V&A National Art Library

nyone who loves art and also happens to love books would kill to see the National Art Library in the Victoria & Albert museum. Roaming the halls of the building you are confronted with some of the greatest artworks from across the globe. The library rests at the top of a grand staircase and is floor to ceiling books on one side and floor to ceiling windows on the other. The windows look out onto the central courtyard of the museum and it is all to easy to get lost in the fantasy of this place.

The Library began in 1837 and was the library of the School of Design and was housed at Somerset House. In 1850 the library was moved into the V&A and in 1890 it moved into the rooms it occupies today. The collection spans all kinds of art from across the globe including textiles, glass, ceramics, theatre, prints, drawings, architecture, and even computer art. The library even keeps trade and exhibition catalogues and gallery and auction house catalogues. These catalogues are essential when tracking the provenance of an artwork.

The National Art Library has a very different approach to the public that many other libraries such as the British Library. Rather than having to apply and needing references, anyone can come use the library. It is a reference library and not a lending library but anyone who wished to use the materials is more than welcome to. The librarians will assist patrons to make copies of what they need to substitute being able to remove the items from the library.

The classification scheme for this library can only be described as wonky. It is mostly classified by size, but some materials are classified by the date of the item's arrival into the library. The librarians have detailed and complicated maps assisting them to help find the books they need and the system seems to work well enough. But I can see a really anal US librarian's brain exploding thinking about this particular classification scheme.

What do I love most about this library? Artist books!!!! The National Art Library has the largest collection of Artist Books in Europe at just around 3,000. They have an online catalogue with pictures for patrons to see the books before they request them.

The library is primarily a reference library but it does have a special collections department which houses some materials which a reference library would not ordinarily have. For example, they have 11 of 14 Charles Dicken's manuscripts. I personally got to see the manuscript for David Copperfield. Another treasure I finally had to opportunity to see: John Audobon's Birds of America. The John Forester Collection contains more than 18,000 books. This collection features materials relating to English literature, the history of theatre, rare and illuminated manuscripts, and British history from the 17th century.

I think I found where I want to work :)

*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project.

Roald Dahl Museum

bout an hour north of London in Buckinghamshire there is a little town called Great Missenden. In this town there lived one of the greatest children's book authors of our time. He lived in a house with a Gypsy's Caravan and a private hut where he spend nearly everyday creating worlds of such wonder and terror that have beguiled the imaginations of many a child during the second half of the last century to this day.

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre is a delightful institution which welcomes lovers of imagination. The museum itself is rather tiny compared to the sweeping halls of the British Museum but for those who have interest in the life of the author will find the place rich with information. There are three exhibition rooms. One room contains information from the Dahl's childhood and reflect much of the of the autobiography Boy. Exhibits relating to the author's time away at school and inspirations for future stories are featured here.

Another room contains information and exhibits relating to the author's time in the Royal Air Force and his profession as a writer immediately after. The delightful ting about both of these rooms is that there are exhibition cases with the personal archives of Roald Dahl himself. The museum houses the complete archive including photographs, manuscripts, and objects. There are more than 200 items in this collection. Every three months a new selection from the collection is rotated out of the exhibition cases to ensure the unique materials do not suffer any light damage. The archives are available for access by appointment and can be viewed in the archives reading room. Given that the catalogue is not available online, those looking to access the archives can purchase scanned PDF's of the archives.

There is another room relating to Dahl's practice are a writer with a replica of his writing hut. One of the most remarkable things about this museum is the efforts gone to make the young visitors engage in creative activities. There is a shadow puppet theatre, rubber stamps to decorate their own stories and several stations for collage work. In addition to the three exhibition rooms there  is a craft room and a story telling room specifically for the groups of children who come to the museum.

The place is designed to engage and encourage the imaginations of its visitors; children and children at heart. The darling cafe next door, Cafe Twit, caters to candy lovers just as Dahl himself was. Personally, I enjoyed the Fizzlecrumper (Lemonade with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sprinkles).

This combined with a few days staying in a quiet, elegant B&B reading books and scribbling away in diaries and journals greatest hopes, dreams, and story ideas made for a wonderful weekend. Countryside is littered with wild flowers, caterpillars and ponies.

*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project.

British Library

ne cannot see the British Museum and rule out the British Library. Mostly because the Library existed before the Museum. A gentleman by the name of Sir Hans Sloane had the strange belief that knowledge should be shared. Sloane was rather educated; he was a physician, traveler and scholar. Amongst his many other accomplishments he invented quinine tablets for treating malaria and perhaps most important of all... he introduced drinking chocolate to Europe. He intended for his books to be used for a library after his death.

http://www.urban75.org/london/british-library.html

Another noteworthy founder of the library is Sir Robert Cotton. He was keen enough to gather up many books before they were destroyed by Henry VIII. These two collections were the beginning of what would later become the British Museum and the British Library.

The British Library is also known as the National Library of the United Kingdom, Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Similar to the Library of Congress in the United States, the library is responsible for housing one of every publication with an ISBN in the UK. This means that the library receives 8,000 new titles EVERY DAY. This presents a monumental cataloguing task. The books do have CIP of Catalogue in Print data which has some cataloguing information. However, since this data is being provided by the book's publisher, the cataloguers must do their own cataloguing in order to ensure there is no bias.

The library's materials are spread out among four facilities. The main branch houses some 35 million books. Built below the building is the largest subterranean tower block in Europe. There are four floors of shelving and the underground Piccadilly line actually runs through the stacks. This place is huge. In the countryside of Yorkshire there is another even huger complex which houses 60% of the library's materials. 185 million items. Big.

The main building in London as it exists now has only been in operation since 1997. In the 1950's the idea was proposed that the library should be removed from the museum and have its own facilities. In the 1960's construction began on the new building. 36 years later, the building opened. So what happened in all that time in between? As the librarian put it, "Monumental Cock-up." Due to poor planning and finances the process took much longer than anyone expected. And the consequences: the building is half as big as it should have been and cost twice as much.  Half the room, double the price. Rather than becoming a failed attempt, the library is thriving and making due with the limited space. One would never know. Perks of seeing behind the scenes, eh?

How do you use the library? You have to come in knowing what you are looking for. Because you cannot just cruise the stacks yourself, you have to look at the library's catalogue and know what you want before you can really get started. Bring an ID or passport and a debit card and fill out an application and you will be issued a reader's card which will get you a spot in one of the reading rooms.

How do the books get to you? The library uses a system called Automatic Book Retrieval System. Once the librarian has located the book, he or she will place the book into a basket which is placed on a conveyor belt which takes the book to the appropriate reading room. This process involved a lot of scanning of bar codes and it will take about twenty minutes for the book to get to you.

The library is the worlds 3rd largest library but is considered the world's richest library.  The library has made a point of cultivating a diverse collection that would reach any patron. There are 180 foreign language curators and 35% of the libraries patrons live abroad.

One of the first sights you will see upon entering the library is the stories high glass tower of stunning gold-tooled, leather bound books. This collection is known as the King's Library and is the complete personal library of King George III. There are 67,000 books in this collection and all are available to look at. In fact about 30 books a day from this collection are requested.

http://www.urban75.org/london/british-library.html

Some of the many treasures the library has is the Klencke Atlas, the world's largest atlas. The worlds largest stamp collection lives here including the worlds first stamp, the Penny Black. To name just a few of their other collections are manuscripts by Milton, Austen, Wordsworth, Bronte, Johnson, Wilde, Conrad, Woolf, Marlowe, Middleton, Chaucer, Darwin, Freud, Hayden's Messiah, Beethoven, Schubert. They have a collection of Beatles documents including hand written lyrics by George Harrison and John Lennon and lyrics for unrecorded songs. Oh, and the Magna Carta.

There is also a fantastic exhibition of science fiction which traces the earliest manifestations of what we now call science fiction and how the genre has grown and expanded to include such a diversity of ideas. And as if they knew I was coming, waiting in a case for me was the artists book Edwin Abbott's 1884 Flatland by Arion Press.

*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Capproject.

British Museum

ow on earth could you archive something so huge and broad as, say, one of the largest museum in the world? Very, very carefully. I had no idea how such a thing could possibly be done. Simplicity is best, wherever possible. I thought we were walking into an archive of everything. Luckily, the British Museum is much smarter than I.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/visiting.aspx

The Central Archive of the British Museum is an archive consisting of materials relating to the Museum as an institution and does not contain archives for each department's collection. Silly me. The archive lives in the labyrinthine maze of tunnels that make up the underbelly of the museum. In a series of rooms, which seem much to small for the weight of information housed within, live materials like minutes from Trustee meetings, day to day information on the staff, finance, exhibition and building records. Original papers and correspondence have been meticulously ordered and bound into huge volumes, designated by year. There are more than 5,000 photographs of Trustees and the buildings. Before I delve deeper, a bit of history...

The land where the Museum now rests originally had perched upon it a house called the Montague House. Montague House held the first collection of books which would later become the British Library. (More on this in a later post.) Whilst telling us the history of this site, the archivist pulled out for us the original 1725 hand painted plans for the museum. Soon enough the collection was too large for the building and Montague House was demolished to make way for the designs drawn up by Sydney Smirk. Again, the archivist just happened to pull out the elegant plans. What is most remarkable about these plans is one can see just from looking at them that this is exactly what the museum looks like now. I don't know if you are familiar with construction plans, but that doesn't always happen as elegantly as it has here. And the British Museum was reborn!

The archive hold staff records including a record of every employee, when they got a raise, and what their salary was. There are records of staff applications and references. One humble footman by the name of Aaron Hays applied to the Museum for the position of an attendant. These are the folks who stroll through the galleries making sure all is well. In addition to his application and letters of reference, Aaron submitted his own drawings of the museums collections. The drawings were elegant chiaroscuro representations of all kinds of objects and sculptures in the museum. I saw them. They were wonderful. Mr. Hays was hired and stayed with the Museum for 30 years. Doesn't that just make you smile?

There are photographs of exhibitions, not to document what was there but rather to document how the museum space was used. There are paint chips and fabric samples for various exhibitions. These Brits are quite thorough.

And perhaps one of the true treasures of this archive is the records of the Reading Room. These records do not reflect the entire history of the reading room but applications and dates of use can be found for such persons as Beatrice Potter, Rudyard Kipling, Oscar Wild, George Eliot, and Bram Stoker. Yeah, I saw their signatures. One of the archive's regular patrons is writing a book about women users of the Reading Room.

So can you believe that with all of this record keeping that the Museum did not have an archivist until 1970? The work being done here is monumental. The archivists have managed to reorganize and simplify several hundred years of information. Well done.  Much of the success of the current archivists is due to the meticulous organization of previous record keepers which brings us to a messy crossroads. How will we manage the records and correspondence of the digital age? How do you archive millions of e-mails sent out each day by people too lazy or unwilling to keep their own records? The future for keeping this kind of material is murky. Will useful information be lost because we just hit delete?

How did I soothe my anxiety after this discussion?

By seeing this.

*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project.

Barbican Library

very once in a while, one comes across a truly great public library. Sometimes it is because of their collection, sometimes it is because of the sheer beauty of the place, sometimes it is because of the people who work there and the efforts they put into making that library a place people want to come. And every once in a while you find a library which is all of these things, my favorite library for example. The Barbican Library in the City of London is one such library.

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Libraries/City_of_London_libraries/Barbican+Library.htm

Barbican is a section of the City of London, close to St. Paul's Cathedral. During the London bombings of WWII, this area was pretty much decimated. During the1960's and 1970's this area was transformed into a massive complex with many towers of apartments, restaurants, an Arts Centre, the Museum of London, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the City of London School for Girls, a YMCA, and the Brabican Library. This huge complex provides the public and residents endless cultural events and activities.

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Housing/Private_housing/Barbican_history/

Situated in the heart of London's financial district, known as The City, Barbican's residents are primarily single men between the ages of 25-45. However, the collection at the library caters to many different demographics. They house a collection of Management and Accounting materials to cater to the business crowd. But there is also an Arts section which provides materials on pure, applied, craft, and performance arts.

Despite the small amount of children who live in the complex, the children's section is almost always busy with little ones. There are a few primary schools close by and a number of day care facilities for the working folk. But most remarkable about this section is the efforts the staff go to in order to bring events to the library and to bring the library out to the public. Twice a week the library hosts what they call "Rhyme Time" in which the librarians, the parents, nannies, and au pairs along with the little ones play games and learn through rhymes. They host reading challenges for children and have prizes. They have 3 different reading groups for young adult readers. They bring their collection out to nurseries. They host a gaming group called The Warhammer Club. Each week they host a new event, have crafts, or have a special speaker. Basically, the staff go so above and beyond to make the library an engaging, fun place for kids to come while fostering an environment of learning.

One unique collection this library holds is an assemblage of about 9,000 books on the history of London. About 1,000 of these books are in the stacks for patrons to peruse. The remaining books are housed elsewhere but are in the library catalogue and are available for patrons to check out. Even the oldest book in the collection from 1742 is available to check out.

Barbican is housed in an epicenter of cultural events, many of which surround music. With the Guildhall School of Music just around the corner, the Barbican Library has established for its self an amazing music library. They have the largest CD collection in the UK, around 17,000 CDs for all musical tastes and backgrounds. There is even a new section the staff is just starting to play around with called "Unsigned London." Local musicians who have produced a CD but are not signed to a label can donate a CD to the library where eager listeners can find the up and comers in the music scene. So you can honestly say, "I loved them way before everyone else did." There is also an exhibition space which currently features a display of picture records. Right now, Billy Idol is staring some kid in the face who has never seen a real record before. Luckily for the library, the music library staff work only in the music library. This works well for a number of reasons. The staff must have a comprehensive knowledge of music so the patrons are really getting the best help they can get. This also makes it possible for the music lib staff to manage their part of the library without having to be pulled away to help the regular staff with something. The library has more than 9,000 items including instructional DVDs, CDs, musical publications, composer society journals, 5 listening booths, 5 laptop booths, 2 keyboards, and scores and scores of, well, scores! Sorry, just had to do it.

Management of these diverse collections has become a little easier (and a little harder) through the use of a new technology called RFID. Radio Frequency Identification Scheme, which is the full title, uses tags which are placed in books and other materials. When brought to an RFID machine and your card is swiped, the machine automatically reads the tags and assigns them to your account. This allows for more efficient management of a collection, easier and faster check-out for patrons, and will even notify the patron if there is a missing element from the item. For example, if you are checking out a boxed set of ZZ Top and there are many CDs but one is missing, the RFID machine will read the tags of all the CDs present and will flash red when it recognizes the missing tag is not there. All this newfangled technology has its hiccups though. There are still some funny glitches that do occur and there is the argument that a machine like this is essentially getting rid of someone's job.

There are pros and cons to everything and as librarians we have to make tough decisions. Do we use a new technology that will make this easier but that harder? Do we use new technology without knowing of our patrons will choose to use it? Do we modernize to strive for efficiency or merely to prove that we are still relevant in the world of Google? Do we adopt a technology that might replace the job of a human being? Sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes the answer is no. But it is our job to come up with those answers when the question arises.

More than the music and the technology and the beautiful views, the reason this library is such a wonderful resource is because of the people who run it. The staff are truly dedicated to fostering an open environment and creating a space and collections that will enrich the communities they serve. All of their efforts are spent bringing unique opportunities and encouraging the public to use them. They were even so kind as to offer these poor little graduate students juice and biscuits in their personal break room.

This is the kind of library which makes one want to work in a public library.

*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project.

St. Paul's Cathedral Library

or those who don't remember, several years ago there was this little fire. It began early in the morning at a little bakery. After four days this little fire had consumed around 70,000 homes of London's 80,000 people. St. Paul's Cathedral fell victim to the fire as well.

The present St. Paul's Cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. I had the pleasure of seeing some behind the scenes action here today, led by the very kind and hilarious librarian, Joseph Wisdom (Isn't that a perfect name for a librarian?).

He led us up the 140 stairs to a private gallery which held a number of unique artifacts including a Viking grave marker. This space has been used as an exhibition space a number of times, however, many of the objects do not have a cohesive history with each other. Showing us this hodgepodge of artefacts (yes, that's how they spell it) Mr. Wisdom pointed out that often when one did not know what to do with something such as an artefact, one brought it to a librarian. In the end, we are cataloguers and archivists as well.

In this potpourri of artefacts were essentially chunks of stone which once belonged on buildings. Mr. Wisdom pointed out that the cataloguing of these items was rather varied. There were chunks catalogued by chronology such as Gothic or Norman, there were chunks catalogued by region such as a specific chancery church, and there was the oh so eloquent category of "various." The good librarian's point was that as librarians, it is our job to establish a consistency in the manner in which we catalogue items. Chronology and region are certainly relevant to the cataloguing of an object, but consistency is the name of the game as it were.

He also impressed upon us the importance of a good accessions policy. Religious institutions are typically viewed as charitable organizations either in need of charity or willing to dispense charity. For the purposes of the library however, it is impotant for the library to maintain a level of professionalism and similar policies to that of thier secualr counterparts. The library cannot possibly take every book which is offered as a donation, nor should the library be willing to loan out its unique materials, just like any other research library. One can't be too "soft round the edges," as Mr. Wisdom put it.

The library itself is housed in southwest side of the building, just behind a grand entryway called the Geometric stairs. For all the HP nerds out there, this stairway was used in the movies as the stairwell which leads to Professor Trelawney's Divination classroom. Walking into the library you are met with a thick aroma of what can only be described as "books." Librarians and ultimate awesome nerds know this aroma quite well. Yet somehow it is concentrated, almost as if you could bottle the smell, ship it across the world, and when opened in China or Australia or Brazil the recipient could open the bottle and the room would be consumed in the must of ye olde England.

http://www.stpauls.co.uk/Cathedral-History/The-Library

The celing is high and there is a gallery stuffed with leather bound books. The shelves are a deep chocolate color which bathes the room in a perpatual semi-darkness. All the better for the books, my dear. Seeing that the great fire was coming towards the cathedral, the clergy packed up the books they had and sent them away for safe keeping. Only 10 books and 3 manuscripts returned to the new St. Paul's. One of these books was a beautiful mideval Psalter. In contrast another book brought back was a secular work containing mideval learning. Another noteworthy book in the library's collection is an original 1526 Tindell New Testament of which there are only 3 in existence.

The current collection in the library contains mostly theological texts, texts relating to the history of St. Paul's and several noteworthy figures who have played a part in the cathedral's history such as Sir Wren and John Donne. Certainly, the library cannot be a comprehensive collection of every work on such historical figures. To acquire books of the library, the church sought solicitations for donations but also bought many of the books. A popular method was to buy the books of a clergyman who had recently died.

So who uses the library? In the 19th century the library ceased functioning as a theological library and currently works as a research library. A novelist writing a book on Jane Wren and the Blitz is using materials. Another researcher on Donne's sermons is there as well.

Farvourite little fact nugget: Above what used to be the librarian's office is inscribed "FACIENDI PLURES LIBROS NULCUS EST FINIS." This prhase is a bit odd and doesn't quite make sense for a librarian. But for a book artist and binder of books, it makes all the sense in the world.

"Of making books there is no end."



*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project. 

Where the History Comes From

he devastatingly hilarious Eddie Izzard described Europe as "You know, where the history comes from..." I find that so often we Americans with our American Dream, Manifest Destiny, and From My Cold Dead Hands credos seem to forget that despite our stubborn independence our history starts somewhere else. Started, recorded, and preserved somewhere else. We don't all come from the same place but Jolly Ole London Town is at the heart of nearly all of the worlds major history. Think of all the great artists, writers, scientists, journalists, and thinkers that have either come from this city or spent significant time in it.

For the month of July, I am going to be traversing the land of British libraries in an effort to see how some of the oldest and greatest institutions in the world house and preserve our collective histories.

In addition to our histories, I am particularly interested in discovering how these institutions house and preserve the creative expressions of our histories. I am a book artist. This is a title have have often struggled with as I don't view myself as an artist but rather a practitioner of the book arts. But works produced by book artists are perhaps some of the greatest works of art in the world because the mastery of so many different skills and talents is essetnial. So many different kinds of art go into book art that I believe it is one of the truly great art forms. One must be a Renaissance Man. I know where these books exsist in the United States, but are they here? How do I find them? Where do I go? I hope to find these answers and many more in the month that I am here.

Here is where I will jot down my thoughts. Some will be bibliographic, some will be observational, some will be funny, all will be painfully nerdy.


*The amazing display cap above is by Jessica Hische, an amazing designer I came across in my perpetual search for awesome design and typography. The letter comes from her Daily Drop Cap project.