elanya

I've been having to rely a lot on interlibrary loan to get books for my dissertation. Funny how Sheffield, one of the most landlocked cities in Britain, doens't have too many books on pirates. (They seem to have enough on maritime archaeology though, hmmmm). Their collection on books about American gravestones is also lacking, again again, I wonder why that could be... ;p

Anyway, I ordered one book, Life Among the Pirates: the romance and the reality, by David Cordingly. This was a scholarly book that was quite similar to his more popular book Under the Black Flag. When it came, I wasn't allowed to take it out of the library! How bizzare... It wasn't a paricularly *old* book, having just been published in 1995. It was probably quite a small print run, though, as I'd never heard of it or turned it up on any other searched for his work. I wonder what the deal as with it, why it was so special that I couldn't take it out of the library. But thanks to Neil Gaiman's Journal, I think I understand! The book had come from The Trinity College Library in Dublin. I'd also thought this was a pretty obscure library, but apparently it is one of the six legal book depositories in the UK where all books published or copyrighted in the UK have to be stored. So, basically, as far as I can tell, it was obscure enough a book that they had to give me the only copy in the country! I suppose that it is fair, then, that they wouldn't let me take it out.... ^-^

Right, gong back to my glass report now...