Credo Reference Blog

Duart da Silva addressing the assembled crowd

There was a terrific, lively atmosphere at the Credo reception to celebrate the inclusion of the National Gallery images in the Credo Reference collection.

Perhaps the secret was the brevity of the speeches allowing our guests maximum time for mingling and enjoying the excellent food and drink:

Westminster Councilor Edward Argar lent an appropriate touch of gravitas to the proceedings and set the pace and a light-hearted tone with his brief remarks.

Louise Rice of the National Gallery gave us a witty whistle stop tour of the Gallery’s contents and its history, egalitarian from its beginning in the early C19 to today’s free public access to one of the world’s greatest collections of Western European painting.

Credo’s John Dove took up the baton and showed how the Gallery’s images would enhance the Credo search results, and Anne Kail crossed the finishing line with a preview of Credo’s exciting new Topic Pages, set to launch later in the year.

Or perhaps the lively hubbub of conversation that then followed over those excellent canapés and wine was down to the eclectic mix of Credo subscribers who came along – university and public librarians rubbed shoulders with newspapers, art editors, art publishers and professional institutions.

The inclusion of this prestigious collection is generating some excitement: “Credo’s Got My Attention, Again!” (From a recent Library Journal eViews column http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/1100000310/post/730052273.html)

The Westminster Reference Library is right next door to the National Gallery so we were delighted when they offered to host our reception.  Our thanks go to the team who were there on the night and who all ensured that everything went so smoothly and enjoyably: Rossella Black, Alexandra Buccholz, Peter Collins, Owen Grey and last but by absolutely no means least, Duart da Silva who was a superb ‘master of ceremonies’ (pictured above).

View of the National Gallery