The Royal Geological Society is to be considered one of the highlights of the trip. While our discussion took place in one room(their main library), the gentleman who talked to us today was so knowledgeable it was unreal. He brought us on a travel expedition from South America to the Antarctic as he went around the table to the objects and pictures placed there. Expeditions, until the 19th century, were mainly about traveling. In the early days of their foundation, the Royal Geo. Society created a journal that contained much of the discoveries made. Founded in 1830, their collections hold some 2 million items- 1 million of which is comprised of maps, some part are picture collections. They are considered to be the largest in Europe of British history exploration and have an atlas as old as 1490. They also have lantern slides from lectures. Of their book library, there are 25,000 items; 150,000 are books and 100,000 "other". They have an archives section(100,000) with "meters of boxes" covering the history of society. Their Everest Collection, which contains trip plans and various papers, is from a 1904 expedition. Their collection of objects total some 1500 items, and periodical collections with 1500 items digitized from requests fulfilled. They have 2000 item for India alone. Our tour guide is their principal librarian, whom is in charge of duties such as cataloging, artifact care, artifact loans, giving talks, and reading room aspects. As far as loans go, the items are chipped and when loans to museums or library exhibits there are discussions had about how to treat the items. For example, Edinburgh just borrowed an item that they wanted to freeze to kill pests but the RGS decided that would damage their item and it was not to be done. Climate control and storage are just as important here as previous visits. The collection comes from donations and the founders of the RGS. Other parts of the collection come from great grandchildren and family members of those on expedition for the RGS. Nowadays, the RGS is short on shelf space. They maximize their space, organizing not by classification scheme but shelf number. Their concern is storage, preservation, and accessibility. They use MARC21 and the catalogue is readily available online. Technically they use two, with one more detailed in another location. They have a team of 8, one head director, one library manager, and the 6 of the reading room.
The second half of our visit, our tour guide gave us an awesome story-by-story encounter of the items on the table. I have many of them jotted in notes, but it is one of those "you have to be there " talks, but my favourite story was a combination of the voyages sent out and the hat/hood of Ed. Shakleton that was gifted to a close friend and later came back to the society. That and the nifty mini sextant that was not only or a pocket but also had ivory toggles so your skin wouldn't stick to it.
By after noon, K, LH, K2, & myself went to Camden town. My goal here was to see The World's End pub and have a pint. This was easy to do since it was right at the subway resurface. I also bought a tank-top- or what they called a vest. It's a little punkier than I am use to but its wonderful. I had Chinese food and walked through the "stables", eying many a shop and seeing all sorts of sights. It's a spunky town and I wouldn't be opposed to returning if there is time in the final week(next week is Scotland).
UPDATE: I finally met Daniel Radcliffe tonight and had the opportunity to tell him he is building a great body of work(as an actor). As well as to laugh about his height- some people out back said they were short and he said he knew what it was like, to never apologize for it. He is a sweet heart really. I also have photo proof with JL, whom was my crowd-attendee!
Anyways, it's off to bed for this one! While tomorrow might be slower, I have to carefully pack for a week's long voyage and pack things to be left behind. Wish me luck!
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