All entries for December 2010

'Forbes Collection'

This morning I drove up the M6 and picked up 13 boxes of books and journals at Manchester International Freight Terminal. These had been shipped over from the USA by Dr Charles Forbes, who taught in ESL programs in Lebanon and Iran in the 1960s. We chose books and journals from index cards sent over by Dr. Forbes in advance, selecting those we didn't already have in our collection.  As a result of this generous donation the Warwick ELT Archive collection has been significantly enhanced viz-a-viz the US TESOL/ESL tradition and in relation to the Arab world and Iran, and because of the importance of this donation we're intending to refer to the books/journals in this shipment as the 'Forbes Collection' (along the lines of the 'Dakin Collection' previously received from the University of Edinburgh).

Update (16/12/10):

Dr Forbes writes: 'I am so glad that they arrived safely. When you leave thirteen boxes, wrapped in plastic on a not very sturdy looking pallet, you can't help but have a few worries. I was delighted to get your report.

I do want to note that you are to be complimented for creating such an archive. I could find no equivalent in the United States. Schools of education tend to maintain "Resource Centers" for textbooks, and the books are removed when they are no longer in regular use. Historical research is very difficult. I was delighted to learn of your efforts, and to learn more as the effort to actually get the books to you progressed.

My wife is delighted to have them out of the house. And I was delighted to go to the little trouble that I did in shipping the books. That way they went somewhere useful, rather than to a recycling center. One is always reluctant to see one's once prized collection go that way. My effort was worth it to see that it didn't'.

Richard Smith : 15 Dec 2010 15:15 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Recent donations and interviews

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/collect/elt_archive/catalogue

Some news of donations and interviews since September:

* Mary Trimble drove up from Devon to generously donate a number of journal back issues to fill in gaps in our collection. We also recorded an interview with her about her career and that of her late husband, Louis Trimble.

* Gareth Owen contacted us from South Africa having seen the Hall of Fame Lionel Billows page. During a trip to Birmingham he gave us some books on our request list, and also donated a copy of his own privately printed book, Recollections of a Wayfaring TEFLER: English Language Teaching in Four Continents 1966-1998, for which we're very grateful. We recorded an interview with him at the time of his visit.

* Roger Bowers also kindly agreed to be interviewed for the 'British Council involvement with ELT' project.

* Shelagh Rixon and I interviewed Brian Abbs and Ingrid Freebairn at Brian's home about their long-standing and ground-breaking creative partnership writing coursebooks (since the 1970s). This included asking Brian to reminisce about and contextualize some of the pre-publication materials he donated to the Warwick ELT Archive some time ago.

* We sent a shipment of duplicate copies of books to the Bangalore Regional Institute of English to fill in gaps in their own collection, and hope to build further on this link in the future.

Richard Smith : 15 Dec 2010 14:59 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem