Bodleian Library, Oxford

Although Oxford University is the 3rd oldest University, founded around the beginning of the 13th century, in the world and the oldest English speaking university it was not until the 1320 that, with funds donated by Thomas de Cobham, that a small library was erected in the academic quarter. In 1423, it was decided that a University library building was needed. Although at this time the process was started to build the library, it took 65 years for the process to be completed due to the slow process of raising money because benefactors would give to the colleges not the university. The process was finally complete in 1488, largely due to donations by the library’s founder Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, and the library was opened. Unfortunately, the collection was mostly destroyed due to the Reformation, by King Edward VI destroying items affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. Although, every book was removed, not all were destroyed and the Library has 10 intact items from the original library. In 1598, the library was rescued and reopened in 1602, due to the donation of Bodley and other contributors. The library opened with a collection of 2500 books and appointed Thomas James as the librarian. Soon after the opening the first printed catalog was created and completed in 1605. Other contributors to the library over the years include Thomas James, the 3rd Earl of Pembroke, Sir Kenelm Digby, William Laud and many others.

One other attraction to the Bodleian Library is that sections of the library were used in the filming of the movie "Harry Potter".

To learn more about the Bodleian Library visit www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley .

Victoria and Albert Museum Library

The National Art Library is housed within the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The NAL is a public Reference library in which anyone may come and view materials within the library only. The NAL is also considered to be a repository library in which the collections are never weeded. The library houses over 2 million items and an acquisition budget of over 500,000 pounds. These items include 8000 periodicals, 2000 which are current and a very large sales catalog collection. Also, a very massive part of the collection is actually in foreign languages.

The library employs around 60 staff members throughout the library most of which are actually working behind the scenes in management, acquisitions, cataloging and conservation. All inquiries both for the library and the museum are handled by the library. All inquiries from the public are retrieved once an hour, on the hour. On the hour staff members collect the requests and head into to back rooms, upstairs and downstairs to fill the request for the patrons. Currently all of the collections are onsite, but with the large acquistion budget, the stacks are filling up.

Special collections for the NAL are very impressive! Some of the items included are:





Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Bleak House
London:Bradbury & Evans, 1853 (1852-1853 printing)
95.LL.62.

First ed. consisting of 20 monthly issues in 19 (last issue contains no 19 & 20) issues monthly from March 1852 to Sept. 1853.











Shakespeare, William.
Comedies, histories, & tragedies.
London, 1623

This is a copy of a Shakespeare's First Folio, one of the most famous books in the English language.

Leonardo da Vinci

I codici Forster. [Parte] II. (Original ca. 1495-1497)

Firenze: Guinti Barbera, 1992

804.AA.0150

All captions for photos are from the NAL conservation lab.

Visit the National Art Library at the V&A National Art Gallery at www.vam.ac.uk/nal/ .

Stratford-upon-Avon Public Library

Built in 1905 and a member of Warwick County Council is a quaint little library set in Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. To see this library from the outside, one would be very impressed with the amount of room that the building actually provides. The collection of nonfiction is the largest catalogued by the Dewey Decimal System and the fiction was catalogued by author's last name. They also have audio books, DVDs, music and electronic collections.

The children's department is a very impressive place. I loved the children's computers with the over sized and color coded keyboard. The Summer Reading Challenge was underway while we visited, this year the theme was "Space Hop". The shelves in the children's areas are actually movable, so when larger groups, such as the summer reading program, arrive they can be moved to make more room. The librarian stated that some of the programs can have from 100 to 150 children.

The library has monthly book discussions on the first Thursday of every month and also a group called Silver Surfers, for people over fifty to help with the web and email. They have two different story time programs one for toddlers and one for 2 to 5 year olds. I also like the fact that on the bulletin board they have many other programs for the public. Such as:

• Assistance with resumes and job searches
• Help for teens with alcohol and drug problems
• The Silver Surfers classes
• Other classes for computer assistance for all ages

More information can be found on their website at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/libraries .

The London Library

Seeing the London Library's front door from St. James Square, one would not think that this library is the largest independent library in the world. The library was founded in 1841 by Thomas Carlyle and originally housed in first floor of the Travellers Club in Pall Mall. In 1979, the library began renting a townhouse on St. James Square after buying the property the library has continued to grow over the years and had to expand. The first expansion was in 1890's when the original building was torn down and replaced with a steel structured building and then again in the 1913, 1931 and 2004. The library we see today owes its architecture to Sir Charles Hagberg Wright.

As you can see from the picture above, the different expansions have significantly added more room during each of the expansion projects. You can also see from this map The TS Eliot House, named after one of their famous patrons. Others also included through history: Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Winston Churchill, to name a few.
The library has over 7500 members consisting of individuals and groups.

The library has over 15 miles of shelving and the collection grows by over 8000 books a year and is never weeded. The collection focuses on Arts and Humanities, 16th century to the present and is 97% loanable. They are catalogued in a manner devised by Sir Wright by subject and then alphabetically by subject and then again by author or subject heading. The London Library does have an online catalog, but only item post-1950 are included so far. The other 42% of the collection is being processed for the online catalog.

Visit the London Library's website at http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/.

The Caird Library

The Caird Library, located at the Greenwich National Maritime Museum, is one of the largest maritime museums in the world. The founding collection was donated by Sir James Caird and contained charts, journals and rare books, among others. The library focuses on Immigration, Piracy, Astronomy, Exploration, Navigation and Naval Architecture. The library is a public library that opened in the 1930's but the library is in the process of building a new facility with larger on site storage.
The library contains over 100,000 modern history, post 1850, and over 8000 rare, pre-1850 books. It also houses over 40,000 periodicals and journals, along with over 70,000 items in its catalog archive. The main library employees 12 staff members, 2 E-librarians and a person behind the scenes. The seating area is laid out in a manner so that the rare book viewing can be seen by the main desk at all times.

This item is a medical journal that was used aboard the Bounty.

Above is the wooden covered book collection that tells the story of the HMS Royal George. Also in the collection, along with many other unique and rare items is a document from the HMS Caledonia listing the individuals on board by profession and nationality.

Visit the Caird Library on the web at www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/library.

British Library

(Image courtesy if http://www.tutor2u.net/)

The British Library is the National Library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the largest public libraries in the world with nearly 200 million items growing at a rate of over 8000 items a day. The collection consists of one of every book published in the U.K. along with collections donated by Robert Cotton, Joseph Banks, Thomas Grenville, Hang Sloan and also the King's Library of King George III.
The British Library was originally part of the British Museum officially created as an institution in 1972. Previously housed in 9 or 10 separate buildings, it was not until 1997 that the construction of a new building was started, designed by ..., and created to look like an ocean liner, was officially opened in 1998. The underground storage facility included, the structure is equivalent to an eight story building. The library has an automated system for bringing items from the basement to the reading room.
The collection contains many rare items including:
Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Beetles lyrics written on the back of envelopes
Also in collection are items such as:
The Largest and Smallest Atlas
The Petri dish from Flemings Penicillin
Reading Boxes from Burma
2nd largest map collection in the world

The website for The British Museum is http://www.bl.uk/.

British Museum Reference Library

The Paul Hamlyn Library is a public library located in The British Museum and was the 1st public library in the United Kingdom. The library is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and aims to help anyone who visits the Museum. The main library is contained within one room and uses the Dewey decimal system to catalog its materials. The collection is mainly dedicated to housing archeology, anthropology and museum studies materials. The library has been moved 14 times in the last year and its original location was in the center of the museum courtyard and was one of the first places with electric lights. Although this is the public library, each department also has its own library, which has its own homemade classification system. As a whole, the museum libraries have over 500,000 volumes.

The museum Paul Hamlyn Library itself holds 50,000 of these volumes and journals to help the public with information on the museum and the items within. Although these items may not be checked out, the library does have photocopying facilities. The library also has children's books and teacher resources available, and also has regular story time gathering for schoolchildren.

Also on the tour we were privileged to view the “room behind the hidden door”. What used to be Sand Script Library is located off of the Enlightenment Gallery through the hidden door disguised as a bookcase. The Enlightenment gallery originally housed the Royal Library donated by George IV. The Sand Script room contains the archives, also the staff and rare book reading rooms. One of the collections that are in this room, one of many, is the collection of Museum posters, which are being collected back to the first printing.

The Paul Hamlyn Library shares the website with the British Museum at http://www.britishmuseum.org/.