British Library

On Thursday afternoon we visited the British Library.  Our tour was led by Kevin, one of the managers of the front of house team.  The Library is the national library of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  It has three areas of interest: 

1. Acquisitions-they are required by law to obtain a copy of every item published in Britain within a month of its publication.  They are also required to keep the copy forever and keep it accessible to patrons.
2. The Library also commissions research in Library and Information Science, and provides leadership in the field. 
3. The Library also needs to compile and maintain the national catalogue.

There are four men who are considered to be founders of the British Library.  Sir Robert Cotton graduated from Cambridge at the age of 22 in 1510.  During the Dissolution of the Monasteries he bought up whole library collections.  In 1771 his collections were moved to the Ashburton House.  90% of his collection was moved over to the British Museum.  Sir Hans Sloane was a scholar, traveler, and philanthropist.  When he died he left his library to the nation.  In 1753 the Montigue House opened to make the items accessible.  Over the years the House and collections developed into the British Museum.  Kevin stressed the importance of knowing that the British Museum grew out of a book collection; the books came before the artifacts. 

The present building was completed in 1997 as an attempt to house the vast collection of the Library.  Beneath the floor of the courtyard is where the on-site books are stored.  There are four floors of shelving, in the largest subterranean tower block in the world.  The first level is plans and machinery, to regulate the temperature and humidity.  Then the four floors of shelving come next.  The bottom level contains the water management system and a 6 foot tank to drain any excess water into the Thames.  The Piccadilly Line actually runs through the lowest level of shelving.  The Tube sounds echo through all the levels. 

view of the main lobby from third floor

There are approximately 35 million books on the shelves.  Everything is sorted shelved by size.  Due to the vast amount of books and the archival nature of the library; they need to conserve as much space as possible.  Each book is designated by a shelf mark, not a catalog number.  The four floors are each divided in to quadrants, to ease the assistant’s jobs in retrieving items.  There are three other buildings in London which also house large amounts of books.  About 40% of the Library’s collection is here in London; the rest is in off site storage in Yorkshire.  The total Library collection contains between 180-185 million titles.  The whole collection would cover roughly 8-900 linear miles of shelving.  They receive roughly 8,000 new books each day and are struggling to store it all.  Each year they add about 3 million items and 8 miles of shelving to house the new books.

Harry Potter Premiere

On Thursday as I walked through Trafalgar Square I saw the Harry Potter preparations under way.  I took some pictures of the set up process.  There were some diehard fans already camped out near the stage, and we saw plenty of Potter outfits and facepaint when I went to Tesco for lunch.  I sat on the steps of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields and observed the craziness beginning. 

On Friday night I decided to attend the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows world premiere in Trafalgar Square.  I knew that this would never happen again, I was here in London and I didn’t have any plans.  I walked up to the Square and found a spot near the edge of the crowd.  Most of the square was barricaded off so that the die hard fans who had camped out were on the inside, up close to the stage and screen.  Many fans were standing on the steps to St. Martin’s-in-the-field; their view partially blocked by a statue.  I had a pretty decent view of the huge screen; I was far enough back to see it over the banner barricade.  For those of you who have been there I was back near the National Gallery, standing against the short wall.  I was on the left edge of the crowd.  The wall was too crowded for me to get up there and get a better view, but I was fine. 

Around 7:15 a few of the stars walked down from Leicester Square to see the fans.  Dan, Rupert, Emma, and Rowling came down along with the producer and director.  They all thanked the crowd, autographed items, and spoke to fans.  They each had some time with the microphone; I could hear bits of Emma’s and Rowlings’ speeches, but not the guys.  Emma and Rupert ended up in tears; Dan managed to hold himself together.  Apparently lots of the actors turned up at Leicester (I don’t know all the actors names): Hagrid, Ginny, Snape, Molly Weasley, Voldermort, the twins, and Dumbledore.  Around 7:50 they headed back up to the Odeon for the show, and then a 10 minute preview/series summary was shown on the big screen.  Literally 5 minutes after it ended the police were out trying to get folks to go home.  I was exhausted from a long day and was happy to head back to the flats.  For one night I got to pretend I was a crazy Potter fan.  It was fun being on the fringes of the crowd.   

British Museum Archive

Yesterday we had a tour of the Archives of the British Museum, led by the Archivist Stephanie Clarke.  Stephanie began by informing us that the Archive is the storage place for the central archives of the Museum.  Each of the eight collecting departments retain their own records and libraries, the Archive only keeps items which relate to the Museum as a whole.  Stephanie said that she typically receives 20-30 inquiries a week through phone and email, and that 5-6 people come in and ask questions in person.  The typical patrons are academics, students, and folks interested in genealogical research.  She told us that over half of the patrons have a specific question in mind and know exactly what they are looking for.

Stephanie is the only archivist for the Museum, and is also the first professionally trained archivists to be hired at the Museum.  As such she had a lot of reorganization and consolidation to do when she first arrived.  The archivist position was created in 1975, but there was no overarching plan or organizing structure.  There were 117 records series according to past systems (basically each box was its own series even if multiple boxes contained similar items), but Stephanie resorted it and narrowed it down to 6 proper series: trustees, staff, finance, exhibitions, building/property, and the reading room.  She then told us a bit about each collection.

The trustee records contain information on anything and everything.  Literally everything that was mentioned at a meeting went down in the minutes: which employees were late to work, who should get a raise, who was out sick etc.  The records contain letters, reports and all sorts of other information related to the meetings.  They have all been very well indexed, it’s easiest to search by date since all the bound volumes are in chronological order. 

The staff records were interesting because from 1850-1950 the Archive has a sampling of staff applications, including reference letters and employee contracts.  The staff records are typically used for genealogical requests, and Stephanie is always happy to help people discover new things about their ancestors.  The building records have some interesting items which predate the Museum.  They have the deed from a 1694 change of ownership of the land which the Museum later bought.  The seals are almost completely intact and the medieval handwriting was fascinating to glimpse.  The Archive has 250 items by Sidney Smirke, chief architect for the Museum, including building plans and correspondence. 

The exhibition records needed the most serious and urgent attention when Stephanie arrived.  There were approximately 300 black design books from temporary exhibits which ran from the 1960’s-1990’s.  They were incredibly detailed with photographs, labels, paint swatches and fabric samples.  They were not in archival folders, and when Stephanie tried to remove items they stuck to the plastic.  All the items have now been moved over to acid free archival housing, but the whole collection could have been lost had it continued to sit in the folders. 

The final series that we got a glimpse of was the reading room records.  The Archive has records from 1790-1970.  It was considered a prestigious honor to be accepted by the Director as a reader, and many famous people applied.  From 1890-1970 all of the applications have been preserved, including reference letters.  It’s an amazing resource for anyone doing genealogical or historical research about the reading room.  The sign in registers have all been kept, for example Stephanie showed us Karl Marx’s entry for 1877, with his signature on the line.  These records are very complicated to search through, and Stephanie normally answers inquiries about them herself without letting the public view the books.  Unless you know a specific person visited on a specific day it’s very hard to track them down.  Stephanie then passed around and let us hold the application forms of Beatrice Potter, Rudyard Kipling, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, among others.  After a few questions we all thanked Stephanie and headed off to visit the Museum.

website: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/libraries_and_archives.aspx

Barbican Library

The Barbican Library is located inside the Barbican Centre, a post WWII concrete building.  From the outside the Centre didn’t look all that impressive but it was very nice on the inside.  The Centre has a café, theatre, restaurant, and library.  The Centre was a gift from the City of London, the chief burghers and guilds.  The first library was for reference use only.  Under the 1964 Public Library Act it started full lending services, and the Barbican is one of only three public lending libraries in the City. 

It is funded by the local authority, is part of the Corporation of London Libraries and exists primarily to serve the local population.  The Barbican region is composed of ~11,000 people, but is open and available to all of London.  The Library is a tenant to the Centre, they don’t own the floor space which they use.  As such, they are often affected by events in the Centre.  As the librarian Jonathan said, bagpipes and drums are not fun in a library, but if the Centre rents out the space the Library can’t refuse.

The majority of their patrons are 25-35 year old working folk, more men than women.  They do serve some children and elderly people, but the area is primarily young/middle age working class in areas such as management, accounting, and law.  The library does serve some students, especially from the nearby universities.  Every two years the library does a survey to keep up to date with their patron base and to know how best to serve the community. 

The Library is located on parts of the second and third floors of the Centre.  The Centre would not allow the Library to have a letterbox outside its door for returning items, so the Library has installed a return and catalog search station outside, so patrons can return items after hours.  The Barbican utilizes RFID technology (radio frequency identification scheme).  It’s the same chip technology as in Oyster cards and newer passports.  They have chips in every book, DVD, CD, and other items in the collection; utilized for both security and identification.  Member cards do not have chips, just barcodes.

The Barbican decided to use a hybrid system for all their services, some electronic and do-it-yourself and some physical services with librarians at the desk.  They want people to have the option to use either method.  The librarians know many younger folk are fine with self-checkout machines, but that many elderly folk completely avoid them.  Some patrons simply enjoy interacting with a person at a library. 

The Barbican has strong collections in arts, young adult, children’s, dvds and videos and reference.  They have a computer section, called ‘the people’s network’ where patrons can use internet for 2 up to 2 hours.  One of their most interesting collections is the London collection, which is composed of 8-9,000 items relating to London.  The oldest items date to 1742, and everything item is able to be checked out.  The most popular 1,000 or so titles are on the shelves, the rest are in closed stacks.  Though not in an area with many children, they have a large and well furbished children’s library.  They make a strong effort to reach out to mums and tots.  Their summer reading program last year reached around 350 kids.

First Weekend

This past weekend I participated in two London Alive walks.  On Saturday I went on London during the Nazi Blitz, which was led by Dr. Mackaman, one of the history professors and the program director.  He and a history grad student named LB provided us with a tag team lecture on the background of WWII as we walked towards the Imperial War Museum.  I had wondered why lots of the buildings in Waterloo were really ugly concrete, and I learned that it was because of the Nazi’s.  During the Blitz they had attempted to destroy both Waterloo Bridge and Waterloo train station, but had failed.  They did succeed in destroying tons of buildings all around the station and near the riverfront.  So after the war “the good, bad, and ugly” architects all got hired to rebuild.  Hence the ugly buildings in the neighborhood.  The same happened up at Barbican, which we visited yesterday.  The whole complex is concrete, rebuilt after the war.  The Barbican librarian Jonathan pointed out that the Barbican Centre is more likely to fall down of its own accord then to ever be condemned and taken down.  It would be too much work.

Visiting the IWM was a great experience, even though I was still rather tired from travel.  I plan on going back if I get a chance.  I saw all the main exhibits, but didn’t do the special experiential parts.  I enjoyed seeing all the tanks, trucks and planes; and I bought an anthology of war poetry from the gift shop which made me happy. 

On Sunday I decided to do the John and Charles Wesley Chapel morning tour.  There were about a dozen of us who went; many more students went to St. Paul’s.  We took the bus and before service we toured the cemetery across the street.  John Bunyan, William Blake, and Daniel Defoe are buried there.  The church service was very nice.  It just so happened that they had a visiting choir from Alabama who sang during the service.  What are the odds of that happening?  A U. Southern Miss. program and a huge group from Alabama at the Wesley Chapel on the same day.  One of the songs the choir sang was “The Lord Bless You and Keep You,” which made me happy.  After the service we had tea/coffee and then got a tour of the church and museum.  I decided to leave then in an attempt to get back for my afternoon walk.  I ended up being about 10 minutes late, because of some tube closures.  I had the afternoon free so I walked around the Strand, and went up to St. Paul’s.   

St. Paul's Cathedral Library

Up on the triforium level of St. Paul’s, 140 steps above all the hustle and bustle, lies a completely different world than that which most people get to see.  We wandered down unused corridors, were able to view the whole cathedral from the back wall, and of course, saw the library.  Our tour was led by Librarian Joseph Wisdom.  Our tour began on the ground floor with listening to the Lord’s Prayer.  We then treked up the stairs to the triforium level.  We began by walking through several sections which house various artifacts and items, some odds and ends that the Cathedral doesn’t display anywhere.  The room where they are housed was at one time almost used as a museum, but the items are too various and disconnected to show a cohesive story.  Among other things the room contains a bust of Crookshanks, illustrator of many Dickens books, a Viking-era marker, many drawings and sketches of the Cathedral, and a huge collection of fragments and architectural bits and pieces of the Cathedral.  That last segment reminded me a bit of the Sir John Sloan Museum, except at St. Paul’s the pieces were not glued to the wall, just sorted into shelves.  Once through that room we entered another side hall, which contained two very different pulpits used at various times in the past. 

We then came upon a newly installed wooden screen, which John informed up was put up by his predecessor in order to create an office for the librarian.  Above the door is the phrase “Faciendi plures libros nullus est finis” which translates as “of making many books there is no end (Ecclesiastes 12:12b).  The final room before the library that we saw was a side room which was originally intended to house part of the library.  Originally the library was expected to occupy two chambers, but the second one was not used.  Instead it houses Christopher Wren’s Great Model.  His 1:25 scale of his preferred plan for St. Paul’s, which was discarded by the commission because it was too similar to St. Peter’s in Rome.  He wanted it to have a second smaller dome, and to more strongly reflect Greek styles, with three sides being identical.  This side room is set up as a museum exhibit, but John told us that they plan on redoing it to try and make it more public friendly.  I really enjoyed the quick glance that we got, since I just read London Rising which focuses on Wren’s construction of the Cathedral.  I would have liked more time to look around.  But we had a library to see, and we finally arrived at our destination.

As John unlocked the doors and we entered I could hear the collective breath from the group.  The smell of all the old books was amazing; nothing else even comes close to how good this room smelled.  The small room is lined with two levels of bookcases, numbered in a unique way.  By the fireplace is “1” then once the numbers progress halfway around the room, to a stairway entrance, the ordered numbers stop and it continues back on the other side of the fireplace.  The second level was the same.  On a clock it would be like having 1-6 then up at “12” starting with 7.  John asked us that if we ever found another library that did the same thing, to be sure to let him know about it. 

I Have Arrived

I am in London.  I thought I would do a short update, before class.  I was at JFK for a long time before the flight left, but I had books with me to read.  The flight over was a bit delayed, but everything went smoothly.  Yesterday I went for over 30 hours with almost no sleep.  I only got a few minutes on the plane, but I didn't crash in the middle of the day.  I was too excited to be back.

It feels so great to be back in London.  Yesterday we had a neighborhood walk with the whole library science class and then ate dinner as a class.  I got about 5 hours of sleep last night, but I hope I'll get more tonight.  I woke up really early and used the time to unpack and organize.  I've topped up my oyster card and bought a few groceries at Tesco.  Today we have our first class meeting at 9:00 then general orientation at 11.  The first London Alive walk will be this afternoon.