Cape Breton Post July 17, 2008 CBU library commemorates 250th anniversary of the second siege of Louisbourg SYDNEY - Cape Breton University Library is marking the 250th anniversary of the second siege of Louisbourg by featuring first-hand accounts of the siege published in the Gentleman's Magazine. These accounts can be viewed on the Library's website at: www.cbu.ca/library <http://www.cbu.ca/library> . The Gentleman's Magazine was published in London from 1731 until the early 20th century, providing its "genteel" readership with a monthly digest of news, opinion, literature and scientific discovery of the day. It is generally considered the first "magazine" and, in its first years, it had a larger circulation and impact than any other periodical of the time. Dr. Robert Campbell, director of CBU's library, points out that: "Just as Samuel Johnson, who began his illustrious career writing for Gentleman's Magazine, was of the opinion that London was the centre of the civilized world, Gentleman's Magazine was seen to contain all the information about the world that a civilized person needed to know." Cape Breton University Library holds a complete run of the Gentleman's Magazine from 1731-1868. It is part of the Dr. Thomas J. Khattar Collection that was donated in 1981 by Jessie Khattar and her children in honour of Dr. Thomas J. Khattar, husband and father, who died in 1966. The collection includes approximately 4,000 individual items that were painstakingly collected by Dr. Khattar throughout his professional career. The collection includes books on the early history and culture of Cape Breton Island; the political and social history of New France, Nova Scotia and Canada; mining and fishing, sporting interests, geography and literature. There is also valuable material on the history and culture of the Middle East. In part because of the age and fragility of materials, items in the collection do not circulate. However, the collection is benefiting from a project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The goal of this three-year project is to promote and preserve the collection, as well as give better access to its content. Currently, CBU Library is highlighting material on Louisbourg published in the Gentleman's Magazine from 1747-60 which was scanned and described by Lachlan MacKinnon, a CBU student, who is working on the project. MacKinnon has also compiled an annotated bibliography of the collection, which includes links to digitized versions of more rare titles found in the Dr. Thomas J. Khattar Collection. This bibliography will be linked from CBU Library's website and searchable from the Web later in the summer.