajadores del Reino Unido.

 Aquí se explica todo acerca de LIBEX: http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobscareers/libex/

 Y aquí está el enlace para darte de alta: http://libex.camp7.org/Default.aspx?pageId=66837

En la página de CILIP se pueden encontrar muchas otras cosas interesantes, como por ejemplo una guía de salarios de bibliotecarios: http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobscareers/salaries

 o información sobre cursos: http://www.cilip.org.uk/training/training

 etc, etc, etc.

 OTROS RECURSOS

Oportunidades de voluntariado (en todas las áreas, también en bibliotecas o puntos de información) http://www.volunteering.org.uk/

 Aquí: http://www.do-it.org.uk/advanced.do , seleccionando por ejemplo London en el primer campo y Library en el último aparecen unas cuantas posibilidades.

 Más voluntariado a nivel internacional, de tipo general: http://www.idealist.org

Pensado fundamentalmente para estudiantes británicos que buscan un lugar en el que hacer sus prácticas, pero donde todo el mundo se puede registrar, PROSPECTS ofrece información sobre trabajo en prácticas para estudiantes y trabajo para graduados o licenciados.

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/Work_experience/p!eigaLjd

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/ShowPage/Home_page/p!eLaXi

PROSPECTS Depende del NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR WORK EXPERIENCE:

 http://www.work-experience.org/ncwe.rd/index.jsp

 También con información sobre trabajos para bibliotecarios:

http://jobs.trovit.co.uk/jobs/work-experience-library-assistant

POR ÚLTIMO,  ofrecemos un listado de las bibliotecas académicas en Reino Unido con sección de español que pertenecen a WESLINE:

 http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/wesline/contacts.asp?subject=Spa

 Y con sección de Latinoamérica:

 http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/wesline/contacts.asp?subject=LatAm

 Veréis que varios contactos se repiten.

DOOM OR BLOOM

reinventing the library in the digital age

An International Seminar by EUROLIS
Thursday 29^th October, in South Kensington, London

What’s it about?

Digital libraries, e-books and emerging technologies are transforming the way culture, knowledge and information are created and disseminated. They have a fundamental impact on the self-conception and perception of libraries as spaces of cultural heritage, safe keepers of knowledge as well as stakeholders of knowledge management and information brokerage. How do libraries take action in order to bloom and ensure their future?

 Programme  features:

Presentation of experiments carried out by various public and academic libraries in Europe.  The points of view of the entire book chain will be considered, from the librarian, the publisher, the author, the supplier, to the reader.

Seminar organisers: EUROLIS, a group of librarians and members of the cultural institutes of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, and members of CILIP in London

Who should attend?

Managers & senior managers of public, school and academic libraries

Professionals of information management, publishers, authors and book store managers

Any one who is concerned about and interested in:

–         the evolution of digital books

–         the new uses of libraries

–          learning about the different national and local approaches in the UK and other European countries

Cost of Participation : Full price £65 / 75€ Concessions:  £40 / 47€

(lunch & refreshments are included in both prices)

Venue: French Institute, 17 Queensberry Place, South Kensington, SW7 2DT.

Past seminars

Podemos empezar por aquí, ¿por qué no? Será esta nuestra primera entrada en biblioteca transparente.

El pasado 22 de julio, visitamos la biblioteca de la Universidad de Cambridge gracias a la gentileza de Sonia Morcillo que nos preparó un programa verdaderamente interesante.

A nosotros, en el Instituto Cervantes, nos parecía que para los estudiantes de la UGR y de la UB que realizan prácticas en nuestra biblioteca en Londres y en otras bibliotecas de esta ciudad (BL, Canning House, LSE) podía ser buena experiencia para añadir al currículum.

En primer lugar, David Lowe, Sonia Morcillo y Clara Panozzo, realizaron una breve introduccion sobre la biblioteca y, en particular, sobre la metodología de trabajo en el departamento de «European Collections and Cataloguing» y en la seccion Hispánica. David Lowe es el jefe del departamento.

Después visitamos algunos de los depósitos de libros y salas de lectura.

22 de julio de 2009

Tras el almuerzo en la cantina de la biblioteca, visitamos el departamento de Mapas. Anne Taylor (jefa del departamento), nos mostró algunos mapas raros y curiosos, como el realizado por los espías rusos sobre la ciudad de Londres durante la guerra fría.

Más tarde, Sophie Defrance, del departamento de Rare Books, nos mostró algunas de las joyas de una de las colecciones de libros raros más interesantes: la colección Waddleton.

Finalmente, visitamos la biblioteca de la Faculty of Modern and Mediaeval Languages. Hélène Fernandes tuvo la amabilidad de expliarnos con detalle cómo trabajan en su biblioteca.

Ya fuera de programa, Julie Coimbra, de la biblioteca del Centro de estudios de América Latina, también nos mostró los fondos de la biblioteca que gestiona. Antes de llegar a este último punto, nos hicimos la foto.