Geoscientist Online 18 May 2007
Lyell Collection – open to the world
Wednesday 16 May saw the simultaneous opening of the Lyell Room, Burlington House, and the Lyell Collection and Lyell Centre within the Society's new website. Dawne Riddle reports.
"It is no exaggeration to place the origin of much of the wealth of nations on the science and application of geology in the energy and mineral industries." So said Dr Tony Hayward, CEO of BP International, at the opening of the Lyell Room at Burlington House, underlining the vital importance of geological information to the world's economy and people's well-being.
Hayward was responding to Dr Richard Fortey FRS at a ceremony relayed by CCTV to over 100 invited guests, waiting patiently in the Lecture Theatre below. For the benefit of the assembled, Fortey clarified the evening's multiple inaugurations:
"The Lyell Room is a working environment in which readers will be able to access our new virtual library, which we are calling the Lyell Centre; though those readers will not be alone in this, because the Centre is a learning resource available to everyone, anywhere in the world, from their own terminals, via the World Wide Web."
"The Lyell Centre is an integral part of the Society's new website, which we are also launching tonight. Visitors to our site will now be able to access all the Society's major published work, books and journals, right back to our foundation: a collection featuring the full content of all our wholly owned journals, Special Publications and key book series. This we are calling the Lyell Collection. The Collection also allows much more penetrating searches of our library holdings – whose index is now completely online – even to the extent of having a geographic information system – an interface that allows readers to search the catalogue maps by geographical co-ordinates."
"Creating this powerful new resource has been made possible by the generosity of our Foundation sponsors BP and Shell – and, later in the year, the Lyell Collection will be made available free of charge to the Earth science community in less developed countries thanks to the support of Schlumberger. "
Shell was represented by Mr Malcolm Brinded, while Schlumberger, whose assistance was also acknowledged, was represented by Mr Henry Edmundson. The Ceremony ended with a toast to the memory of Charles Lyell.
"Few if any names from our heroic age cast a longer shadow than Charles Lyell’s. It is in acknowledgement of this, that the Society he did so much to promote has chosen its Bicentenary to honour him in this way" Fortey said.
Recalling Prof' Jim Secord's entertaining lecture about the life and legacy of Lyell, and particularly the style of uniformitarianism that Lyell espoused, he went on: "This occasion rather embodies the new uniformitarianism. The Society and this grand building represent continuity and permanence, side by side with a new and profound change - represented by the Lyell Centre on our re-launched website. All the Society's published work – including all of Charles Lyell's, will henceforth be accessible to readers worldwide."
Once the toast was given, the assembled guests were then invited upstairs to view the Lyell Room for themselves, where members of Society Staff were on hand to demonstrate the Lyell Centre, and within it the Lyell Collection, before dinner in the Lower Library.
Read the speeches in full.